Second Life Live Music Review
Written by Enniv Zarf (RL: Paul Kwo)
Metaverse Music
KevinMThomas Carpool
Red Rock
4.5 stars out of 5 stars
Why does everyone IM me when I'm reviewing but leave me totally alone when I'm free and got nothing to do!
Here's someone with a fascinating sound and a huge personality, and did I mention he can really belt out his tunes. I cannot recall hearing a guy in Second Life really belting this much like the way Kevin does and his voice is absolutely powerful. It certainly can fill a stadium if that opportunity ever arise.
He has a lot of original music, at least a CD worth in fact. But again we run into the fact that he plays a ton more covers then he does his originals. Though when he does his originals, he tells it very clearly and made sure we know it's an original and that's absolutely fantastic.
Well KevinMThomas Carpool does have solid voice and...
... very polished and strong performance. But comparing the sounds on his Myspace, I much rather hear him sing his own songs. He has this really big personality, yelling out to the audience as if he's standing at a real life stage with an audience there. [Update: Though at times it was a tad bit too much. But I suppose that's what this music is.]
He called out my name a couple of times, I think he read my profile in the show and doesn't know who I really am. I guess my name hasn't made it to his circle yet. Boy will he be surprised, hopefully for the better.
His original songs are really fantastic and I think better then any of the covers he did. His voice really works for his own stuff cause there are a lot of very high sustained notes and he does them very brilliantly. He really has a solid tenor voice and his higher range is really much stronger then his lower range, a rarity in Second Life for sure.
His original song "My Everything" works really well for him. It has a nice hook, but mostly I love the harmonies he uses and the way he puts space in his music. It has an unusual quality to it that is close enough to home to feel comfortable in, but interesting enough to be actually well, interesting. And you can definitely hear the influences of metal music in this songs for sure aside from the screaming like singing.
His cover of Guns and Roses, name of song I don't know, really show off his high range which is what he does best. And I am just glad he stepped back a little from the mic and balanced his voice with it. He knows exactly what he sounds like across the stream and knows how to work his set up to get the best sounds out. But when he covered U2's "With or without you," it showed that his lower range really isn't as strong as his higher singer. But it was still good enough to listen to until he gets back to belting.
Kevin's package works. The personality works with his original music and I think he can really draw people to his shows. It's always interesting to see how different performers interact with the crowd. I think Kevin may just be a little too prying into the audience sometimes with looking at profiles. It does add pauses to the performance. It's really tricky really to get that balance right though. I'm always working on that. I am an avid believer that a live online performer cannot have dead air. Not that Kevin had much. I'm sure there were very good reasons for them. But imagine if you heard those dead air on your over the airwave radio station. You'd probably not go back. We are more understanding in Second Life as an audience and by no means do I want anyone to teleport away if a performer has dead air. I just want performers to keep that in mind. There are more and more online live streaming events. Youtube has a live streaming section. A lot of people have off world streams. The advantage we have is the visual in SL so we can do it from home and not actually have to get a camera and all that good stuff. But with a growing online live streaming community outside of Second Life, we gotta stay ahead of the game and one up everything to create a even more solid show.
I love Kevin's sound, I really do. I think he's got some great stuff, especially his originals. I am really enjoying his talk too. I also gotten more used to it by the end of the concert. I think if he could tighten up the talking to get more stuff going on, or even just make some random noise with the guitar to tail slightly into his talk. Cause when he sings, I feel like I'm in a real concert. When he talks I feel like I'm in a concert. But when there's that few seconds of near silence, I hear his living room, if that's what a living room sounds like. Seriously I literally felt like I just teleported from an awesome concert for a brief second into someone's bland living room, then seconds later back to an awesome concert. It was really bizarre. It happened like two or three times throughout the whole concert.
But do check out KevinMThoma Carpool in Second Life and outside. It's some pretty solid stuff that's definitely worth checking out especially if you like some good new rock tunes.
