Comments on: Getting Good Digital Gigs: Discussion, Debates, and a Place to Chat More

By: MetroSonus

MetroSonus — Mon, 07 May 2007 14:05:38 +0000

Umm.. ive replaced “just checking my email” with .. “just checking myspace”. That usually gets an uproar.lol

I think the nature of the gig that’s more important. Is it high profile or low profile? A festival or just another club night?

People would obviously feel let down to pay admission to see their favorite DJ play an hour long set through winamp at a huge festival..or worse yet to have a set crash and kill the mood. yet an average club night nobody would care or even know.

Then on the performer side of things, where people are facing a stage looking at you, i’ve found that mishaps, jokes and the odd silence often enhance the performance unintentionaly. Somehow a mishap makes an otherwise flawless performance become more intimate and personal.

By: onyxashanti

onyxashanti — Mon, 07 May 2007 06:52:43 +0000

insanity…pure insanity is what gets you gigs. the pure lunacy to believe that you deserve to be heard, more than someones else believing that you dont. making venues where there were none before you. creating creative ways to promote yourself. and doing it all, contrary to lack of interest, income or incentive, for as long as it takes.

onyx

By: dan s.

dan s. — Sun, 06 May 2007 21:29:37 +0000

Re:Dead Air and unintentional applause, this reminds me of when ravi shankar played woodstock. Ravi a classicaly trained sitarist was quite surprised by the cheers he got from tuning his instrument.

By: DJ McManus

DJ McManus — Sun, 06 May 2007 16:30:33 +0000

Yeah, I used to be a roadie for Milli Vanilli so I know my stuff.

By: Michael Una

Michael Una — Sun, 06 May 2007 13:50:00 +0000

LOL, McManus. You should write a regular column with pro-tips like this.

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Sat, 05 May 2007 20:53:15 +0000

It’s an interesting idea, and I see the appeal. But I’m not allergic to screens, or seeing other people with screens. I think if that helps you perform, go for it. But I’m as confused by the terror of screens as I am by the terror of silence. All this other hardware was up until very recently *also* very foreign to music making. Guitar pedals don’t look terribly pretty on stage. But we accept them if it fits with performance. Computers ought to be able to do the same, provided (and this is important) we’re not stumbling over them.

And I’ll say it again: there’s such a thing as silence that’s not “dead.” If there’s a pause that has energy in it, that makes sense with the music, great. If there’s a pause the soul purpose of which is the software loading and you trying to figure out where the heck you are, that’s no fun.

By: M.A.S.

M.A.S. — Sat, 05 May 2007 19:09:53 +0000

Is silence such a bad thing really though or is it something that the masses has deemed unacceptable for electronic music. I can't even tell you how many rock concerts I have been to where the band has stopped in between songs. Sure the audience was applauding, but but they are sitting there talking to themselves on stage as if trying to figure out what song to do next. Do we just fear the applause? So many electronic musicians are of the introverted nature to begin with, and we have largely been relegated to the tiny DJ booth or the bedroom studio. One thing that most livePA artists seem to have never experienced is an audience sitting down, watching them, rather then just dancing too them. Are there no livePA artists anymore using hardware? I must be a dying breed from the discussions I am seeing on these boards. On a side note of the laptop screen. The LivePA.org boards have discussed for quite a while on how to perform with a computer and without a screen Live with no screen Artist Sneakthief has been particularly successful in developing a setup as such. Tiny Live Laptop

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Sat, 05 May 2007 01:01:52 +0000

Nonsense, I agree sober. Get me drunk and see what I say then. :)

I don’t think guitar effects pedals are necessary, but yes, you need some kind of physical control. It’s not the laptop that’s the problem, it’s whether you have something to do beyond a trackpad. And crouching just hurts your neck.

By: Aren Downie

Aren Downie — Sat, 05 May 2007 00:23:11 +0000

DJ McManus, That’s some top notch funny!

By: Nonsense

Nonsense — Fri, 04 May 2007 23:44:14 +0000

Oh well (getting home after a night of heavy drinking)…

My best advice to anyone doing computer based music is: skip the bent neck hovering over a lit up screen, and go with live midi-loops and guitar-pedal effects. Add a nice backdrop and you’re nearly there!
NOTHING is less attractive than musicians fiddling with their laptops. If the crowd can’t see what you are doing, then what’s the point?!

Then perhaps that’s just the alchohol talking…. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz……….