Britney's Australian show angers fans

(CNN) -- After only one show Down Under, Britney Spears' Australian tour is already turning into quite the "Circus" as the government weighs in on lip-synching and angry fans storm out of Spears' first performance.

According to Australian news reports, disgruntled fans left Spears' show at the Perth Burswood Dome only three songs into the concert, complaining of a lackluster performance, apparent lip-synching and their inability to see Spears on the jumbo screens onstage.

"We are really big Britney fans, but it was crap," Josh Blee complained to Australia's News Limited newspapers. "I thought after the music awards she would make up for it with a wicked concert, but she has let us down."

Some fans had paid up to $1,500 AUD to watch the show from a two-person loveseat "ringside" at the circus-themed concert. Regular seats were sold for $200 AUD. The Australian tour is Spears' first of the continent.

The concert exodus came on the heels of the Australian government's calls for full disclosure from celebrities, namely Spears, who choose to lip-synch during a live concert performance in their country.

Virginia Judge, the minister for fair trading for the Australian state of New South Wales, announced this week that she was considering requiring artists such as Spears to include a disclaimer on tickets if parts of their show would be pre-taped.

"It is Britney's 'prerogative' to lip-sync, and it is my job to make sure consumers know what they are paying for up front," Judge said in a statement released by the government.

"Australians would not tolerate a 'Mickey Mouse performance,' Judge told Sydney's Daily Telegraph. "Let's be clear: Live means live. If you are spending up to 200 dollars, I think you deserve better than a film clip."

To be fair, Britney's actual voice is something you probably don't want to hear live. Then again, there's always autotune.

Also, I always thought "live" concerts for pop stars like that were more about the visual aspect anyway. People are there to see the stage show (dancing, lights, choreographed routines, etc.) more than the music I think. I guess I just assumed people knew what they were getting. Kinda like how everyone knows pro wrestling is fake, but they watch it anyway for the entertainment value.

I pay 200 to watch her get out of a limo.

Most performances of that type are lip-synched. IMO - those fans aren't going to see somebody who is a musician, they are going for the dancing and the "show" - or maybe more appropriately, the production.

What constitutes a performance? Well, it's a performance, just not a live musical performance. It's a dance performance, as well as a light/video show, and you get to see Britney - if that's what floats your boat. If you want to see a live musical performance, go see a real band.

There are pictures of that online for free

I'd pay 5.99 to see her in playboy

Probably, if one goes to a BS concert, he/she deserves to hear BS music.

What!?

It's fake everywhere but Mexico.

I'd rather watch a youtube stompbox phaserjam-947 then go see britney spears concert

Probably?

They have a tape of her on Stern that they play once in a while, someone had a line from her headset mic and isolated it. It's pretty bad, but I'm sure she's dancing all over the place and doing what amounts to an aerobics routine, not something you can really sing to.

Speaking of autotune, will Australia also require singers who use autotune live to disclose that as well? I'd love to see that in the US. Have the government impose some kind of tax for canned and tuned performances. A three-tiered structure, no penalty for a full performance, 1% tax on gross ticket sales for an autotuned performance, and 2% for just shaking your ass to the cd, in addition to signage in the auditorium and on all concert promotional material as to what the audience is hearing. Many states already have an out-of-state entertainer tax in place, this would just be an addendum.

Who'd really want that clapped-out cracker cooter, anyway? Stretch marks and cellulite.

She might start with the Sydney Smphony. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/08/26/1219516425771.html

We went to see Mariah Carey in Vegas two months ago and I was disappointed to see only four musicians on stage (drums, bass, 2 keyboards), 3 backing vocals and 9 dancers. What kind of killed it for me was that they were playing along with backing tracks which more often than not drowned out the sound of the band.
We paid $180 per ticket (and those seats were in the back) and frankly, I expected much more from MC and feel that I did not get my money's worth. If they have to fly in bits from ProTools or whatever, could they at least get the mix right?

What I find more disconcerting is that sublime musicians such as Brian Bromberg have resorted to these practices as well. For the uninformed, BB is one of the most outstanding bassists in the world who doubles as a Smooth Jazz A-lister.
I attended a concert of his at the Catalina Bar, and in spite of the grrrreat band (Will Kennedy, Patrice Rushen and Gary Meek) it never came off the ground because they were confined to playing along with the backing tracks (mostly horn riffs etc.) I came to hear a great band rip it, but they never got there (although Will Kennedy still kept knocking them out of the park).

