[Lancey Howard]

A few years ago I saw The Police, and it was one of the best concerts I ever had the pleasure to attend. Great seats, too, spitting distance from Sting. (And I, too, go way back. My first concert was a general admission "dance concert" at the Spectrum in Philly in 1970 ('71?) with Humble Pie, and Black Sabbath, opening for Mountain. A zillion more concerts followed, but I never saw Zep back then.)

Anyway, The Police did a full 2+ hour concert with just the three of them - - no side men at all - - and filled the place with music. I commented to my daughter afterwards how impressed I was with all the sound produced by just three guys. Not "thin" in the slightest, as I would have expected. By the way, the opening act for The Police was Elvis Costello, and he was terrific, too. Sting came out near the end of the set and sang 'Alison' with Elvis.

[dennisw]

Anyway, The Police did a full 2+ hour concert with just the three of them - - no side men at all - - and filled the place with music. I commented to my daughter afterwards how impressed I was with all the sound produced by just three guys. Not "thin" in the slightest, as I would have expected. By the way, the opening act for The Police was Elvis Costello, and he was terrific, too. Sting came out near the end of the set and sang 'Alison' with Elvis.

"Just the three of them"   (the Police)
Is a lot different today than 25 years ago
Today the sound enhancements that can be added and optimized

For the 2007 Led Zep concert I'm sure the sound was a lot fuller than when the same tunes with the same on stage instrumentation were played in 1970. How and why?

[dennisw]

The hoopla and crowd hysteria can make one accept the live concert sound by the Police, Rolling Stones, what have you.... In ways you would never accept listening at home in calmer moments

Older “live” albums were notorious for being overdubbed and sonically enhanced
The kids today have crap music like rap today, we had it much better.

[dfwgator]

I commented to my daughter afterwards how impressed I was with all the sound produced by just three guys.

You should see Rush in concert, no band gets more out of three guys than they do.