I was lucky enough to get tickets to The Tragically Hip show at the Air Canada Center on Jan 1 2000, my seats were directly behind the secondary stage. I think this ruined part of the show for me. I know when a band is on stage they have several speakers facing the band, not the crowd. These speakers were at such an angle to be pointed directly at my seat. I found all the bands on that stage seemed off on their timing. The other side is that it was Jan 1 2000 and I think they might have just been a little hungover (I -know- the headstones were). Anyways, would it screw with the quality of the performance to hear the bands speakers better than the house speakers? and if so, how does the band deal with this problem?
“If you can’t answer a man’s argument, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names.” - Elbert Hubbard.
The band uses speakers aimed at themselves so that they can hear what the other musicians are doing, and get some idea of what the audience is hearing as well. The on-stage monitors are usually just another feed from the main speaker system that is aimed at the audience. In a large auditorium, where the sound would be reflected back to the stage from the back wall, these speakers actually keep the band in sync; otherwise some musicians might start trying to sync with the reflected sound. Partial deafness from playing too many gigs in front of megawattage sound systems might have a bearing on the need for monitor speakers, as well.
But to respond to your original question, listening to the on-stage monitors should not have given you the impression that the performers were off their beats. It seems more likely that you were, in fact, hearing the reflected sound that I mentioned earlier, bouncing off the back walls and then to you. The delay introduced through that process could have given you the impression that the on-stage monitors were out of sync with the performance.
Artificial Intelligence is no match for Natural Stupidity!
There is also the possibility that the performers were lipsynching and airguitarring to recorded music. Hey, if Madonna can get away with it…
AskNott
"Measure twice, cut once. Dang! Measure again, cut again.