Ok, well, thanks for not playing. I guess.
Can some other fence sitter get in and play?
Obviously I'm just busting your nuts...kind of
I like to think that I like things barebones, but then I'll listen to latter-era Beatles and it's so amazing and I love every little nuance.
I'll go seen John Hammond Jr playing solo live with just his voice, acoustics, and occasional harmonica and I'm floored, but then I'll put on some Steely Dan and absolutely love it.
It really is about the music, and who's performing it. But a pure human voice live with non-processed acoustic instruments...that can be the best, e.g. Nickel Creek or the Punch Bros. Or just a band playing live and forgoing the production, like Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals...fucking amazing. With Ben the production is relatively bare to begin with, but live it's just a great board mix (balance) with six killer musicians playing songs I love...it's so hard to beat. Then there's Peter Gabriel on record or live with lots of layers and extra musicians to recreate the recording (likely some sequencers as well) and he sings and I'm floating. But SRV and Double Trouble with Reese...four piece melting my face.
But jazz, I prefer pure. The musicians playing together captured live to tape or whatever recording interface, but that's still the standard for the genre. Similar with bluegrass, classical, blues, "jam bands", and others.
Then there's progressive music, and despite complexity and the prominent use of multitracking to layer and/or correct parts, it's often just the musicians. Yes would sometimes add a harmony or rhythm guitar part, with the latter being low enough in the mix that when you would see them live you didn't really miss the part. They would record parts separately and arrange them and then record them again live...production was relatively bare for the bombast often associated with the genre.
I would generally say I prefer the straight recording, but I could also rattle off and listen to hundreds of highly produced albums disproving an perceived preference. I do like the musicians to be able to play the music recorded, as it have the ability to sing and play. I do not, however, require to reproduce recorded versions live. If they do it's cool, but it's often cooler still when they do something different, be it subtle or drastic.
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