I got a chance to see Cee Lo Green Vs. the Ting Tings at the Redbull Soundclash in Las Vegas on March 12, 2011. It was a matchup of two unique live bands facing off in an all out duel. It was an interesting concert concept and a really cool stage setup. I was pretty stoked to see these two artists go head to head in a live concert setting. The bands were set up on opposing stages with the crowd in the middle of the two stages.
The concept behind the Redbull Soundclash is having two bands face off in a series of rounds featuring different tasks that each band has to complete. In this show there were a total of 5 rounds. In round one each band played 3 of their own original songs. In round two each band played their own version of a cover song. In this round each band had to play a version of the Clash song “Should I Stay Or Should I Go”.
In round 3 the challenge was called Takeover where one band would start their own original song and the other artist had to take over and complete the song. In round 4 the bands had to play a song in a musical style determined by the hosts. In round 5 the bands played a song featuring a special guest performer.
The evening was a lot of fun and I really liked how the stages were set up facing each other with both bands trading off. It was a lot more interesting than having one band open for the other. I didn’t have time to get bored with a band before their set was over. It was also really cool hearing each band cover the other band’s music.
Some highlights were Cee Lo playing his Gnarls Barkley hit “Crazy”. The Ting Tings performing their hit “That’s Not My Name” with Elvis Presley was pretty funny although I have to admit that Elvis was out-shined by Katie White of the Ting Tings. The biggest highlight of the night was when the Ting Tings joined Cee Lo over on his stage and all the musicians performed the Cee Lo Green hit “F*** You [explicit]” together while the crowd sang right along.
I really dug Cee Lo’s all female backing band. Those girls could really play and I think Cee Lo could have done a much better job introducing them to the audience. They played their sexy behinds off all night long and all they got for recognition at the end of the show was a “Let’s hear it for the beautiful and talented ladies!” from Cee Lo as he was walking off the stage. They definitely deserved better than that. His guitarist could really play but I would have liked her to have a little better guitar tone. It sounded like she was using a POD or modeling amp instead of a good guitar amplifier.
My other gripe was that Cee Lo’s voice was mixed a little too low in the mix. I think he needs a better microphone or just to have a better job done mixing his vocals. The Ting Tings sounded excellent across the board. Their guitar sounds were solid and present as well as their drums. The Ting Tings use a lot of sound loops and they are very skilled at triggering them. They really did a good job creating their music at this concert.
Overall I really enjoyed this show and it was one incredible bargain at $10 per ticket. That’s a real steal to see two excellent live groups perform. The Las Vegas evening was perfect with no wind and a temperature of about 70 degrees. I have to say that Redbull did an excellent job presenting this concert with plenty of facilities and refreshments. The sound was good and while one of the bands were performing their performance was played on the large video screens of the opposing stage. There really wasn’t a bad spot in the audience for seeing two bands at once. I’d really like to see more concerts presented in this style.
