Performance: ur doin it rong...
From the original Analog Industries archive. Some links and images from that era no longer resolve.
Okay, so let me tell you about this show I went to last night. I won’t say where it was or who was performing, as when I do that it tends to come back and bite me in the ass. But suffice to say that it was one of those nights where you look around and just say to yourself “well, this is a sad state of affairs right here.”
The issue at hand is thus: when you combine the words “performance” and “art” in to “Performance Art,” it apparently gives you license to have no skills, yet still receive admiration. I find this whole thing faintly ironic, inasmuch as all performance is necessarily art, and most art is performance. Yet when you call it “performance art,” it opens up a whole new thing, where neither performance nor art actually occur, at least by anything I’m able to measure it by.
I’d like to think of myself as a fairly well-rounded individual, when it comes to the ability to perceive art. While it’s true that I’m pretty jaded vis-a-vis the performance of live music, having sat through several thousand shows by virtue of my twin careers as a musician and lighting director/designer (the latter thankfully now no longer part of my skill set), I think I’m astute enough to know “good” when I see it, whether I like the music or not.
Last night, I cracked the local weekly arts-n-entertainment rag, and noticed there was a show that was described as “live electronic music with visuals.” Now, I’d never heard of any of the acts, and I certainly didn’t expect Juno Reactor or Underworld-scale shit, but I think with a description like that, most of us would conjure a mental image of a nightclub setting, with, well, visuals and live electronic music.
On the one hand, what it turned out to be did actually fit that description. On the other, when you hear the words “canned food,” you don’t necessarily automatically think of this, do you? (Although you will now and forever more, and you can thank me for that.) The performance, taking the “art” aspect out of it, which took place in a fairly nice venue with a good PA and room to move, consisted of a person sitting at a table. Upon the table was placed a Phattboxx 2300. The person sat there for roughly 45 minutes, poking out fair-to-middling grooves (and I use that word with its loosest possible connotations) without pause, while a bedsheet tied up behind the performer showed what I assume was a video of out-of-focus headlights going by.
The audience, god bless ’em, was at rapt attention the entire time, and responded at the end of the set with long and loud applause and cheering. This was the most intriguing thing to me. If this had been a proper dance club and a proper live PA, the performer would have been booed off the stage maybe 3 minutes in. I’ve seen it happen, and if you frequent this sort of event, I imagine you have too. The interesting thing here was the context, because it was part of an evening of “performance art.” I won’t go in to the absolutely over-the-top pompous pretentiousness of the other acts, but suffice to say that they were more along the lines of what I expected for “performance art.”
At this juncture I could actually make a point, and if I did, it would be this: if you suck playing live, call what you do “performance art,” and the standards for what you need to do to entertain the audience drop fantastically. That isn’t really what I’m trying to say, though, so I’ll skip on by that for the now.
What I’m really trying to say is this: sitting at a table staring at the readout on your grooveboxx, occasionally poking a button, is not performance. It is barely art. The audience, bless their little hearts, are paying money to be entertained. Your job, as an entertainer, is to do something they’re not willing or able to do themselves. I do realize that we could easily veer off in to Jackson Pollock territory in the conversation that is about to ensue, but here’s what it comes down to: just because you can get away with a show made of losercakes covered in failsauce doesn’t mean you should. Push the envelope. At least knock over a mic stand or something. Living right on the edge of what can feasibly be delivered to the earholes of the people standing there staring at you is where the money shot is.
(A final note: if, for some reason, you’re able to deduce the show I am talking about, please don’t post the artist and venue. While it is, in fact, their fault, I don’t see how this post would help their situation any and I don’t necessarily bear them any ill will.)
52 comments
I can't tell you how many times I've felt ripped off when I pay $15 to see a "Live Set" and it's just some idiot staring at his MacBook Pro. You gotta try harder than that! At least, if you're only going to rock a laptop without ANY other gear, get a projector going and show us what the hell you're up to. I'm guessing you're probably just updating your facebook with "Laptop Geek is getting paid to do nothing at Club X!"
Good post man.
I'm always eager to see "performance art", yet when it is billed as such it always disappoints. The only times I've liked it is when it didn't apply that label to itself.
