Re: leaving the stage -- was Re: CONSTRAINT OF RANDOMNESS

[Larry Cooperman <coop@newmillguitar.com>]

On Dec 3, 2004, at 8:43 AM, David Kirkdorffer wrote:

>
> Andreas Wetterberg wrote:
>> -btw, has any of you ever walked on stage, set up a cool loop, then
>> strolled off to the bar and brought back a beer? Cheap gimmick, but 
>> I'm
>> a bit of a sucker for those.
>
> Yes.  But I stopped doing it.  It tends to draw attention to the wrong
> things, in some ways making the performance more like a circus act or
> something.

Not if you leave a loop so debilitating that while you have a beer and 
talk to someone, all attention is focused in between and therefore 
intriguing.  I solely depends on your sense of tension.  This is no 
gimmick but performance art or mindfucking stand up comedy that is 
weird.
>
> Different people react to the gimmick differently.  On one extreme, I 
> was
> asked not to come back to a particular club.  At that club I had two 
> 1-hour
> sets with a looping didgeridoo player, with a 30 minute break between 
> them.
> We left our loops running during the break.  Because we did that, the 
> club
> was not sure if we actually were playing any music before.  They 
> thought it
> was in some way dishonest and not representative of the kind 
> performances
> they wanted to promote.

Then you have done an important thing not to be asked back.  I wish I 
would have been there.  Me too, although I haven't not been asked back 
with my group but we drove out all of the neighborhood beer drinkers 
because they are old hippies.  But the young college students that were 
left were all for it and stayed.  This was in Fresno.

We, on the other hand made strange music constantly and there was no 
doubt that we were going to play through at least 45 minutes.  Our 
music is so debilitating that old hippie beer drinkers can't play 
billiards.  I am an old hippie.
>
> On the other hand, it is good to be able to get a beer when you need 
> one.
> :-)

Now this looks like a question of low self esteem.  I mean you have to 
have, at least, slow self esteem to not give a crap what anyone thinks.
> Larry Cooperman
New Millennium Guitar
http://www.newmillguitar.com