chunter
Offline
Brunswick, GA USA
xylo wrote:

What kind of audience do you want, the people coming for your wardrobe or music?

You sound like a "I earn 25 million dollar a year-rockstar", I seriously couldn't care less about what the audience thinks of my t-shirt.

Do not agree with the dancing and people seeing through it as well. Our chiptunes are not for live purposes per se, yet the basslines and drums sound pretty good on a big PA, if you give a proper example and show people you're enjoying yourself, people will join that vibe faster.

I'm sorry if you misunderstood me because to me, you've agreed in full as long as you understand that giving the music more importance than your presence at the venue is okay.

I said "your clothes are your costume" partly because that's a paraphrase of what my mentor from the proverbial day taught me, my background is in the pretentious jazz/rock stuff that went away in the 70s for a reason. wink (Teacher was one of those folk/pop acoustic guitar types.) The intent of the statement is, you should "look like" your music.

It does depend on what the intentions of your music and performance are. To me, a live performance is specifically a way for people who could listen to your music anytime through recordings can say, "I got to see/meet xxxxxxx." You don't even need to play your music to accomplish this, but once the meeting is over, I'd think you want the people who meet you to think, "that guy is cool," as opposed to Telerophon's experience of "What a jerk."

Downstate makes the best point of all though, unless you're planning to go on "got talent" or "idol" it's not like this is serious life changing stuff... Or is it? If you're not trying to market yourself and you don't like performing, then... don't. It's okay.

Solarbear
Offline
Lexington, KY
Saskrotch wrote:

i do uppercuts and play with knobs

I remember you doing a lot of finger waggling at BRK, like you were the conductor of your music, lol. XD

calmdownkidder
Offline
Liverpool, UK
Frostbyte wrote:

I played trumpet with a band recently and we all wore full suits. Was pretty cool, but not the staple of the show. I think we were all relatively timid on stage when it happened, but the amp sphere of the music called for it and the crowd reacted ye way we wanted them to.

Frostbyte wrote:

but the amp sphere of the music

Frostbyte wrote:

amp sphere

u wot m8

Telerophon
Offline
Austin, Texas

I got $5 on it being a post from a smartphone.

Frostbyte
Offline

Atmosphere*

You get a free song if you guess which phone wink

boaconstructor
Offline
Seattle, WA US

I think the live shit works most nicely when the music you're playing is reflective of your style and presence on stage. It's pretty important to create an overall mood as quickly as you can while on stage.

an0va
Offline

I'm gonna repost my thoughts from the other thread:

an0va wrote:

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.



but UNRELATED:

Telerophon wrote:

Seriously, though, I don't know why I was surprised that this guy's a tool:


HEY, I love Al. sad I've heard he's totally a diva though like your story, too. Shame.

And got damn at that side boob


Sycamore Drive wrote:

I think I'd play more gigs if it was acceptable to just sit in the corner with a laptop plugged into a PA.


Aphex Twin literally did this with a sofa on stage yikes

Last edited by an0va (Aug 26, 2012 9:08 pm)

basspuddle
Offline
washington

all of this is super helpful smile

ant1
Offline
uhajdafdfdfa
Sycamore Drive wrote:

I think I'd play more gigs if it was acceptable to just sit in the corner with a laptop plugged into a PA.

i guess this isn't acceptable because the purpose of a gig is to entertain people and give them something they can't get at home, not to fulfil the "performer"'s egotistical desire to Be A Gigging Musician or to Have Played A Gig

which is why i chose to decline invitations to "perform" at events i have been asked to "perform" at

i have said it before, if you are gigging you are an entertainer. make sure you entertain people (OTHER people, entertaining yourself does not count).

edit: i feel the same way about busking. if people using a certain street or public space don't want to hear your music, it's selfish and inconsiderate to force it upon them.

Last edited by ant1 (Aug 26, 2012 9:24 pm)

4mat
Offline

take a tip from eurovision, bring a clown or ballerina with you.

Auxcide
Offline
The Multiverse ::: [CA, Sac]
ant1 wrote:

i have said it before, if you are gigging you are an entertainer. make sure you entertain people (OTHER people, entertaining yourself does not count).

edit: i feel the same way about busking. if people using a certain street or public space don't want to hear your music, it's selfish and inconsiderate to force it upon them.

This. All of this.

I've done my bit of busking and I've had shop owners, police, and security guards come up and told us we're doing good and to keep playing and I've had some tell us to leave. You apologize for the disruption, and leave. You have to respect that not everyone wants to hear you and there's a point where you should stop.

Best time busking (non chiptune): we were playing behind like a Target shopping mall, and all the workers who were on break, security, the cleaning crew, and some groupies from another spot we were just busking at all stood around us and cheered as we played. Uh, we were drums, guitar and vocals, and me on my microkorg.

Busking can be very rewarding, rep wise smile

8-Bit-Rex
Offline
Chepachet, Rhode Island

I think the main thing to take away is to be polite. We had a guy just the other night get about an inch away from a buds face (who was playing) and screamed at him to turn the shit off because he hated it...as if he was some big shot everyone should constantly be trying to please. One of the biggest assholes I've ever seen in my life.

We kept playing.

We've had a manager of a restaurant with outside seating come over and nicely ask us to move down the street.

We moved.

My philosophy is: "Don't cater to assholes."

CS
Offline
UK

When Maru and BSK first came to visit the Toon (Newcastle) last year, we used a MX-5 battery powered mixer and an amp to power two small sets of speakers.

We caught a lot of peoples attention that afternoon, went down pretty well.

Here's video I got from the day. Just enjoy yourself and be confident when you're out busking.  Good luck.

Last edited by CS (Aug 27, 2012 12:41 am)

Frostbyte
Offline
CS wrote:

words and awesome vid


Now THAT is something I'd do with a buddy. That's cool.

boaconstructor
Offline
Seattle, WA US
Frostbyte wrote:
CS wrote:

words and awesome vid


Now THAT is something I'd do with a buddy. That's cool.

come to seattle and WE WILL

Frostbyte
Offline
boaconstructor wrote:
Frostbyte wrote:

Now THAT is something I'd do with a buddy. That's cool.

come to seattle and WE WILL

OMG dude, imagine us playing a show together?

Wow.