In academic circles the same phenomenon happens with "electronic music" or "experimental composers." They always suck. Their standard of good and bad doesn't exist. There is no self-editing. The ruling attitude is: I spent time on this, therefore it is good. Clap politely when I'm done.
A good warning sign of this kind of performance is when the announcements of the performance bill it as a "world premiere" yet you've never heard of the performer.
As an addendum, I'm wondering if, despite my years of experience with live PAs specifically and live performance more generally, I'm perhaps missing something.
The surprising thing was _not_ the suck of the performer but the response of the audience. I'm a fairly well-known artist in the genre I chose to identify myself, and I've had audiences of thousands of people with massive pits and thousands of dollars worth of merch sold that didn't receive the applause and cheering this performer got.
I'm left with the nagging suspicion that perhaps they were in to the whole "god is in the details" thing, but I'm not. Either that, or the average live PA in PDX is so remarkably bad that this was considered "good." I suppose that's possible, but I doubt it. Something else was at work here.
-CR
I guess I'm kind of baffled, too. I mean, was the music something the arty types are really in to? Is this dude relatively famous? (try as I might, my Google-Fu is failing to get me retroactive concert listings for the city in question)
That said, if this is what the crowd likes, maybe there's a good chance kickin' over a mic stand and "livin' on the edge" (heh) of what the audience will put up with would go over like a fart in church. I picture row upon row of crossed arms and oh-so-bored looks.
Could be worse-
I think my biggest gripe about laptop performances, are the breed that simply push "play" for a pre-recorded set so that they can flail about madly on & offstage, jumping into the audience & screaming gibberish into a microphone- as if no man-made platform could ever hope to contain their 'craziness'.
Such sets are usually accompanied by sampled 128kbps mp3 gabber kicks and "ironic" samples of banjos & accordions.
Different billings = different audiences. Maybe this accounts for the reception this person got. I can totally see a bunch of art and theater/film fans being impressed by boring electronic music, especially if they haven't had much exposure.
Plus, people tend to be a lot more polite and respectful to "artists" than they are to musicians, IMHO.
And, yeah. Computer based performance is tricky. I have a lot of respect for people like Venetian Snares who don't even try frontin', and instead just DJ their tracks. That at least is more entertaining than watching someone stare blankly into their laptop screen.
Yeah, Robin is on point for this; the circumstances definitely were the "watch me create ART" kind of vibe. That said, as someone who watches, listens to, and creates electronic music, and has since 1982 or so, I can say beyond any shadow of a doubt that the music that was being created was definitely not anything higher quality than you see in the gear demo videos you see on YouTube. You know, the ones where the guy says in the comments "I can't play for shit, but I just wanted to show everybody how this Grooveboxen works."
I dunno. I've seen a lot of shit performances in my time, but this one put me over the edge with the shit:response ratio.
-CR
In my youth I spent a lot of time on the art circuit in parallel to gigging in warehouses full of face-chewing punters who were actually enjoying themselves. In recent years I've dipped my toe back into the odd art-noise event at the invitation of friends. I usually find myself fulminating within about 20 minutes.
If somebody is going to make a noise like wallpaper - fine, great, there a place for great wallpaper; but do not put seats down so we must all stare at the wallpaper. Wallpaper is not to be stared at. Do not glare at me when I exit the wallpaper admiration room.
On the audience:
I have a very bad opinion of art audiences. To my charred and blasted mind 'art' audiences use their chin stroking and golf clapping to indicate that they are 'intellectual' and sophisticated. But a hardened art-goer never seems to dislike anything. They don't actually express any taste at all, everything is equally valid and good.
Never mind that what we all listened to had the sonic appeal of a cat scraped down a chalkboard, run through a Chinese distortion and played back at bone crushing intensity. This is all valid and good. Just like the previous man who was hitting a tape-deck with a hammer for four hours. Well done that man.
An art audience gently applauding squeaky gates is just as tragic as an accountant purchasing that mid-life crisis Ferrari. Both of them attempt to convey a sense of being 'above the hoi polloi' , both fail so tragically that it is comic. Christ, just buy a hat that says "I'm clever" and be done with it.
