by Carrie Brownstein

What is the perfect number of people in a band? Is it the Dynamic Duo? A Power Trio? The Fab Four? More?

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A few examples:

Two: The Black Keys, The White Stripes. Three: Cream, Husker Du, Rush, Nirvana, Minutemen, The Gossip. Four: The Who, The Beatles, The Replacements, The Kinks, Led Zeppelin, Vampire Weekend, Animal Collective, Pixies. More: Arcade Fire, The Decemberists, The Band, Fleetwood Mac, My Morning Jacket, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Of Montreal.

Or another way to think about it: Did you prefer bands like Modest Mouse and Built to Spill back when they only had three members?

In a live setting, I feel like less is more. I don't need the concerts to sound exactly like the albums. So you put some horns on one track or overdubbed your guitar eight times; that doesn't mean your live show needs to look like an Eagles reunion or a Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. And carting around a string section so they can play for five minutes and take up half the stage, only to be barely audible, might be a bit excessive. In economic terms, maybe it's time to save money by only taking one tour bus and one semi-truck with you when you head out on the road. And from an audience perspective, it's not always a bad thing to remind the fans about your songwriting prowess, and to demonstrate that beneath the grandiosity of your albums is a group of people who know how to play their instruments and who have a palpable chemistry on stage.

Sure, there are special occasions — your performance on SNL or Letterman — but instead of hiring a children's choir, it might also be an opportunity to demonstrate that music needn't be polished to the point of innocuousness; that a rough edge or raw power can be moving in its austerity and its displays of vulnerability. Bright Eyes (who do often travel with a small orchestra) on Jay Leno is a perfect example; imagine this same song played by 10 people.

Ultimately, it's hard to pick the perfect number for a band. There is something magic about a trio — so little excess, each member a life raft. Or the duo, which makes enough noise for an entire band, so that each moment of the show is an act of audacity, a dispelling of disbelief. And the four-piece, wherein there's enough room for each person to seamlessly move in and out of the song dynamics, to add explosions or to recede into the background. For the most part, I feel that the bigger the band, the more diffuse the music, particularly when a small band keeps adding members. Sometimes the dynamic is spread too thin and the center doesn't hold. Yet other big bands find ways of harnessing their whale of a sound.

For me, it boils down to necessity. Who is vital and who isn't? When there's excess, the sound might be denser, but what is essential is usually lost.
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*Don't forget to Vote the Rock in 2008*