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Looper's Delight
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On Sat, 19 Oct 1996, studio seventeen productions wrote: > but for other venues, my next logical step is to approach art galleries, > restaurants....office parks...anywhere where an "installation" style > "performance" would be more suitable. > > you will never be able to loop in a crowded smoky bar. no one will >listen. > you can't open for the local prog band...no one will listen. The first looping gig I ever played was a pretty bizarre one, about a week after I got my Echoplex; I was set up next to the beer line at the Cal Arts Halloween party last year. This wasn't some git-together in the dorm basement type thing; the school approves a $15,000 to $20,000 budget each year, a sizable amount of which goes towards alcohol procurement. (They purchased 25 kegs for the five-hour party and had to get more in the middle when they ran out prematurely). My gig was basically setting up at the side of the room where the kegs were and making a lot of noise. Given my location, I had what you might call a captive audience, as there was a *long* line for the kegs. The funny thing was that people were actually very much into the music. At one point I saw some folks (albiet in states of less than complete sobriety) doing some sort of wierd interpretive dance to a particularly ambient loop that was set up. Another guy kneeled down between the stereo speakers and just blissed out for a couple of minutes. One or two people came up and asked to play a few notes. (They did not find consummation for these wishes). It was an interesting gig, because I could get away with soloing over a one-bar percussion loop and drone line for half an hour with no problems (every guitarist's secret dream, right? ;} ), or put the thing down and check out the rest of the party while the music went on. One guy actually felt that the sort of abstract music I was playing was good music for people in a line to listen to, since it didn't reinforce the sense of "Oh Hell, I've been waiting in line for fifteen minutes!" sense that a conventional series of tunes might instill. I had a great time -- up until somebody sloshed beer on the mixing console. And to this day, I *still* run into people who'll say, "Oh, yeah, man, I saw you at the Halloween party last year!" A lot of people assumed that I was playing to some tapes, but that's almost more of a compliment than anything else. So there's an example of a noisy, beer-soaked, rowdy performance environment where looping can work. I just hope I can get some plastic bags to cover the mixer next time... --Andre