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Looper's Delight
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Great thread Rick! A few of you already know me, but for those who don't, I've been putting a lot of work over the last few years towards organizing festivals and unusual music events in the San Francisco Bay Area. First of all, I should preface this all with a huge "In my humble opinion" and acknowledge that my range of experience applies primarily to improvised music of an experimental nature. Give the audience a reason to be interested. This is the #1 reason I do events with themes. If people don't know who the musicians are when reading an ad, maybe you can draw them in by giving them a good idea of what the musicians will be doing. Musicians should know when to stop! I've witnessed countless events where the musicians "run out of juice", but continue to play for an extra 10, 15 or 30 minutes. In a recent show, audience members really liked the guy at the beginning of the set, but by the end decided that they'd never go to a show by that guy again. If the guy quit when he was ahead, he'd have gained about 5 or 6 new fans. (This isn't an individual that's on this list, and wasn't someone at the V&E thingy.) >What are your pet peeves about looping shows? I have three, and they might get me into some hot water 1) Musicians who sound almost exactly like, imitate, or "play in the style of" other, more famous musicians. I've had trouble selling shows as "looping" events in San Francisco, since many of the people who see the word looping think it's going to be a show of "Frippertronics". 2) The unspoken assumption that a musician is his gear. Actually, there are a few mini-issues that coalesce into this one. My favorite musicians are the ones who can turn out an amazing set, even if you take away their favorite piece of equipment. A lot of my shows play to this idea, since I find it exciting to see a person's sense of musical intuition presented in a different light. A lot of looping/electric/electronic musicians depend on one or more specific pieces of equipment for "their sound", which is the phenomenon that leads to Guitar Center selling tons upon tons of guitar distortion pedals and very few things that encourage people to find new and unconventional ways to use them. 3) The mention of looping as a "some new thing that people need to learn about". Looping's been around since the 40's, has been in popular music since the 60's, and had its contemporary heyday in the 80's. Given, there are uses, possibilities and contexts now that didn't exist then, but there are very few Americans these days who haven't heard "looped music" already. >What do you wish you could see people do that you think they have the >capability to do (but aren't doing so far). Well, a lot of people are doing it already, ... Individualize! Show us what makes you a unique musician! Each person has a completely different set of musical experiences and intuitions, and I don't really hear that in a lot of music these days. Focus on the ideas that are your ideas, not stuff that someone else came up with. Stop worrying about what your music "should be" and start focusing and understanding what it is. Another one is to acknowledge that a set of live music is not your studio-created cd, and shouldn't be. Most folks I know find pre-recorded backup tracks (like drum machine programs, cd's of instrumental background, or "ambient beds" already programmed into a rack unit) to be a bit of a turnoff. They tend to distract from what you're doing in the live environment, instead of supporting it. >6) What kinds of things can you envision that would make a looping >festival >more interesting to watch I think you pulled it off last time Rick, a really great, diverse lineup. Continuing in that direction would be my best advice. More people who are pushing in different directions and expanding the boundaries of what "looping" is. Next year it might be nice to throw some laptop performers into the mix as well. >Do you think the whole concept of a live looping festival is complete >and utter bullshit? No, looping festivals are fun and encouraging. Personally, I'd like to see more looping musicians cross-pollenating with the other musical communities. >Michael K done wrote: >the only thing i could add to rick's, andre's and max's thoughts is the >idea >of longer set times.....rather than 30 mins. one would have the option to >play >40-45 mins I'd have to disagree. If you give people the option to play 45 minutes, every single one will take it. That'll result in less diversity at these events. Perhaps it would be nice for the people coming a long way, but it'd be better to give those guys a featured show on a different night. _________________________________________________________________ Cell phone ‘switch’ rules are taking effect — find out more here. http://special.msn.com/msnbc/consumeradvocate.armx