Is it true Katatonia isn't as good live as on tape?

B

batmura

Sea of Tranquility
Nov 1, 2001
2,828
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www.seaoftranquility.org
First off, I love Katatonia's music and in no way does this thread aim to stir shit. It's just I've never seen them live, and I can't say I'm much of a DVD person. I'd rather pay to buy their album which I can play over and over. Anyway, Katatonia played my town a couple of weeks ago and they'll be back to do a little tour. While I was reading some local websites, I came across plenty of posts saying, as a live act Katatonia are no where near as interesting as on tape. Is that true?

I know the die-hards will waste no time saying "that's bullshit - Kata rules". Well, I'll be more interested in opinions of those who have seen them live and heard them on CD, and who are actually capable of forming objective opinions.

If you were to compare the band, how would you say they are like most on stage? Opeth? I've heard people call them boring too and I loved their live shows.

Cheers!
 
no, it isn't true
well, that was my experience with the three gigs I saw:)

What I've seen on the dvd didn't really impress me either..
But when I saw them live for the first time I was blown away by jonas' nearly perfect vocals and the rest of the band playing really good, and of course by seeing them for the first time live (that adds a lot of intensity)

the second time I saw them (a few weeks later) they were even better
the third time I saw them (a few days later) was the least good, but still very good.

They played the songs at least as good as on the albums, and some even better, because of little changes in the vocal lines for example. (deadhouse)

I don't know if you know how it is to see (one of) your favourite band live... but it is deffinately worth it
 
I've seen Kata live something like 5 times now, and they've been really good in my opinion everytime. But I've heard contradicting opinions and I can understand why. There actually isn't that much going on on stage live most of the time and they do play the songs almost note to note as they are on the albums, so I can see why some people don't like them live.

I don't even quite now what makes the experience so overwhelming for me personally. But the small tricks and extras Jonas does on the vocals are normally something awesome, and I've got to say Kata has had maybe the best lightings at their show that I've ever seen, except for the festivals of course, but that's because there's the sunlight issue.

Actually if you wanna see a good Kata show for the first one you attend, don't go to a festival, then it should be work out. Somehow the atmosphere and crow contact just aren't the same at festivals. I personally liked the festival shows too, but that's propably because I was absolutely hammered, and so able to just go with the flow =)
 
Before the last three times I saw them I was also a bit sceptical about their live performance, I had seen them twice before, first on the LFDGD tour and then on the VE tour. Those performances didn't really impress me, it was OK, but not great. That could maybe have been because in both cases another band made my night, on the LFDGD tour it was Opeth (who they were supporting) and the other it was Daylight Dies, who presented me with one of the most intense concert experiences of my life, which caused me to be in an almost trancelike state the rest of the night, so the Katatonia concert passed by without me noticing a whole lot of it. :)

Anyway, I saw them again this year, went to all 3 of their Dutch shows and I have to say they completely convinced me this time around and it got better as the tour progressed because the 2nd and 3rd gig were a lot better than the 1st one I saw.

When you're gonna see them (which you definitely should), don't expect a wild show with Jonas yelling at the crowd and make the whole crowd scream "HEY HEY HEY!!!" for him, wave their hands in the air (like they just don't care) etc.. That's not what Katatonia is about! Expect a rather modest, introverted but excellent and very atmospheric show, which you'll definitely enjoy!
 
MadTinus said:
When you're gonna see them (which you definitely should), don't expect a wild show with Jonas yelling at the crowd and make the whole crowd scream "HEY HEY HEY!!!" for him, wave their hands in the air (like they just don't care) etc.. That's not what Katatonia is about! Expect a rather modest, introverted but excellent and very atmospheric show, which you'll definitely enjoy!
Click to expand...
yes indeed:)
 
They are really great on stage for their music genre. you cannot expect them to jump around like an hardcore band =)

also Jonas has improved himself very much on stage . I've seen them in 2004 and Jonas was kinda shy but when i saw them months ago , he rocked.
 
If you hear Jonas sing "I... have... Wai-ted.. for You Always..." -In the White-
live you'll start believing in true love again ...

Hehe ok maybe thats too much , but the first time he sang that in Den Bosch I was seriously just some place else, don't know where.. but deffinatly not where my feet were...


