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PERFORMANCE
July, 1992 - June, 1993
This is based on
a submission to the 1st
edition of the KZSU zine.
Are bands obsolete? The rare, collectors
item issue.
All too often live music acts as an
energy sink, turning the crowd into
zombies. They stand very still,
and pack themselves as close as
they can, all staring in one
direction. Talking to each other,
is of course, out of the question.
Is this any better than TV?
But at a rave, or any DJ dance VISION
event, people move around RAVES
interacting with each other,
dancing, talking... in general they
seem much happier.
Just like electronic amplification
made the symphony orchestra
something of an anachronism (you
don't need a whole violin section
anymore just to be able to hear
them), increasingly perfect
recording is making the live band
an anachronism. And the newer
electronic instruments make this
even more obvious... when you watch
someone strum a guitar you know
what's happening, but in comparison
the ways of Techno are infinitely
mysterious.
Meat Beat Manifesto satirizes this:
they say "Now it's time for some
*improvised* music" and then walk
across the stage to flip the switch
that starts a complicated dub beat.
808 State completely gives up on
the issue, and hides behind huge
oval screens spelling out "808",
cranking the smog machines as high
as they'll go.
But to make money it's necessary
for these bands to tour. For some
reason, it isn't enough to get
radio play, or even to put out the
dance hit of the summer (no one at
a rave can tell what record is
being played, anyway).
But what about improvisation?
Isn't there room for spontaneous
interaction between the audience
and the band?
No, not much. The endless tedium
of the typical jazz improv that
sounds just like every other jazz
improv testifies to this. Really,
carefully composed, produced music
almost always sounds better. NEWTHINGS
Most bands train like crazy in
order to reproduce their recorded
sound, all the while putting on a
show of freshness and spontaneity
on stage.
("Despite all the computations--")
The Milli Vanilli "scandal" shows
how ridiculous the situation is.
There are rumors that Madonna lip
synchs about 50% of her shows, but
why should we care if it was 100%?
Madonna's act has more in common
with a broadway show than a
traditional rock and roll band
anyway. Why not abandon the lie
that anything spontaneous is going
on here?
Or consider Nine Inch Nails: one
guy, Trent Reznor, by messing NINE
around with some gear in his
bedroom managed to do a decent
entry into the Skinny Puppy school
of industrial dance music. The
result was so popular that they had
to create a band to imitate the
sound, and this cover band was what
was wowing them at Lollapalooza,
under the name of Nine Inch Nails.
But there are a few examples of
performances that really work.
Einstuerzende Neubauten is an
industrial band that relies more on
physical percussion using
industrial artifacts, rather than
computers. When you watch them
pound on random pieces of steel, or
pour buckets of gravel over a
plywood ramp, or run a fan with tin
cups attached to the blades
regularly clanging against
strategically placed brushes...
you develop an immediate, visceral
feel for how the music is being
produced. It's a powerful assault
on the the barrier between music
and "noise"...
San Francisco's Sharkbait also does
an excellent job working in the
same direction, but they add some
theatrical touches, like exotic
dancers and fire-breathers.... and
more importantly, pass out random
chunks of metal and drum sticks to
the audience, allowing them to
pound away with the band.
But anyway, maybe in general I'm
missing something? Could there be
some subtle interaction between the
audience and the band that I'm not
taking into account? After all,
recently I've had fun with ace
punksters like The Gits, the
funk/punk masters Cone of Silence,
and the industrial gothic sounds of
the Switchblade Symphony...
But still I have a sneaking
suspicion that the rock and roll
band has no clothes.
Maybe it's time people re-thought
what a stage is for...
Why not:
Put MIDI triggers on part of the
dance floor, using the audience as
part of the beat.
Have a screen behind the stage with
graphic displays of the status of
every instrument sequenced and
every sound sampled, so the
audience can follow what a
performer is doing.
Combine the art of the music video
and the documentary, to bring the
audience's level of understanding
of music technology up to date.
Rescue the concept of musical
theater from the cheesy clutches of
broadway shows with hybrid
live/recorded art forms like San
Francisco's God's Girlfriend, which
gets a nice industrial drone sound
from one guy singing and playing
guitar in front of effects boxes.
Hold a rave with cameras above each
turn table rotating in synch, to
display the record's label on a
screen behind the DJ. And how
about some booths there selling
recordings of this music?
Build a full-body theremin, an
instrument that converts the motion
of a dancer on stage into sound.
Doom's incoherent conception of the
purpose of music is illustrated
every Thursday night from 9PM (or at least,
to midnight on KZSU. it used to be.)
Outraged responses from musicians that
still want to be the Beatles can be
emailed to doom@kzsu.stanford.edu or
mailed to The Doom of KZSU P.O. Box B
Stanford Ca 94309.
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