This is really funny to me because while in High School and listening to
pretty much all synthpop and industrial during the dawn of grunge the
argument was always "there's no emotion in that syth crap, who wants to see
some guy standing in front of a synth". Even then I though that was a very
silly point but really the people who were into that stuff were not about
listening to anything all that carefully in their bedroom. They just wanted
to go out and get wild, its radio music really. Even with ATR, the average
length of their songs are perfect for radio play. Nothing really wrong with
that and I can see where they're coming from, sometimes you want to be
rattled for a few minutes.
The real problem seems to be that the average laptop music fan does not want
to have a couple of beers and listen to this music in public and tends to
support the music they love by simply buying the cd (or should I say
downloading). Some really intense reviews may be written from the comfort of
ones bed or desk chair while the cd spins in the portable disc player and
the music is heard through headphones at a pleasant volume of 6.5. But
that's the end of it, its purely a selfish introverted pleasure. Laptop
music doesn't extend into our social lives it just sits with us while we
work, make dinner, prepare for bed. Its frustrating for me because I want to
go out and hear it and talk about it, get drunk to it. Is this not what
she's getting at in this article? ATR may suck ass but at least they're
engaging and their audience is engaging too.
Who's at fault for the inevitable boredom that comes with a laptop
performance?, I think its both the artist and the audience. Sure you don't
have to smash your laptop at the end of a show or take a piss on the crowd
but I think its important to at least want to connect with them. Its great
to go to a show and see the artist hanging out at the bar before the show
and talking to and meeting people, the same goes for the fans who are
approaching the artist or meeting people at the show. I've been to some
horrible punk shows where the music sucked like you wouldn't believe but no
one really cared, in the end you left knowing you met someone new, or had a
good conversation or whatever.
Like Adam said, that is what Cex and Bit meddler had that made them great
shows, hey even autechre have that, at princeton I watched so many people go
up to them and talk to them, they had no problem at all with it. I had a
nice long converstion about architecture with sean and was shocked at how
easy going he was about it. Its not like we're going to see some huge rock
band that you can only experience from below the stage and then watch them
flee to some mysterious backstage wonderland. In most cases idm artists
can't run and hide, and generally they don't want to.
The rant continues...
why is it that you go to see autechre and there are a billion people there
coming out of the fucking woodwork but then you go to see an amazing band
like fridge and there are 30 people there, all looking bored and/or scared.
just go out, meet some people, have some fun, that's what I say.
adesh ~cf
http://www.recordcamp.com
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