I never said what art is I said if you are singing or shouting then you are doing a live music performance. If only press play on a laptop, cassette player or CD player etc… you are not performing you just presenting music. If you are dancing or acting to prerecorded music then that’s performance art. If I go to a concert and see someone press play on a laptop I’m not going to say I saw a musician perform their music. If I go to a club and don’t even know where the dj booth is then I don’t care how the music is delivered because I’m there for a different reason, I’m there just to dance.
To say people don’t care how the music is performed on stage is disingenuous because plenty of people do. A live music performance is energy and language being shared between the audience and the musicians. If you are just playing canned music you lose that element. It’s my opinion that’s all.
The notion that we go to ‘watch’ electronic music being performed is puzzling to me. The whole crowd stood in rows watching a bloke fiddling with CDJs or an Octatrack, it’s comically mundane.
I make music with mostly hardware but some of my favourite live PAs were done with laptops, Objekt being one. He ran his set from a dark corner of the stage where the focus was insane 3d visuals projected onto a giant screen.
Visual art is a pretty good solution for a festival, but I say for venues and clubs: get the performer off the stage, let people dance and make it about whether or not the set bangs rather than how cool all the patch cables and faders and knobs look.
I agree if you’re going stage with a laptop you should have some cool visuals going. I do like seeing live performances on synths and drum machines tho, that’s super interesting.
Most of my favorite bands/performers use a mixture of traditional instruments and synths/drum machines. Hybrid Rock.
When I go see Convextion/E.R.P. locally, it’s always just him and his laptop, thats it.
I know he’s got stacks of synths at home, but he holds the crown for looking like he’s checking his emails on stage while amazing music comes out of the system. If he’s on the bill, the crowd usually increases, definitely dances, and no one ever says much about his gear, everyone just talks about how great the show was.
I actually get a big kick out of it thinking it’s kind of Gerard’s trademark style, or has more to say conceptually in some way. Never had the pleasure to see him overseas, or on a huge system with hella light show. I’m sure it blows away divy Dallas bars, and I bet no once cares about the gear.
I think all that says a lot about “the music.” Convextion/E.R.P. makes fantastic music, people wanna go see whatever that is live.
Personally, my own set has a lot more apparent “button mashing,” 
And I dont want to be just another button masher, so I bring a light show thingy.
I really need a couple nice lasers. Thats where it’s at, LASERS, F the music gear.
Don’t forget the smoke machine.
The first time I saw/felt like this was at a Stereolab show ages ago. DJ Spooky opened and was set up on the floor to the side of the stage. The entire shoegaze crowd didn’t understand dancing at the time, so they just stared at him. It was almost creepy.
It was almost like he keyed in on it and started doing this crazy tremolo sounding turntable tricks. I swear he hypnotized the whole crowd.
GOT ONE
The thing is it’s not a show if its just a guy clicking away on a computer. Now I never made a comment on the music, I’m sure the music was great. If you think about it should be great sounding. If all you are using is a computer, the advantages are there to spit out polished tracks. There in lies the rub, it’s too convenient. Me personally I prefer button smashing on some arcane device, unrefined and raw. If I go see an artist at a concert I want to see some instruments not a just a computer or cdjs. If I go clubbing then I don’t care what’s used.
I respectfully disagree,
I’m not sure, from a listener point of view,
What’s really different from “clicking away” on a laptop to “clicking away” on a groovebox.
I’m not a computer musician,
I play electric guitar and I love electronic musical instruments,
Though I admire live sets based on live coding or complex Max patches (for example) and I think they are as legit as the ones performed on big modular systems or piles of synthesizers.
Gear nerds tend to look at technicalities because, well, We’re nerds!
(Hey, me too!)
The majority of people don’t care about the source instruments,
They judge the outcome.
If someone likes the outcome so much to start investigate the process behind it you’ve got a bingo!
Seeing a guy play music on a computer is not a show. I’m sure there’s super complex computer coding music and all that. Hay I’ll expect super polished tracks coming from a computer but it’s still not a show when it looks like someone at a day job in their cubicle. If you want to be on stage have something to show. If you just want to be heard then give your song file to a dj.
And the sharks upon which to mount the frickin’ lasers
I guess it’s the difference between a “club” where it could just be a Spotify playlist if it makes people dance, and a “concert” where instead of a piano, it a performer with electronic gear…
My summation:
The gear “matters” if it’s a vital aspect of the performance… Say… Imogene Heap’s expensive Nintendo gloves…
If it’s not the above, then having gear you can perform with comfortably and allows you to alter the direction as needed in reaction to crowd response, and the nature of the gear doesn’t matter (hardware vs. laptop vs. bucket drummer, etc.)
I’m just saying it’s not interesting seeing someone fiddling around on a laptop if that’s all they brought on to the stage. I never questioned the validity of the music.
It always comes down to the quality of the product not what’s used to make it.
Arbitrary rules about what is or isn’t a legitimate or interesting performance is pretty limiting, and not in a creative way.
I once watched Merzbow sitting still at a laptop for two hours and I swear to god I was able to communicate with aliens by the end of his set.
One word. Autechre.
Kid606 during his PowerBook era was fucking awesome. I saw him standing behind his laptop a bunch of times, rarely had a less than great time.
Awesome
Moar awesome
Sometimes the whole point is that we shouldn’t be staring at the guy with the laptop, we should be listening to what’s going on with the sounds they’re making and either dancing or having a bloody good think. Or whatever, stand at the back sneering if that’s what floats your boat, who gives a shit.