I feel I may have been to too many of these art things and therefore my response is a little too vehement.
actually. nah . it isn't
Probably the guy had all his friends show up, hence the big applause. Something about having somebody you actually know doing cool-ish things brings out the IMPRESSED in people. Most people. Not me, though I'm usually appreciate too.
The only shows I bother paying for these days are the local "early music" concerts. They're staged in a former barn that was relocated and rehabbed as a banquet hall, and feature live music by serious Rennaissance music performers. Lutes, crumhorns, and even weirder olde instruments, and no PA system at all. Now *that* is performance, and I'm never disappointed. It's one thing to see somebody poking at a laptop, quite another to see somebody playing an instrument that takes serious dedication just to acquire let alone play.
And by the way, while I'm not into electronic much at all, the phrase "just because you can get away with a show made of losercakes covered in failsauce doesn't mean you should" pretty much sums up why I check this blog on a daily basis. There's performance and there's writing.
@angstrom: I agree with your "on the audience" section, essentially the same thing is what bothers me about so many blues fans. They align themselves with a genre and nothing in it can be bad. I can't tell the number of people who take issue when I say I don't really like B.B. King, or that SRV's tone kind of sucks.
also, the whole thing reminds me of this:
http://www.picturesforsadchildren.com/index.php?comicID=196
This story reminds me of a live PA on a fuckin desktop..complete with ikea desk.
Sometimes the DJ is in a wrong place at the wrong time. I was at Soundfactory in NYC and this guy was spinning oldschool Robert Armani tunes to sooo the wrong audience on the main floor. Best of Robert Armani double 12" to be exact. I fuckin loves Armani tunes. Beep over distorted 909.
I think "Losercakes Featuring Failsauce" is currently on the BET Top 10.
Is it possible you missed a bowl labeled "free drugs" on the way in?
One must always prepare oneself for a performance art or 'spontaneous music' concert by taking a pillow.
You realise it's been a good gig when the next face you see is the security guard shaking your shoulders telling you "C'mon buddy, we gotta close the theatre."
I've been to two in my life. I wish they had the adult equivalent of a creche, say, a Laughing Room. Both times I stormed out holding back the tears of hysterical laughter.
The Magus said it beautifully "An appearance wrapped in chrome". Yep, can't copyright the word "Art", or "BS" for that matter!
Cheers
I personally think scraping a cat down a chalkboard, sampling it live, and playing it back at bone-crushing intensity would be far more entertaining and sonically appealing than most of these types of shows. The logistics alone would make that worth watching.
I agree with that sentiment. I was definitely in the mood for bone-crushing. Now, I'm no expert or anything, but the music that resulted from this performance was essentially the same as taking the various demo songs from the unit in question and running them at half tempo.
I'm not even remotely exaggerating that, unfortunately.
I've seen powernoise performances consisting of one dude with the exact same unit that were absolutely face-melting. This was not that. I think it's worth noting that the person doing the performance was not from PDX.
-CR
In theory this sort of thing can be academically interesting, if the music being built is interesting and expressive. I rarely find it engaging unfortunately. Hey, at least they bothered with the bedsheet and headlights.
In other news, you're now the number one search result for Phattboxx 2300!
I'm just waiting for said performance artist to post here with a curt "That was me, you Philistine!" It's so going to happen...
This thread has me in tears!
FWIW the Tokyo equivalent of this is packing the same number of people into 1/4th the space and the "artist" is inevitably nude save for a loincloth, completely shaved and their body is covered in white paint. If the "artist" is female then the white body paint will also have some red splotches. As they do whatever it is they are supposed to be doing, they contort their face into a rictus which still manages not to show any particular emotion.
The Phattboxx 2300 will start and stop at what looks to you like random intervals and often it seems that one output line has intentionally been frayed. Of course since this is Japan, you didnt pay the equivalent of $15, it cost you more like $50 for this experience.
(as a side note, since you are the top ranking hit for Phattboxx 2300, may I suggest that the next AD plug reflect this glory?)
@angstrom:
Coincidentally, there actually was an indie band named "wallpaper" who played a gig thursday night in Portland, but I doubt that is the show that Chris is talking about.
