I love the Cellar. If it weren't for this place, I would have wondered "is it live, or Memorex," and never would have known. But now I have people telling me that it almost certainly was live, and SM is going to check with one of the band members to find out for sure. How cool is that? Thanks SM!

Oooh. Matt Bissonette. I've heard of that guy. Any relation to Gregg? One of them plays with Joe Satriani....maybe both of them have. SM is now officially cooler than me. (he probably was before, come to think of it)

Matt is Gregg's brother.

Left a voicemail, haven't talked with him yet ... still holding ....

I'm an ass. Matt wasn't on the Superbowl gig - he says he hasn't played with McCartney for over a year (shows how I well I keep up with my "good" friends, I guess) but he's heard that the new guy looks alot like him. He also says that there's no way it was tape unless McCartney's voices was completely gone due to illnesss, and he's only seen that happen one time in the several years he worked with him.

It would appear that Macca changes out his tour musicians. He doesn't have the same drummer either. It's only odd because he's the Beatle who always wanted to be in a band, the only Beatle who formed a band after and found other people to write songs with and such.

Thanks for that, SM. I felt pretty strongly that I wasn't watching a lip-sync performance. For one thing, the vocals, while quite good, were not *perfect* by any stretch of the imagination. The backing vocals in particular had that sort of "on the fly" feel about them, usually a certain sign that a guy is working his ass off to rock out.

Frankly, the standard of live sound is now so very, very high, that it is easy to think it must be recorded somehow. My original point in all of this was that it is primarily the dancing, gyrating performers who have synced vocal parts, because it is simply impossible to sing effectively while doing such a strenuous physical performance. Try doing a five minute, vigorous aerobic routine sometime while singing some perky pop tune. Even the best-conditioned individual will be subject to the bumping and jarring of the vocal cords and diaphragm while bouncing around, making a noticable fluctuation in the voice.

With wireless and in-ear monitors and the very best audio professionals anywhere, I guess we really have come to the point where this sort of thing can be pulled off! It still amazes me to think of it: there was a football field there, and then five minutes later, a massive stage... how do you sound-check 50,000 fans anyway?

How it sounded in the stadium was very likely secondary to the broadcast mix...