Here are
the spots that made me raise an eyebrow:
-3:20 two 16ths on the snare can be seen and not heard.
-3:26 clearly out of sync on the snare.
-4:16 "I pick up my guitar and I play" the word "play" sounds like a strong snare/crash combo, but he isn't hitting the snare...
-4:23 looks an awful lot like he's playing a fill that doesn't square with what I'm hearing.
-5:47 I just noticed in impromptu last ending rough on the toms that was almost completely inaudible - oops!
Just 5 that I thought looked/sounded very questionable, there were other minor things where I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I'm not saying that that isn't Zak on the recording, I'm just not sure that that's the performance of it. To learn one's own parts well enough to drum along doesn't seem that far-fetched to me - I do it all the time (in my living room, that is!).
- 3:20 - The stick clearly bounces and looks like it could go down for a second hit...you can't see the actual snare, so you can't be sure, but if you watch the hand, it looks like he's using a double stroke.
- 3:26 - Again, he is right with what is heard. It looks like he starts to drop his left stick, but recovers, and the rest lines up perfectly.
- 4:16 - I got nothing. I see him clearly hit a different crash, but I am hearing the snare drum and seeing him hit the tom. You can argue that this could just be how the tom sounded or whatever, but that's a pretty tough argument to make.
- 4:23 - If you slow it down, it lines up perfectly, he's just moving too fast for you to tell (diddles, etc) in a crappy quality YouTube video.
5:47 - Yeah, you are right about this one. However, it's possible that the soundguy had already started muting channels, etc, for moving the stage. That is not uncommon at all at events like this.
So really, when it's all slowed down and stuff, the only evidence is there is ONE snare hit where he hit his tom, but it sounds like snare (which is hard to explain, but there may be a reason), and then a muted ending which is not uncommon. Add that to the fact that the entire performance, with all the speed-ups, slow-downs, and complex fills (which I know he improvises on at normal shows...it's not the same fills every night) lined up accurately, and I would say it's hard to argue that it wasn't live. I mean, that's a lot of stuff to memorize exactly. It is possible...and I'm not really a big fan of the Who or anything...I just hate the cynicism that I see so much nowadays.
I will say this...if it was pre-recorded, then I'm actually MORE impressed with Zak for being able to play along flawlessly, through tempo changes and everything, and only have one noticable mistake, which was just hitting the wrong drum.
(I agree, though)
