It's intuitive, and I don't dissect it. Every time I pick up the guitar, there's a possibility that something is going to happen. But if a song is just hanging there, I drop it and move on to something else. We don't slog through things at all. A good song has to continue to hold your attention.
Dynamics are critical to getting a song across.
At full volume like that, your ears just go numb. But a really good live band like Pearl Jam will come way down, and show that what makes music loud is the distance it has gone from being soft. In a very Bowie-esque way, there's always a little acoustic guitar behind what we're doing, and I think that really makes the drums sing. We usually recorded the J-200 facing a wood wall because that added a nice, warm slap to the tone. It's a very light guitar, but it packs a lot of punch.