Why the live performance rules

After a long dry spell, I've started attending live shows again. Not sure why I fell out of the habit of going ... could be any of laziness, cold Canadian winters, moving to Toronto and not being sure what the music scene was like ... I think it's mostly laziness and complacency though. Thankfully I've rediscovered the magic of the live show and have been to 3 gigs recently with a couple more on the horizon.
Last Monday, I saw Sondre Lerche at the Mod Club in Toronto (not sure who's doing the booking there these days but they are getting some seriously good acts through). I saw Mew there the previous week which was a great show. Sondre Lerche was also very entertaining but completely different.
Where Mew played their set pretty much note for note from their recorded material, Sondre Lerche and the Faces Down Quartet were much more spontaneous. Where Mew was serious and sombre, Lerche and the rest of his band were clearly having a very good time on stage. Lots of talking to the crowd between songs (he's actually quite funny) and general goofing around.
I guess the comparison between the two acts occurred to me because I had seen them both within a week of one another at the same venue. I'm not saying that one was better than the other. On the contrary, I think that both acts played to their strengths beautifully. Both shows were memorable and enjoyable because their performance matched their personality.
And that's when I realised what I had been missing by not taking in live performances. The live performance can not be captured on recorded medium of any kind. You simply can not replicate the live experience. Each one is slightly different from the other. You can't download the live experience from the internet.
Whether a band comes out and performs pretty much from their albums directly as Mew did (which is in itself astounding in a live environment) or they take a more ad lib, fun approach as Lerche did, there is no substitute for being there and experiencing it in the flesh. I would not have experienced the excellent video that accompanied Mew's live show or the spontaneous intro drum solo to Lerche's "Well, Well, Well". It's like every live performance is an adventure.
So, it's good to be back, so to speak.
Here's the track "Well, Well, Well" from Sondre Lerche's latest album Phantom Punch, although I have to say the live version was better. Check him out live if you can.