someone mentioned the plaid show as their best live performance, and it makes
me wonder what peoples' definition of "live performance" is.
in my view, performance is the entire package, and it's done for an actively
listening audience, which in turn give energy back to the performer. there
is a very important - indeed critical - relationship here. if the performers
don't acknowledge that they are there to perform and have an audience, that
relationship fails to develop.
plaid does not perform. they sit behind their laptops and make cool music
while some guy throws video on the screen (i too saw plaid both for the
last two tours, and was pretty put out that they used the same setup (and
miserable DJ) for both). 80% of the electronica shows i've seen are like
this, and that's probably being generous.
i was playing a show at the mca in chicago, and the folks on before me
finished and came off stage and started saying how they wished that they
were facing the screen *with their backs to the audience* so they could
see the visuals. then one of them commented that she preferred to be off
to the side of the stage, and another guy mentioned he'd rather be
completely offstage.
the best live *performances* i've seen tend not to be electronica, and
unsurprisingly so: laurie anderson, kaffe mathews, joe mcphee, pauline
oliveros, phish, frank zappa, squirrel nut zippers, marc ribot w/ mike
patton, john zorn's masada, shelly hirsch... one of my favorites was
the violent femmes. granted i haven't seen some of the more active
electronica folk live (yet... twine will be up performing a show with me,
greg davis, m.mercer and warmdesk later this month), but i bet if i
concentrated on doing so, i'd be done in a month. :)
survival of electronica doesn't mean anything, every style of music must
have exemplary performers to keep it alive. productions which use video
and other eye-candy to supplant the interaction of live performers are,
in my book, not live performances.
this is much much longer than i had planned to write, but it's a topic
which i think deserves much attention by those who really want to express
themselves on stage and *perform* for an audience.
m
craque
dot
net
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