I think Phatboxx 2300 is also in BET's top ten this week.
"Wallpaper is not to be stared at. Do not glare at me when I exit the wallpaper admiration room"
SUPREME!!!!!!!! stomach hurts from laughing...
If there is one thing I have learned from living in Portland is that 90% of the bands are really really bad.
this is kinda why i ditched using Live on stage and went back to technics + TTM57SL. i got the "doing something" back, but also all the nerdy geeky loop/fx shit i had with Ableton. its like ableton on turntables really, and it keeps me from getting bored. its been my experience that as long as i don't get bored, those who paid to see it won't either.
"its been my experience that as long as i don't get bored, those who paid to see it won't either"
Words for me to remember since I'm off to DJ tonight
i've recently tried to push the envelope by performing live sets with 'art' as the content and intention to clubbing audiences.
the last attempt resulted in a near riot, with at least 20 'ravers' attempting to forcibly remove me from the stage.
while being slightly scary, both performer and audience got to experience that edgy emotional response that is often lacking from such things.
:#
"its been my experience that as long as i don't get bored, those who paid to see it won't either"
That's actually a great point to consider even though it's so fundamentally simple and obvious.
I've found that the same thing applies to both performing live and making music. If you're really into it and feeling what you're doing at the moment when you're doing it, instead of just being pretentious or trying to get your "job done" or whatever end you're trying to achieve, and you have an audience that is into the particular type of music, you're probably going to get a boatload of good feedback. And if you have an audience that isn't hostile towards the type of music and have an imperial fucktonne of kicks and fun while making / performing songs, you might even "convert" some people in the process.
/agree
@planes -- Newsflash: 90% of the bands _anywhere_ are really, really bad. PDX is no better or worse in that regard. The groups that I've seen do tend to take on an air of vapidness that is kind of exaggerated given the context, and I'm sorry but a 22-year-old with a full-on Grizzly Adams beard just doesn't scream "WRAWK" to me, but otherwise 90% is a pretty good average, all things being equal.
-CR
+1
@planes
Wow. I gotta say: if you're hitting anywhere as low as 90%, stay in that city!
Most cities, the figure hovers around 99% and is often 100%. When it drops to 90%, that means one out of every ten bands is good. And that results in legendary scenes like lower Manhattan in the late 70s, with Talking Heads and Blondie and Television and the Ramones, etc.
I suppose this all depends on scale of what is considered "good." Or, maybe more precisely, a defining of terms. "Good" to me means "will be remembered in the future."
How many local bands anywhere merit that characterization? Y'know?
- c
Also, everyone on this blog is phattboxxier than me.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
- c
This situation kind of sounds like Oasis to me. When Oasis first came out I was all, this music blows. The Beatles rule! Now that I'm older I realize that Oasis did write some pretty good songs but on top of that a lot of people didn't have the context of where they came from. To them it just didn't matter because they didn't know any better. And now we have the pleasure of bands that sound like Oasis but are further removed from the Beatles. This "principle" if you will can be applied to many things such as performance, art, or performance art.
In the end, if the music is and sounds really good, does it matter if the dude up there on the stage is just pressing play? If the music is weak, does it matter if the dude up there on the stage is making it all happen live with shitloads of wires and synce'd up machines?
.:k
Well, I have this quote to add;
"Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art."
-Tom Stoppard
Sounds like your guy didn't quite rise to the level of modern art according to this definition. And yes, he's your guy now.
Like others have said, sounds like a cross between "everything is good" and the audience just not knowing the genre enough to know good from bad. "Ooh look, he's making music with ELECTRONICS. This must be the future".
I agree (and laughed) about the blues thing. Over the years, as I listened to more varieties of music, I realized I didn't think that much of BB King's music either. But SRV's tone sucks? Even though I'm not a big fan of the music I think that's a pretty good sound.
Potentially controversial question: who is phattboxier, Obama or Beauty Pill?
Ahhhhh well "art" is all about the "process"...quite often audiences of performance art are gasping and marvelling at the "process" whilst giving the actual result a bit of a free kick..