When I asked BB why, he said he felt it was important to approximate the sound of CD as closely as possible.

I saw Lee Ritenour a few weeks back at the same club, and he kept it simple, just a band playing some stuff. Worked much better in my opinion.

One instance in which the backing track thing did work, was Brian Simpson's at Spaghettini's. The tracks blended better with the band and actually enhanced the experience. I guess his music is better-suited for that.

But amazingly: a million-dollar act like MC in a first-class auditorium couldn't get the tracks to gel with the band, whereas Simpson's band sounded just fine with the tape.

A musician friend of mine's buddy was playing with Mariah Carey in the mid 90's, and he said his buddy was bummed because although they were killer musicians, they were just playing for the visual effect, while pre-recorded sound out went out the mains. In other words, even with a great live band, the perfection of pro tools was preferred, and apparently for most of her career, not just recently. Sad thing is that unlike BS, MC is a good singer and I think should have more integrity - at least let the band be heard.

There are others supposedly of other artists. Of course, if it's possible to tune a voice, it's possible to detune it right? You could also easily add in breaths and other sounds.

I think this is like Photoshop for audio - you can make someone look better or worse, depending on your motive.

I wonder if the Aussie gov't wants to "warn" concert-goers of all prerecorded parts of performances? Some of the statements make it sound like backing tracks would also be included. Would samples also require a warning?

"MINISTER FOR FAIR TRADE'S WARNING: The concert you are about to see includes prerecorded material. There are no actual horns being performed."

P.S. I don't advocate the level of fakery that is being demonstrated by the video, if true. I have zero interest in lip-synched performances, nor even ones that aren't well synched for that matter. I'm just wondering how much "protection" they feel the audience needs. I know how much that would be if tonysounds was the minister.

There were segments in there where she was just slowly walking and she still sounded like death.

I can't blame her for lip-syncing her performances if the alternative is concerts that sound like that.

Surely none of this actually surprises anyone, particularly here.

As far as the live mic recordings, I'm not surprised that they sound this bad. If she knows that she's sending recorded vocals to the mains, then I'm sure she doesn't send her mic to the monitors either, so she probably can't hear herself at all. And her "performance" is really a fairly aerobic dance routine, so naturally she doesn't have much breathe to spare for proper singing. So yeah -- duh -- her singing sounds like crap. Of course.

None of this makes me want to run out to spend good money on her show mind you. I'm just saying that it isn't shocking either. This is mainstream entertainment, folks. That it sucks we already knew.

--Dave

God bless the soundman who recorded that track! She's about as bad as I thought.

What sucks is the trickle-down effect it's having. I made a post here a few months ago about backing up "Il Divo", and we had no mics i.e. played to a tape. You would expect a dance show like Britney or Paula Abdul to be tape, but when it comes to a show that does quasi-classicalish music, I would be mortified as an audience member to know that the band ain't playin.

What I don't get is, if the vocals are pre-recorded, why is there a line coming from her mic at all?

Well, yeah, that's certainly a reasonable point. I would be pretty pissed of if I was in that audience. Although, again, Il Divo isn't something I would pay money to see, either.

--Dave

Because her equivalent of "Hello Cleveland" isn't recorded?

--Dave

Ha! Good point.

There are two other reasons I can think of.
1. So as to not blow out her own real voice. Not that that would be a bad thing , but when you can't hear your actual own voice, you tend to get louder. Maybe they feed her back to herself to prevent this. I know, now you're wondering if she can hear herself, why is she so bad? Maybe they give her just enough to keep her from straining her voice, but the overall mix blends out how off she is.
2. Because the video isn't real after all.

I don't know how much sympathy I have for her. Obviously, she isn't sold as the complete singing, dancing, all around fabulous artist that she isn't. That would just be foolish.

Still, though. I recently watched the broadway version of Legally Blonde. At one point, Laura Bell Bundy, who plays Elle Woods, does a whole routine of cheerleading, baton-twirling and tap-dancing. Then, she sings exactly on pitch. You can tell, it's not taped, either, because you can hear her working to maintain her pitch and breathing.

There are many other examples of this.

I don't know. Perhaps you could ask Virginia Judge. She seems to have a lot of time on her hands.