Anberlin Band • Page 142

Been listening to it ever since they made it available about a month ago. Love it

 

What is Paper Tigers? It doesn't sound so great. His voice just isn't what it used to be.

 

Stephen has never been a very good live vocalist imo. I saw them in between New Surrender and DITWLIAP and the energy was great (including his), but his vocals weren’t really a strong point.

 

Yeah, I have to agree with that assessment. Great frontman, great recorded vocals, below par live vocals.

 

I feel like his vocals always get super buried live, too. It always bothered me, haha.

 

Some of the worst live experiences I've had were at Anberlin shows, and I think it's because the sound person was either A) going deaf, or B) they were having difficulty getting Stephen's vocals to cut through the mix and the resulting effort was piercingly awful to listen to.

 

First Anberlin show I went to in 2008 was not great, last three I went to in 2012, 2014, and 2019 were excellent, vocals included.

 

I’ve heard them with varying degrees of live mixing quality.

The absolute worst was when they co-headlined with Switchfoot. Switchfoot was first and truly sounded like they were flawlessly mixed. And then Anberlin sounded like they were coming through a garbage disposal.

 

Switchfoot ALWAYS has a great mix and they’re a fantastic live band

 

Anberlin has been hit or miss for me depending on the show or year. during the DITW LIAP tour I thought he sounded great but seeing them on the Vital tour.. not so much
Felt like these livestream have been some of the better performances he’s given

 

Switchfoot gets shit on a bunch and I’ll never understand. Genuinely good musicians, Jon Foreman is an excellent lyric writer, and they never really get “boring” by settling into a singular sound. Even the religious aspect of them isn’t preachy or anything and I, an atheist, still love them. And yes, they are so fucking good live. Literally one of the best sounding, most engaging shows I’ve been to. I’ve only seen Anberlin on their “final” tour, but the sound was good. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a show with bad sound at The Fillmore in Charlotte before though.

 

While I’m not a follower of the band from the outside it objectively seems like they are a pretty legit ass band. I agree.

 

Switchfoot's one of my favorite bands to this day. I refuse to believe that people who shrug them off as generic have actually sat down with The Beautiful Letdown, Nothing is Sound, and Oh! Gravity. All excellent records. They're basically to the alt/Christian rock scene what the original Star Wars trilogy is to movies.

 

I 100% agree with the quality of those 3 records. Unfortunately I haven’t really connected with their stuff since Hello Hurricane. Will always have a special spot for them though.

 

I’d kinda written them off the last couple of albums, but Jon’s newest is really beautiful.

 

I've seen Anberlin twice and both times the vocals were a real disappointment.

 

Saw Anberlin the first time in 2003 right around the time Blueprints came out. They were the first band on before Autopilot Off, The Movielife and the headliners Further Seems Forever. Then again in 2004 when they played with Number One Fan, Midtown and The Juliana Theory (if my old memory serves me correct) . Think I was more pumped to see them up close and sing along than I was of sound quality. I've seen them at Festivals and Warped Tours and don't remember their sound being too great. Think the last time I saw them was when they toured Vital. I was going to go to their farewell tour when it hit Toronto but they got trapped in a blizzard in Buffalo and I didn't realize the show got cancelled until 5 minutes after I left to head down to it.

 

All of y’all saying Stephen has bad live vocals need to go listen to that long scream in Unwinding Cable Car from that live acoustic album and then come back here and apologize.

 

truth.

also truth.

 

I think he’s a great vocalist and capable of great vocal performance, so I don’t doubt he has some great live highlights. In my experience of seeing them live and watching live videos he just doesn’t do it for me for the most part.

I remember in an interview years back he said that he never gives 100% effort when singing live, rather caps it at 80%. This is a great way to save your voice on a tour, but answered my question as to why he was always lacking a bit in the live department. I wouldn’t call him bad, but he’s not someone I’d consider to be a great live vocalist personally.

 

There’s also a big difference between an acoustic show and a full band show where he’s trying to hype up the crowd. That’s where his vocals get more iffy, but the stage presence is great.

 

I think it's actually pretty funny you mention that song. Both times I saw Anberlin, Unwinding Cable Car was the best he sounded.

To reiterate, the best he sounded was during an acoustic song where the sound was very much dialed back.

A cool performance on a live album doesn't make up for for the two times I paid money to see his voice be drowned out while performing 3/4 of their set.

 

As You Found Me digital album is up for downloading for anyone who got it

 

Watching the vital livestream, it rules. My 2nd favorite album of theirs behind cities.

 

I’m in it too. I love all the extended chatter between songs instead of just ‘the album’.