This is where "art" can fall down - when it's a bit of a wank, the actual music and performance have to be as entertaining as the ideas and process...something muso's who don't feel they have to waffle on about their "process" take for granted...they just create without constipated intellectualism propping them up. This is why you weren't "in" on the golden egg being laid..
It's possible to learn something from musicians and composers who treat their craft as a more cerebral excercise...Eno, Laurie Anderson etc..but then you hear that new U2 track and you think...all the art installations, clocks of the long now etc - in the world dont help a sucky song.
Ok I'll take my " " and fuck off...
Perhaps the performance art wasn't on stage but rather the "audience reaction". Maybe it was all meant to be a huge mindfuck.
Most cities only about 2% of the bands are any good. It just happens if you live in a bigger city like New York, LA or Chicago it's 2% of a higher total number.
Are these percentages the result of a scientific calculation?
.:k
.:k
It's pretty close, I think there might have been a rounding error converting to metric Good Band from Imperial and a few decimal points off because of the ratio of irrational numbers to imaginary in the calculation.
Did you pay attention to your sig figs at every step from data acquisition onwards?
If I was only to judge by local openers at SMG shows, the number is more like 99.999% in every city in the United States and Canada, but then again industrial isn't one of those genres where "good" trumps "earnest." In that it is very similar to hardcore and hip hop.
I'm absolutely certain that it can't _actually_ be 99.999%. Most cities don't have 10,000 bands, right?
-CR
I don't know. I've known some guys who were consistently in about ten bands at a time if you asked them. That was particularly common in the hardcore punk community. "Yeah, I'm the bassist for Splatterhouse, I bark the vocals in Lone Wanderer, and I do drums for Nuclear Fallout. But right now, I'm working on my solo acoustic project. It's called Heartcore, have you heard of it?"
@downpressor..this type of performance art is called 'butoh' which is essentially the result detonating nuclear weaponry on a county, so at least the japanese have an excuse. (not that it makes bad butoh any less painful)
of the genre the performer Katsura Kan is kindova one man naked in white paint Tool, w/ out the rock, as far as what he can convey to an audience goes..
More like the "performance artists" try to legitimize themselves with the coat of paint of butoh.
Yeah, I checked out some apparently legit butoh on youtube and it was pretty hot, thanks.
Isn't technology great.
The Jefferson's even ran here in Australia for a while...
the tune is reasonably well known
hah whoops wrong TB
Performance art always reminds me of that scene in The Big Lebowski...
Regarding performance art, I once went to see Robert Fripp perform at a local theater. The show was basically Robert playing major scales through a delay/ loop effect while a slide show played behind him. I really like the guy's work which is why I showed up to see him, and he was really nice, and his music was pleasant to listen to. It just seemed that the audience believed that because it was Robert Fripp it must be somehow something only he could do. I was fairly certain that anyone with the technical ability to play guitar well and an understanding of basic musical scales could have played music that was about as good. If I had walked into an art gallery Fripp was playing in the corner I would thought it was wonderful, but to sit and have to pay attention to it was a little boring. He even said something to the effect of "I can't believe you all sat there and listened to that for 45 minutes"! I do understand that he probably invented the whole looped/ layered solo guitar thing. I guess my point is, if an artist puts out the vibe that they are doing something that only they can do, people will applaud like crazy. Even if what they are doing is obviously not amazing to the trained eye/ear.
I saw Fripp do something similar about ten years ago. There were exactly two truly excellent 5 minute stretches, where everything he was doing fit together perfectly, surrounded by around 50 minutes of much of what you describe--major scale plinky noodle whoosh.
I'm generally more interested in amorphous loop noise than I am in Robert Fripp, so I had a nice enough time, but it must have been killing the "going to see a rock god" types in the audience.
I've been a fan of King Krimson for years, but oddly, I had never heard any of Fripp's solo frippertronics. After reading this thread, I did a search and found this video on youtube which left me speechless:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSStufx6jYU&feature=related
If his normal live tape-loop performances are anything like this clip I would have to disagree with the sentiment in this thread. That was fucking incredible. It nearly brought me to tears it was so good. I can only say, "Holy Shit! I can't believe I've never looked into Fripp's solo stuff before." Thanks for pointing it out.
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