Why am I so mindful of performing live when I haven't done a gig in years!?

I realised this the other day, a large part of my subconscious considerations when I’m making music is along the lines of;

  • will I be able to do this live?
  • how will I play this live?
  • how will this sound live in a venue?
  • how will I condense this set up to play live?

I haven’t done a gig since 2014… so why is this such a big consideration and why am I so mindful of it?? :upside_down_face:

Does anyone else have this?
Has anyone had this ‘issue’ and addressed it in a positive way?

I think it’s ultimately telling me that I still want to get back to playing gigs.

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Yeah for sure. I attribute some to a degree of anxiety around trying to recreate what was created in a given moment faithfully/well in the future.

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Ahah, I never ever played live but am like you on this. No idea why though…

Maybe lots of your favourite artists do live sets? Maybe you fancy having a crack at one yourself, even doing it online to start with?

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because we need to share our passion with passionate people…

alive in live and more than ever !

I usually see what we do as a life celebration
where we feel the love
and people do what they want, free.

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Could also just be an improvisational / one-take / portable approach. Doesn’t have to be with an audience in mind, but useful as a compositional method, and keeping a compact studio.

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I like to be able to play it live for recording, for my own entertainment, and ultimately I’d like to make compositions good enough to play live for other people. I also always think that way, and it is part of what got me off the laptop…playing rather than programming music.

EDIT: I guess I mean this!

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From experience all I can say is: just don’t give a f…!

I always held back when performing because I was too afraid it could go wrong but in the end nobody would know because you’re the only one who knows how it’s supposed to sound. And the best performances are when you just forget everything around you and just let loose meaning truly expressing yourself.

Everything else are just obstacles that you put there yourself (besides technical problems that are out of your reach maybe) and that will prevent you from achieving it. I‘ve seen so many shows in my career and that I would consider „meh“ from a performance aspect but people had a good time.

One band for example came way too late for setup and soundcheck because they were stuck in a traffic jam. Like really late, maybe an hour left before doors opened so they set up quickly and did a quick soundcheck and told us before the show that they would maybe play for an hour max because they were all exhausted (they came by car from Poland) and in need of sleep. Well, they played for almost two hours because they just got into the zone and forgot everything that was troubling them and you could feel the energy coming from the stage. Afterwards they appologized and gave everyone of the staff a CD of their latest release with a big smile on their face. Those are the kind of shows that stick with everyone involved.

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It’s a funny one this, I’m full of admiration for people who fully throw themselves into doing the online thing… but, I came through in the early/mid 90s, where the mentality was always ‘develop behind the scenes and don’t unveil until it is shit hot…’ and, whilst I think it is a shit/counterproductive mentality to have, it’s always stuck with me to a degree.

The big difference for me now is my experience has always been in/with/having bands, what I’m doing now is definitely more electronic/solo focussed… so that aspect would be new to me.

I do have some ideas for doing some less orthodox gigs that I might do as we’re opening back up.

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me.
if smth can’t be done live — i don’t need it.
helps a lot to keep things simple, which is a good thing, because i don’t like modern overproducing trend and resist it.

that was good mentality, because now youtube and soundcloud are overcrowded with „jams“ featuring not even raw stuff, but rather total bleeping/distorted chaos.

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Yep. Got over myself and just got on with making the tunes. Fuck gigs. Im probably not going to do any. Been playing live on and off since the mid 90s, I can count the ones I enjoyed on one hand.

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I’m the exact same way and I haven’t played a gig since late 2019. Everything I create is in the “can this be replicated live?” frame of mind. With a few exceptions I consciously avoid hardware that I wouldn’t feel comfortable bringing to a gig.

I’m pretty old-school though and come from a performance-oriented background, and I think that recordings (mine, anyway) should really just be promotional tools for live performances.

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haha this one hits home.
I’m sort of obsessed with portability - having a set that I can carry around in a backpack.
I actually do play live (well… did until Covid, hoping to be able to do that again soon) although not a lot, maybe a few gigs a year… but it was ramping up a bit - I was also planning (my first) European tour; had no gigs yet but it was early in the year, then the pandemic hit.

I also can’t handle too much gear at the same time, it makes me anxious and I end up loosing focus (blessing in disguise?) so I narrowed it down to DT+OT, which I think is pretty slim. I might end up adding a synth again, since I miss tweaking them live…
But in that fantasy tour setup, I always imagine getting a small loop pedal with MIDI IN, and ditching the OT - just DT, a small compact synth and a loop pedal… small as it gets!

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Re: the loop pedal I’m putting together a live set now and actually just picked up a Boss RC-202 to use for this exact purpose. It’s old, plasticky, and not sexy at all but it’s much cheaper than an OT and so far it’s working perfectly. :slight_smile:

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yeah I liked that one, has some effects as well… but I was thiking even smaller - like Electro-Harmonix 1440… although RC202 is more user-friendly as a tabletop unit.
An alternative that I also consider is using my iPad, probably with Drambo (I haven’t purchased it yet but I’ve seen people using it like an OT, transition loop and everything…

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Yep, same. The main reason I have gear is to play live shows. And I don’t drive, so it’s whatever I can fit into a backpack or small case. That said, I’m keen to take my MS20 out at some point…

This too! I usually keep it to 1 or 2 boxes at a time, even if I’m jamming at home.

I’ve also had thoughts about this (not ditching OT though!), in fact I used to play sets with just a toy keyboard, effects and a loop pedal. Maybe I should try looping on the OT… Finally get those pickup machines going.

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THIS.


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I never put too much thought into repeatability back when I used to play live sets once or twice a week. I enjoyed putting time into practicing improvisation more than anything.
When it came to recording I figured that most of the people who would hear it would be the same people who see me play live (probably too often) and therefore the recordings should be different from my live sets, no sense in being redundant.
I have a certain respect the mindset that a musician’s recordings are live performances are distinctly different experiences as long as their style/ sensibility comes through in both.

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…if u miss the stage…u miss the stage…no big fuzz…pretty normal…

…aaaaand on top of this…u gotta keep in mind, that performing live is the biggest leg for making a living from ur music…

soooo, havin’ THAT train of thoughts while producing is a GOOD thing…no worries…
u do right…

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Same, I haven’t played live in almost 3 years and that was with an old band I was in. One of the reasons I quit that band is because I just don’t enjoy playing live anymore. Yet here I am, thinking about how I can play my electronic stuff live while i’m working on new music knowing full well I don’t plan on booking anything. I’m totally fine with just releasing an album or ep once a year and not playing out, yet somehow playing live effects my creative decisions in the studio. :man_shrugging:t2:

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