Went to all the 3 shows they did in Holland, and even apart from meeting all the great people from the forum :D , it was well worth my time and money.
 
batmura said:
First off, I love Katatonia's music and in no way does this thread aim to stir shit. It's just I've never seen them live, and I can't say I'm much of a DVD person. I'd rather pay to buy their album which I can play over and over. Anyway, Katatonia played my town a couple of weeks ago and they'll be back to do a little tour. While I was reading some local websites, I came across plenty of posts saying, as a live act Katatonia are no where near as interesting as on tape. Is that true?

I know the die-hards will waste no time saying "that's bullshit - Kata rules". Well, I'll be more interested in opinions of those who have seen them live and heard them on CD, and who are actually capable of forming objective opinions.

If you were to compare the band, how would you say they are like most on stage? Opeth? I've heard people call them boring too and I loved their live shows.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

It's true what other people here said, they keep improving live.
This is not the easiest music to play live either, because of the thick production on the cd's, it's very hard to keep that sound and atmosphere intact.
The only shitty thing about Katatonia live is that they often have sound engineers that don't quite get the sound right. I've never seen them with GOOD sound actually... That's the only letdown I can think of, but it's not the band we have to blame for this of course.

On the other hand, there sure are better live bands, but we weren't comparing bands in the first place...
 
Also in the recent concert i've been to, i realized that the sounds were too digital. Anders' lead guitars with feedbacker effect was sounding really bad. it wasn't giving out any feedback it was more like a digital signal. also Fred's overdriven guitars for arpegios was sounding so weak and treble, it was like gt s are connected directly to PA but the preamps were disabled.

That's when i thought maybe Katatonia should use analog setups and stop using gt 3 ,because after Katatonia, Deftones came up to stage and they had their own heads and cabinets and stuff. their sound was really good, but they dont use effects like Katatonia, they use only distortion and clean guitars.
 
And how would they ever be able to play their songs the way they are on the albums then?
Of course Katatonia use heads and cabs too... Matamp amps, they're good.
The 'feedbacker' is a Fernandes sustainer pickup btw
 
m0rtis said:
Also in the recent concert i've been to, i realized that the sounds were too digital. Anders' lead guitars with feedbacker effect was sounding really bad. it wasn't giving out any feedback it was more like a digital signal. also Fred's overdriven guitars for arpegios was sounding so weak and treble, it was like gt s are connected directly to PA but the preamps were disabled.

That's when i thought maybe Katatonia should use analog setups and stop using gt 3 ,because after Katatonia, Deftones came up to stage and they had their own heads and cabinets and stuff. their sound was really good, but they dont use effects like Katatonia, they use only distortion and clean guitars.
Click to expand...


Katatonia wouldnt use their gt3's if it wasnt for a huge amount of the guitars actually using effects processed by the GT3. It isnt hugely noticeable live though. As im sure they use their guitar fx processors in the studio too. Just maybe they EQ it alot and fiddle around with the sound.
 
Cerulean, i know about the pickup but i guess Anders uses feedbacker and slow gear effects in gt 3 with his leads. which causes him to have less attack and feedbacking leads like you all hear in the albums.

and Ofcourse they use their gt3 is in recording, they use it with clean guitars effects and leads, but for rhythm guitars they just use their amps. however recording is different. I have the same problem with my gt 8 too. I can record really good sounds with it however when it comes to playing live, somethings don'T work well for instance the feedbacker effect. When i play at home or record with feedbacker i can get whatever sound i want, like Anathema's crying leads and such but when i use the same effect live the sounds get digital because it is louder.

Anyway I donno how Katatonia use their gt's , 4 Cable Method or something but i think they should do something about it.

or their sound is alright but the Turkish tonemiesters were sucky =)
 
The only Katatonia live performance that i've ever watched was the Krakow show on the dvd and i thought it was awesome, they are kind of shy live, but they do deliver a very intense show.
 
I think the critics are true, they cetrainly are not as good live. I'd never thought I say this, but I think they should use sampled backingrtracks, that'd help thickening their livesound. Most bands in their genre use a lot of backingtracks or at least keyboard to get closer to their sound on recordings, I dont think that makes the band less "live". Untrue of course, but well, if you have to be puritanic you shouldnt have such a thick production on the albums in the first place.
 
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