Livestream from Ryman Review

I watched the entire show (I only bought a $20 ticket). Was not impressed.

I hooked my wife's laptop to my home theater system hoping to enjoy good 7.1 channel surround sound only to find that the audio was 2-channel PCM. Ok. So I'll use either the Dolby Surround Upmixer or DTS Neural X Upmixer. Nope. Sound was horrible. Spent the next 30 minutes trying to figure out why the audio was so poor. Totally unintelligible. Finally figured out that there were 2 tabs open on the laptop with the show and they were out of sync with each other. Shut down one tab which made the audio tolerable while I played around with various sound modes. Finally settled on the DTS Neural X upmixer. But there was no bass to speak of (I have a 300 watt, 12" HSU subwoofer in my system which will rattle the rafters). No real separation between each performer's audio. Very poor mix. Once I got the audio sorted it took another 10 minutes to find the full screen button. Seems the laptop screen settings didn't quite match those of my 55" HDR flatscreen tv and the button was mostly hidden in the lower right corner of the screen. All in all, wasted about 45 minutes trying to get a watchable picture and decent sound.

The first half of the program, up until the intermission, played OK at 1080p. Starting with the intermission the picture started near constant buffering for several seconds every 30 seconds or so. Had to drop the resolution down to 720p for a constant picture. Such is life with HughesNet.

Was not impressed with the songs from the new album. Most seemed slow and somewhat depressing. The video screen display behind the stage was ridiculous. What did the people in 18th century clothing have to do with anything? The one video with what appeared to be tombstones in a cemetary was particularly distressing. Finally, after intermission when the display switched to a brick wall was I able to ignore the background.

All in all, I am glad I only bought the $20 ticket. Lack of audience sounds was very disconcerting. Some of the cutouts were ridiculous. One guy wearing a clown mask? Really? I have the new album on pre-order from Amazon and was planning on getting the Blu-Ray when it came out, but am now reconsidering things. Go back to Blues/Rock Joe. This new stuff is terrible.

First of all, I don't stream. Satellite internet like HughesNet is not known for its streaming performance. You have your choice of trying to watch in high definition (1080p/720p) and eat up a ton of data with a lot of buffering or standard definition (480p or lower) and use less data that hopefully doesn't buffer as much, and have a picture that looks like crap on a large panel LCD tv. I was pleasently surprised when I was able to watch at 1080p with no buffering .... until intermission. After intermission there was continuous buffering every 30 seconds or so for about 10 seconds each time. Switching to 720p solved the problem. If I had to have gone lower, I would have shut it off. As it was, I used up 10GB of my monthly 50GB data allowance.

Secondly, there are several streaming services that transmit audio with Dolby Digital Plus and Atmos or at least 5.1 channels. To broadcast this performance in 2.0 PCM was ridiculous. Add to that the overall poor quality of the audio, extreme lack of bass, rolled off highs, and muddy mix, made the audio unlistenable for much of the show, even after I solved my initial audio problems. I have all of JB's Blu-Rays and the audio quality is worlds better than this broadcast was. If this is the mix that will be on the Blu-Ray, I won't waste my money. Add the videos that were played on the screen in the background and you have a very dreary presentation. People in 18th century clothing cavorting about? What appears to have been a cemetary? Come on. They made a depressing performance even worse. At least the brick wall after intermission could be ignored.

Thirdly, with the lack of audience sounds, this may as well have been a dress rehearsal. Speaking of dress, please go back to your suits, Joe. At least they are classy looking. The faux cowboy look is not you.

Bottom line, in my opinion, this was a very poor show. I'm glad I only lost $20 and a few hours of my life. I won't be watching it again on demand. I have the CD on pre-order and was planning on buying the Blu-Ray when it came out. Now I am not so sure.

I'm glad Joe was able to raise a lot of money for his charities. I am also glad that you and many others enjoyed the show. Unfortunately, I did not.

I'm glad.

Opinions are amazing things, as I wonder if we all saw and heard the same concert.  It was odd that their was no audience, but that was the very reason for the PPV in the first place.

My family streams movies and YouTube videos so I was prepared for the requisites to view and listen to the concert.  I thought the sound and mix were awesome and immediately thought JB's attire was out of respect for the Ryman and it's history, right down to his cowboy boots. Lordy, the place is a shrine in Nashville.

What we heard for the first hour were almost all new releases, and not the typical concert where the new is played with the old to make us feel comfortable and at home.  JB's music is and has been evolving.  Other than his first several albums when he mostly did covers, you are getting his feelings and views not someone else's.  Rarely do I ever listen to an album and like it, and if I do, I find I tire from it quickly.  What I heard was complex, soulful and well worth listening to again.  The performance was almost perfect by all, and I think that may be the problem with most reviewers....we expect so much from JB and his band that anything that alters the perfection we expect disappoints many of us.  Playing in an auditorium devoid of human reaction was offsetting, but only at the end of the song when we again realized how dead the space being played in actually was....which made the performance even more impressive as they played like they were in front of an audience, and not merely staring into cardboard cutouts.

Just received my email indicating we can re-watch the concert until the 27th. I am in and will be inviting friends to other  viewings.  What a bang for the buck!  I was not disappointed.

Personally, I really enjoyed the show although it was immensely 'eery' with no physical audience!
Joe played amazingly well and it was just so good to hear him play 'Live' again.
I did enjoy being in Nashville albeit as a cardboard cutout!!!! Hee hee

I read that Joe asked crew not to clap during the show as he wanted it to be a "snap shot in time" with the covid lock down on musicians playing their hearts out to silence.

I watched partially again last night (works crazy with 12hr days 6 days straight, so didn't get a chance at whole rewatch)

I really think I'll love hearing this again fully with the extra "complexity " of songs are growing on me

review https://bluesmatters.com/joe-bonamassa- … vHVyIfPOsE