England on first arrival

I saw you guys at the Riviera last night in Chicago. I’d seen you before at Pitchfork and it was fantastic – great sound and stage show. Last night was positively the worst sounding show I’ve ever been to. I understand this is not so much your fault as it is the guy behind the board. I was so disappointed that I walked around the venue to different locations to try and find some place that worked acoustically. Nowhere, not even next to the mixing board, did it sound anywhere even near decent. Bass drowned everything out, keys were inaudible, drums had tons of reverb on them, even the mic was reverbing, guitars went in and out. Incredibly muddy all around with absolutely no clarity. For someone who has listened to your last few album dozens and dozens of times and knows them front to back, when I can’t even discern where we are in a song, or what song it is for a minute, then you know the sound is downright bad. As for your show, I found it disappointing as well. Vocals were often out of tune and breathy, and the guitar tone was piercing and brittle. Seems like emphasis was placed on theatrics rather than the music. The show was rather campy overall. I don’t write this out of malice, but disappointment. The new album is brilliant, as do I find the band as a whole. I had high expectations from your performance at Pitchfork, where the sound was good (at an outdoor venue nonetheless!) and the stage show was entertaining. The show last night was the antithesis of that. Better luck next time –allan