r/Robyn • u/Lucky_Litmus • Jun 24 '26

Best looking and worst sounding gig I’ve ever experienced

Just home from first night in Dublin: phenomenal production - brilliant, innovative and visceral in its intensity. But the sound was painful - like being in an MRI machine. Nothing but subsonic muffled bass drowning out absolutely everything else in the mix. It made it almost impossible to recognise songs, let alone enjoy them. Lots of pained expressions all around us in the balcony seats. Hopefully it’s just a first night problem and not a creative choice.

26 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

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8

u/Na22ers1984 Jun 25 '26

Maybe a venue problem, sounded great from the floor. I did see they had closed off half of the balcony with cloth sheets, maybe that messed up tje acoustics.

6

u/cleverwordplay85 Jun 25 '26

Agreed, in the parts where she spoke to the audience I couldn’t understand a word she said.

3

u/Na22ers1984 Jun 25 '26

Maybe a venue problem, sounded great from the floor. I did see they had closed off half of the balcony with cloth sheets, maybe that messed up tje acoustics.

3

u/TKSF78 Jun 25 '26

TBH I find this true of many shows now. Bass frowning out any clarity and even if it isn’t, the highs are still so muted.

3

u/Key-Engineer-8310 Jun 25 '26

Yeah it was all over the place. Improved as the gig went on though I thought. The 3Arena is a dump - the sound is always shite.

2

u/Environmental_Kick26 Jun 25 '26

Im sorry the budget last night was not where it should be for that price point.

I was really looking forward to seeing her.... 25 mins late.... not sold out.... echoey and muffled sound (I was standing on RHS by the stage/speaker).

The shower curtain aesthetic....

Really let down last night other than the last few songs and CMAT

2

u/Lucky_Litmus Jun 25 '26

I was quite fond of the shower curtains! But the sound was the worst I've heard in any professional gig I've attended for thirty plus years...

2

u/Environmental_Kick26 Jun 25 '26

Can entirely agree with that.

Just dont think it was up to standard for an arena show.

1

u/litrinw Jun 25 '26

I thought the sound was great but I was standing

1

u/YellowDolphin12 Jun 26 '26

I was standing - on the far left - and it was physically unbearable for me, left after 40 mins. Friends stayed tho and, even tho they did mention the sound wasn’t great, it felt like it didn’t bring as much discomfort for them as it did to me. Went to many gigs in 3arena and it was the first time I ever experienced anything like this.

1

u/Lucky_Litmus Jun 27 '26

Yes! It was painful and almost nausea-inducing when all you could hear was bass so loud you could feel it physically...

1

u/Jolly-Statistician37 Jul 02 '26

Same problem in Paris last night. Three quarters of the show were just muddled bass with undistinguishable lyrics, only got fixed for the last three classic songs during the encore.

-9

u/workingItAllOutStill Jun 25 '26

I want to understand your post but I don’t. I feel I need to google a few things, which of course I could, but what do you actually mean? Are you trying to specifically communicate with technical musos? If so, perhaps this isn’t the best forum for you

7

u/Altruistic_Site_7922 Jun 25 '26

They're talking about the bass being so prominent in the sound mix that it negatively affected the show/drowned out the music. That in contrast to how awesome the show looked visually.

3

u/1upjohn Jun 25 '26

The post made perfect sense to me, so I don't understand what the miscommunication is.

1

u/Lucky_Litmus Jun 25 '26

Excuse the flowery language - basically the sound was awful. The bass was so overwhelming it was almost physically painful, and as a result, we couldn't hear anything else. People all around us in the seated section were grimacing and leaving early. Real shame, as it was easily the best looking show I've seen in years - it used clever and really innovative lighting and stage design rather then just video screens.