Played my first live gig for … uh … 9 years? last night. Well, I say live, it was a live P.A. The laptop knew what to play, I just had to shepherd it a bit. It froze a number of times in a 20-minute set, something it had not done until the night before the gig. Great. Met a guy who had had to reboot his powerbook in front of 12,000 people supporting Kraftwerk so I think I got off lightly.

The line up of the evening was

DJ Pippa Murphy
IMP (dropped out)
Namke Communications
Robomanuk (me)
Voiceless Public
Skeletor
Kreepa & Black Galaxy
Tombola

TOMBOLA?!

It was a strange night. Ergo Phizmiz was a guy with a shaved head, a powerbook, and no charisma, Skeletor were a couple of student types with a bank of equipment, high concept, and no charisma, and Kreepa & Black Galaxy were… well, they were something else. Right to left on stage were Simon, with a bank of electronics including a mixing desk and some interesting effects, which were applied to the trombone noodlings of a bloke called Hillary, next up, then after Hillary was Nick, who had an electric guitar laid flat on a table, which he played with a suede brush, playing card, name tag, stick, knife, etc, and finally John and the Kreepback device. The kreepback device is essentially a collection of broken kit, with all the wrong bits wired into other bits. If featured a tobacco tin with knobs on, a biscuit tin with two huge metal bolts sticking out, which “affected” the sound in a way most like, but still unlike, the way a theremin works. During the set he would alternate between leaping about like a mad scientist, either trying to tame or torture the kreepback device; and sitting hunched and rocking like a loony when the device stabilised, listening for clues of it next impending break for freedom.

The opening was great, though all the sounds being produced were arhythmic and unmelodic, the musicians were paying attention to one another and there seemed to be structure in the evocative soundscape they were producing. That and John’s antics were enough to sustain interest for nearly half an hour. Unfortunately it felt to me like there was a moment where all the band went one way and John went the other. The kreepback device is so dominant that the rest of the band had to go along with him, and the dynamic seemed to be lost for a moment.

I think their set could do with some respite after about 20 or 30 minutes I was crying out for everything to drop back, and for some sweet melodic work on the trombone, but it never came, and after a while I found my senses shutting down from overload.

A drunken Namke and I had our favourite “what is art anyway?” discussion then proceeded to set the world to rights with respect to what’s a performance. I now know that a P.A. (personal appearance, which is what I effectively did live at that gig) is NOT what I really want to be doing. I think that’s part of why it’s taken me so long to gig my material. What I get out of performing is interaction with the crowd, other musicians, and the instrument. I think that’s a lot of what the crowd gets out of it too.

Trouble is, my concept of a 20-minute set played entirely on a sheet of steel is a lot more expensive and time consuming to compose and rehearse than a bunch of synthesised dance music on a laptop, at least it is once you’ve bought the laptop.