but why
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washington
Frostbyte wrote:
but why
Because you get money for dancing and playing chiptunes, why wouldn't you?
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Chepachet, Rhode Island
Frostbyte wrote:
It just looks quite silly, in my opinion.
Don't knock it until you've tried it. It's great fun.
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Savannah, Georgia
Frostbyte wrote:
It just looks quite silly, in my opinion.
+1. although i'm certain chipbusking is fun, there's a fine line between having fun and being overbearingly weird.
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also supporting microcube. I told Space Boyfriend the right way to use it at MAGfest 
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buffalo, NY
I've been wanting to do it forever. NY state says its illegal to busk with amplification so I haven't tried
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Chepachet, Rhode Island
Our posse in Rhode Island got an awesome gig and a table at a Maker Faire along with connections to guys that run a 3D printer and the guy who created Pushpin (who also has bunches of GB carts).......because we were seen busking in Providence.
Food for thought.
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San Diego, CA
Aeros wrote:
Frostbyte wrote:It just looks quite silly, in my opinion.
+1. although i'm certain chipbusking is fun, there's a fine line between having fun and being overbearingly weird.
I wouldn't be so concerned with how it "looks," guys. If you're looking at it from an outsider's perspective, what's the difference between being out in public and jumping around with a gameboy and being on a stage and jumping around with a gameboy? I feel WEIRDER on a stage performing with Gameboys because it makes the assumption that I've done something or am skilled enough to have been selected to be there, when I really just asked or was asked. I think we're just going to have to deal with the fact that performing music with old video game systems is always going to look silly, regardless of where it is; might as well take advantage of it. I've busked at multiple conventions (SD Comic-Con and GDC in SF), and those were some of the most well-attended and well-received gigs I've played. Chiptune is pretty much the most portable electronic music that exists, and to write off busking just because it "looks silly" is a little short-sighted.
As far as speakers go, I'm going to put my slip in for the microcube, but if you go for the bass microcube amp, you're (pretty obviously) going to get a better bass sound, if that's what you're into. There aren't very many other good battery-powered amps or speakers out there, unfortunately, but the Microcube series is as good as it will get for your needs.
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Savannah, Georgia
spacetownsavior wrote:
Aeros wrote:+1. although i'm certain chipbusking is fun, there's a fine line between having fun and being overbearingly weird.
I wouldn't be so concerned with how it "looks," guys. If you're looking at it from an outsider's perspective, what's the difference between being out in public and jumping around with a gameboy and being on a stage and jumping around with a gameboy? I feel WEIRDER on a stage performing with Gameboys because it makes the assumption that I've done something or am skilled enough to have been selected to be there, when I really just asked or was asked. I think we're just going to have to deal with the fact that performing music with old video game systems is always going to look silly, regardless of where it is; might as well take advantage of it. I've busked at multiple conventions (SD Comic-Con and GDC in SF), and those were some of the most well-attended and well-received gigs I've played. Chiptune is pretty much the most portable electronic music that exists, and to write off busking just because it "looks silly" is a little short-sighted.
As far as speakers go, I'm going to put my slip in for the microcube, but if you go for the bass microcube amp, you're (pretty obviously) going to get a better bass sound, if that's what you're into. There aren't very many other good battery-powered amps or speakers out there, unfortunately, but the Microcube series is as good as it will get for your needs.
we're not really writing it off - just saying it looks rather silly and we personally would prefer to stick to playing our songs in places where we know people will like them, or at least a place where if we look silly while we're doing it then we're in good company. (although you do have a point, either way we look like idiots)
Last edited by Aeros (Aug 25, 2012 10:43 pm)
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washington
A photo of Henry Homesweet. It looks like a car battery charger and a regular bass amp, I may be mistaken.
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Chepachet, Rhode Island
Aeros wrote:
we're not really writing it off - just saying it looks rather silly and we personally would prefer to stick to playing our songs in places where we know people will like them, or at least a place where if we look silly while we're doing it then we're in good company. (although you do have a point, either way we look like idiots)
From personal experience...WAY more people are totally into it while we're busking than you'd think.
And I'd like to say I don't think we ever look like idiots unless we intentionally act like idiots. Sure there are douchebags who give us looks, but I've never said to myself "Damn...those are the people I wish would respect us." No. You get remarks from people who you'd never want to speak to anyway. Saying the people who are doing the same thing you're doing only on the streets look like idiots is a bit frustrating since we're all part of this community. Maybe you're the idiot for not trying it? Just saying again...don't knock it until you've tried it, brotha.
Opening a stranger's eyes to Chipmusic is a great feeling and you'll never get that from just playing shows where you know the crowd is already familiar and completely into it. I do think playing shows is much more fun though...busking is just a different experience.
