How to read a LIVE without mistaking the signal

A LIVE is easy to misread if you treat it like a dashboard. Numbers move. Chat speeds up. A thin night does not cancel a voice. A full night does not create one.

We look first at the body of the performance. Is the person actually singing, or surviving the format? Can they hold a note, a silence, a chorus without cheating? Do they know what to do when nobody is typing?

We also listen to the repertoire. Always the same era hits, or a personal way of inhabiting songs? A cover can reveal an artist. A string of covers with no centre mostly reveals a need to be on.

The relationship with the room matters, but not as a kindness contest. You hear immediately who is talking to win the minute, and who is talking because there is someone on the other side. One wears out. The other builds.

For a label, reading a LIVE means asking what would remain if the stream were cut. If nothing remains, it was not a project yet. If a voice, a presence, a standard remain — then the work can start.