[Dancecult-l] liveness

[Adam Walker]

It's amusing this topic has come up this week because I recently (the 
weekend before last) attended our annual Winter Solstive festival.  Over the 
past few years, it has developed into probably the biggest music festival in 
tropical north Australia.  Normally, this event would showcase mainly djs - 
of which some would play live sets - however this year was the first year 
that they officially included live bands.  Almost everyone that I spoke to 
mentioned that seeing these live performers at the festival was definately a 
highlight.  Also to mention is how in Australia we have some EDM performers 
who actually play live instruments in their set.  DECOY - a stand out act - 
are  progressive psytrance artists who play lead lines using live soprano 
sax, while groovin to the deep bass lines of live double bass.  THE BIRD is 
another, dnb act that use live drums, guitar and sampling.  Not to mention 
the live brilliance of INFECTED MUSHROOM who I saw a few months ago.

Bring on the liveness!!

Adam


>From: Michael MacDonald <halfsharpmusic at yahoo.ca>
>To: slightly muddy <slightly.muddy at virgin.net>, 
>Dancecult-l at listcultures.org
>Subject: Re: [Dancecult-l] liveness
>Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:54:45 -0700 (PDT)
>
>This is a really interesting question. Since you mentioned Glastonbury and 
>then asked about 'liveness' I have to suppose that you equate festival with 
>liveness. I've been working on festival culture for the last four years and 
>there is a reallying interesting disconnect between liveness (going out to 
>see a performer or group at a live event) and a festival. For instance it 
>is very common to hold a festival event in Canada during the summer and 
>draw 10-15k people. However, if you were to take the main headliners of the 
>concert and put it in a venue you would draw less than 400. I just started 
>working on EDM this year and so far, with very few examples mind you, I'm 
>noticing the same results.
>
>All this to say that 'liveness' and 'festival-ness' do not seem to be the 
>same thing. One festival director I interviewed called this the 'eventer 
>effect' that is when people are drawn by the human spectacle of the event 
>instead of the advertised musical entertainment. Some Canadian folk 
>festival have actually stopped advertising their lineups because they have 
>noticed that it doesn't affect attendance numbers. This does not seem to me 
>the case for any event that is held 'in-doors'. Which seems like a unusual 
>pre-requisite however these types of events seem to work best when held in 
>outdoor environments.
>
>Again, since I'm just starting to cross over from folk festival research to 
>explore EDM festivals I can only suggest what I've seen up till now. I 
>should say that my decision to cross over was not my own choice. It was 
>because there is a certain percentage of the audience that attends both 
>festivals and more artists ,at the request of younger artistic directors, 
>are performing at both. I would be very interested in the thoughts of other 
>list members.
>
>Michael MacDonald
>University of Alberta
>Music Department
>Ethnomusicology
>PhD student
>
>----- Original Message ----
>From: slightly muddy <slightly.muddy at virgin.net>
>To: Dancecult-l at listcultures.org
>Sent: Monday, June 25, 2007 4:39:25 AM
>Subject: [Dancecult-l] liveness
>
>this is really directed to non-uk members of the list:
>In Britian there seems to have been a resurgence of, not to say
>obsession with live music in the past year or so. The past weekend has
>been marked by virtual blanket media coverage of the Glastonbury
>festival, for example. Whilst I am aware of other festivals and such
>like in the US and Europe, I wonder whether the emphasis on liveness is
>a phenomenon to be found in other parts of the world?
>
>p g-b
>
>
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