Plus busking is a great way to get people in your area interested in going to shows.
Last edited by 8-Bit-Rex (Aug 25, 2012 11:02 pm)
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Brunswick, GA USA
basspuddle wrote:
It looks like a car battery charger and a regular bass amp, I may be mistaken.
Roland bass cube, I've seen many. I prefer a more compact approach.
There's nothing wrong with busking, you either enjoy performing for people or you don't, it's that simple.
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I'm all for public performance (or "busking"), but I realize that my stage persona feeds off the audience in a symbiotic relationship. I will hype up a crowd and go crazy to maintain hype and good times, but public busking is certainly much different from the stage. At the stage, people are expecting music regardless of the style and are more prone to get involved. Busking is going out on the front lines to a population not expecting to run into a performer and thus have to be approached way differently, IMO. If the environment is not interested (or not present), I think going "balls to the wall" might even push people away or make it seem like a mockery. Though when people ARE excited and both audience and performer go wild in a public busking setting, it really is magical. But that being said, I'm not going to do Kris Keyser dolphin kicks at the local playground (unless he's with me and theres no music being played, where we just want to practice sweet stage parkour moves)
I hear At The Drive In used to do their wacky stage antics even to a crowd of three people. But still, that was at the stage. I think a healthy level of selfawareness needs to be practiced when you're taking this stuff to the public. I think within chip (or actually, electronic music overall) it's harder to justify this approach because of the fact that most of the audience doesn't know what you're doing. So all they really interpret is 'someone flailing around while a track plays,' which is unfortunate because then they might go home with that impression, taking away from the music. Where in a different setting of the busking performer being a bit more reserved they might ask themselves, "what's really going on there?"
I don't know, it certainly is an interesting topic to discuss IMO.
Last edited by an0va (Aug 25, 2012 11:23 pm)
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San Diego, CA
an0va wrote:
I think a healthy level of selfawareness needs to be practiced when you're taking this stuff to the public. I think within chip (or actually, electronic music overall) it's harder to justify this approach because of the fact that most of the audience doesn't know what you're doing.
Completely agreed. I'm definitely not advocating a crazy, flailing performance. Jumping around and stuff like that almost invites the "all you're doing is hitting buttons" accusation, actually. The thing with public contexts is that you kind of have to be aware of the fact that your presence is either ignored or even unwanted for a lot of people. This means you have to respect the context -- you're ALREADY playing really loud music, jumping around and generally being a jerk isn't going to help any. If, however, you invite the inquisitive people in by letting the music itself do the talking, THEN you can justify why your performance is cool by telling them the deets on chiptune and stuff.
an0va wrote:
At the stage, people are expecting music regardless of the style and are more prone to get involved. Busking is going out on the front lines to a population not expecting to run into a performer and thus have to be approached way differently, IMO.
I think the discussion comes down to assumptions made in different contexts. The important thing to ask when it comes to performance on a stage is "why is the stage needed?" (This will help answer a lot of questions re: why you like and dislike musical performances on stages (Swedish House Mafia doesn't need a stage to press "play" and fist pump for an hour)).
Most of the time, it's because a staged performance assumes that the audience will be static (relatively) and observe the performance the entire time, while the assumption on the audience's part is that the performer will be doing things that aren't really seen or expected in normal contexts, thus requiring a static and observant audience. What stages do is create a "space" for the performer to do his/her thing unmolested by people that aren't a part of the performance (good performances take advantage of this fact -- that's why people like it when you go crazy on a stage as opposed to busking). This is obviously just a generalization and doesn't apply to every single performance you'll see, but it's a good place to start when thinking about busking or performing in general. I also didn't mean for this to turn into a discussion on performance theory so sorry 
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San Diego, CA
Aeros wrote:
we're not really writing it off - just saying it looks rather silly and we personally would prefer to stick to playing our songs in places where we know people will like them, or at least a place where if we look silly while we're doing it then we're in good company. (although you do have a point, either way we look like idiots)
here's the thing -- the place you're describing is a chiptune show at a venue attended by your friends, and unless you live in New York or a place where that community is already established, that place doesn't exist.
This is kind of what Peter (Swimm) was railing against a while ago -- the attitude that our hobby isn't worth putting out there UNLESS it's greeted with showers of praise and excitement. That's basically a circlejerk. I'm not saying that anyone is obligated to go out there and perform, but the decision shouldn't be made on the basis of whether people will like it or not; that's YOUR job as a performer (and personally, I think the decision should be made on the basis of whether you can deliver a good "argument" for your art). Busking is just another way of doing this, and if done right, it doesn't look silly at all.