They are certainly capable of putting on a bad show -- like I said, the Berklee disaster demonstrated that you can take three world-class bands and still get a total failure of a concert. But at their best, Steeleye are electrifying: the Nightstage concert ran something like four hours, because the crowd demanded five encores.
Far as I can tell, Steeleye feeds on the audience energy more than most groups. So the nature of the audience and their proximity makes a major difference. It's probably not the only factor, but it seems to correlate significantly with the quality of the concert. Holding their 25th Anniversary Reunion Concert (1995 -- we were in London by sheer coincidence) in a dance club, with no chairs (just a mosh pit) was arguably a stroke of genius: it produced a rowdy, dancing, energized crowd that worked with them perfectly...
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Date: 2009-09-23 02:48 am (UTC)Far as I can tell, Steeleye feeds on the audience energy more than most groups. So the nature of the audience and their proximity makes a major difference. It's probably not the only factor, but it seems to correlate significantly with the quality of the concert. Holding their 25th Anniversary Reunion Concert (1995 -- we were in London by sheer coincidence) in a dance club, with no chairs (just a mosh pit) was arguably a stroke of genius: it produced a rowdy, dancing, energized crowd that worked with them perfectly...