Onstage enjoyment means audience enjoyment

Shawn Ryan

We all know what a bummer it is to buy tickets to a concert, get all fired up about going then, when you get there, the artist simply goes through the motions. No energy, no enthusiasm, a performance that practically screams: “As long as the check clears.”

Sitting there, you sadly — or perhaps angrily — realize you’ve wasted money, time and emotion.

But that was not the case Saturday night when Allen Stone came to the Walker Theatre. The soul/pop performer — think Al Green combined with Stevie Wonder combined with Marvin Gaye — was so exuberant that it was impossible not to get caught up. Passion, happiness and excitement practically sprang from his fingertips.

In some hands, his distinctly hippie-love-peace vibe might have seemed corny and contrived, but he was so overwhelmingly sincere, it came off as genuine. And there’s a very real sense of joy when you watch a performer who is having such a good time.

Pretty much every band in the world says that playing live is where they excel, that studio recordings simply don’t capture their true spirit. True in many cases, but there also are bands that just don’t seem to have spirit or excitement onstage, even if they think they do.

I saw Atlanta Rhythm Section in 1981, well after they had their monster “A Rock and Roll Alternative” album. I think they were awake; it was hard to tell from all the boredom.

Guns N’ Roses’ “Appetite for Destruction” is one of the great rock albums of all time. I saw them three times and never saw a good performance. Part of that was lead singer Axl Rose’s immature petulance. He actually fired the sound man from the stage at one show, then stomped off, not to return for 30 minutes. Even when he was there, though, the spark simply was absent. Perhaps the band was always on edge, wondering when he would go off again.

Conversely, when I saw John Denver in the early 1990s, he was warm, engaging and undoubtedly enjoying himself. (As an aside, his voice was amazing; still clear and able to hit the high notes.)

What’s interesting about Denver is that I’d interviewed him a week or so prior to his show. He was not in a great mood and was especially bitter about the record industry and how, after he was rated as one of the top performers in the world in the 1970s, selling more than 33 million albums, he couldn’t get a record contract in the 1990s.

But when he got onstage, there was no sign of bitterness or anger. He gave himself over to the music and the audience. It was a fourstar performance.

Sometimes the music is the magic.