10-23-2014, 04:52 PM
The Horrible Esthete Wrote:There's no question that Gordie's voice doesn't sound like it did in 1993 when they toured here in the States in support of the initial release of FC. I remember conversations with my buddies after those shows where we'd wonder, "how can he do that, an do it all over again tomorrow night?". There was a period between then and now where I remember having different conversations addressing a sort of change in his approach...whether it was a product of a deliberate effort to protect his vocal cords, or of a style that was bred for the material they were doing at the time, or of something completely unintentional resulting from playing hundreds of shows across the globe...I can't say. Perhaps they realized they were likely going to be doing this for awhile, and he needed to protect his asset, so to speak? And maybe now they realize they're toward the end of the run, and there's no reason "save" anything? This talk about 'screaming and yelling'... it seems to me that this is the same approach I remember witnessing in the early 90s, and the observable differences between now and then are a result of tonal characteristics due to both wear and age. This, for me, doesn't sully anything. The band, as a whole, sounded terrific in the middle and at the end of the NFPA tour. I was quite impressed actually, given the fact there were almost 20 years and hundreds of shows between then and now. Would I like to hop in a time machine and see them perform in 1993 again? Well hell yeah I would.
I'd also like to be able to do everything exactly as I could at age 25.
Well said, Esthete. And I agree with a lot of your points. However I feel I should clarify my opinion a bit. I'm not asking for Gord's voice to sound like it did in 1993. His voice has clearly changed over the years, and it would be impossible for him to sound like he did when he was 25. But lately he doesn't seem to sing at all when he's with the Hip, at least to my ears. His vocals were pretty terrible at the last 3 Hip shows I attended, and his performance on Hockey Night in Canada a couple of weeks ago was downright embarrassing. But here's the weird thing (and I've mentioned this in other threads as well), he only seems to do the out-of-key shouting thing when he performs with the Hip. When I saw him earlier this summer with The Sadies, he sounded terrific. His singing that night was really strong, vibrant, in-key, and he sang in his natural range. And he still sounds excellent in the studio too, as evidenced by his stellar performance on the NFPA record. So we know he can still sing when he wants to. I just wish he'd do it more often during Hip gigs, that's all.
