So, for some reason a bunch of Night Ranger playing live videos have been popping up in my youtube feeds (been watching a bunch of random live stuff). After watching a few I am convinced that Jack Blades bass is either not "on" or buried so deep in the live mix you can't hear him. His playing motions and constant waving around of his pick/finger arm makes no sense at all, lol.


Who else is questionable when it comes to playing live?

I recently say Night Ranger and never thought that at all for Jack and we were in the 3rd row.

Someone like John Cooper from Skillet, though, fits. Some songs he's not even carrying his bass (he's the singer too), but there is bass piped in. And it looks very questionable when he is "playing" it.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra towards the end of their show usually have one of the singers sporting a guitar that is all for show.

(Not quite exactly fitting the OP).

The strangest case I've heard was Venom. Though in this case, the singer/bassist voice and bass is upfront in the live mix where he is deliberately playing really horrible. (On the other hand, the drums and guitar lines are played correctly and in time).



- Live in Germany in 1985.





- 1984 Live at Hammersmith





(Back in the day, the 1984 live recording was actually widely released on vinyl and later cd under the title "official bootleg" for a joke).

Lets turn the question around.

Here's a case of a flipside of a "necklace wearer", where initially it seemed like the bassist was not doing much of anything in the studio. In contrast in an early live recording, the bassist was up front in the mix and quite active.


Testament - The Haunting


- studio 1987





- Return To The Apocalyptic City Live at the Hollywood Palladium 1993






Testament - Over The Wall


- studio 1987





- Return To The Apocalyptic City Live at the Hollywood Palladium 1993






The bass in the Hollywood Palladium live recordings is very loud when the cd is played on my standalone stereo.

Interesting. I assume you could actually hear him live? Every video I've seen he seems to do more grandstanding than playing and I haven't been able to pick up any bass in the videos I've watched.

John Cooper, yeah, he definitely wears that for decoration. I mean, they do tour with a bassist for when he just sings (but maybe that's all he's doing anyway).

That album has a terrible mix. I saw Testament on that tour and Greg Christian was playing the shit out of his bass. Louis Clemente, on the other hand, sounded like he'd either taken a ton of speed or was throwing his drumkit down the stairs.
Greg Christian's bass is more prominent on some of the later albums.

Janick Gers.

If you ever see Maiden live, when he plays he's swinging his guitar around so much it looks like he's being attacked by a swarm of angry bees.

Forgot all about him (more liked blocked from my memory). Seen Maiden live a couple of times and unfortunately it was with Gers. It was like a clown sideshow it was so distracting.

This is who initially popped into my head, but I don't know the music well enough to say if he's still actually playing the notes or not.

The way he's whipping it around there's no way he's contributing anything worthwhile. Can't remember if he played more on the songs that he recorded or not, as they did at least one on the last tour.