Re: making a spectacle of yourself

[Victor Nicholls <victornicholls@mac.com>]

Carsten Wegener <carsten@tyfoo.de> said:

> After five years of  playing the same 60, simple folktunes/songs with 
>just
> my good, old doublebass (and still finding new approach in a  very 
>detailed
> way of looking),I now come the point to have the freedom to really work 
>on
> my performance. What i want to sayis this: The more complex the music 
>your
> playing and the techniques you are using, the longer it will take to 
>become
> a good musician and performer in the same time. For me the consequence 
>will
> be trying to simplify my setup, my music. I believe this way IŽll 
>naturally
> find an more audience-friendly way to perform my looping.


I think this is interesting. I only really started to tour reasonable sized
venues around Europe with a seven-piece jazz-folk band playing complicated
stuff in odd time signatures (5/4, 7/8 etc). It was where I had to learn
about stagecraft at the next level from pubs/college clubs. I dont remember
having to concentrate on getting the music right being a problem, ; all 
down
to being rehearsed properly.

I do agree that having a complex set up can get in the way. One reason why
i'm reluctant to take out my rack is the fact that it can look cluttered,
and because I haven't found my own way to make this interesting visually.
Therefore, the DL4 gets more use than the JamMan/RDS. I'd love to know how
other people have found a way to incorporate their gear into their
performance in a way that looks interesting to the audience.

v