MOTM

--- In motm@yahoogroups.com, "konkuro" <konkuro@a...> wrote:
> mikes wrote:
> ....that's not performing; that's twiddling.
> 

That's a good point.

I try to get to any electronic music concerts I can, and find that 
many of them are marred by a lack of attention or skill in the area 
of performance. 

People have a good idea of what's going on when you pluck a guitar 
string or blow a horn, but people have no idea what's going on during 
a lot of electronic music performances. The performer needs to fill 
that void, or it is twiddling.

A exciting performance isn't just hearing great music played live. 
There's a lot more to it: visual elements, being in a unique acoustic 
spaces, the sense of risk, spontaneous invention, and the social 
feelings of being part of an event, or of being with like-minded 
people. All of these things can contribute to a good concert. 

I've seen very few great performers that did not take advantage of 
the visual aspect of performance. Most use there faces and bodies to 
express the same feelings that they are expressing through music. Too 
many EM performances look like you're watching a lab experiment, 
rather than something that's full of passion. 

EM performances often lack the sense that something difficult is 
going on. It's exciting to see virtuosity, even to hear a few 
mistakes, and feel that struggle to make something beautiful come out 
of a hunk of wood and metal. 

If you ever get a chance to see Tangerine Dream, you'll see what I 
mean. They put on a good show, but it's sometimes a little clinical 
or lacking in passion because they spend most of their time 
triggering and mixing sequences at consoles.

About 2/3 through the show, though, they strap on their guitars, come 
to the front of the stage and rock out over the sequenced backing. 
The audience eats it up, because suddenly there's a person doing 
something expressive visually, you know they're doing something 
difficult, and they're improvising, so who knows what could happen?

Performances can also be special because of things like the acoustics 
of an interesting performance space, or just being with other people 
interested in this stuff...