Comments on: Hercules & Love Affair @ The Metro

By: Saturday Night Fever! « MiS | Moving in Stereo

Saturday Night Fever! « MiS | Moving in Stereo — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 03:02:42 +0000

[...] 21 minute live set from the entourage of beat makers. I regret to this day deciding to not attend their show last year at the Metro. After viewing their rooftop throw down, I just kicked myself again. But this time, even harder. [...]

By: bigbernardo

bigbernardo — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:20:56 +0000

I’ve always felt the more movement on stage the more exciting. Honestly the shift towards laptops really has been quite sad…I remember the days fondly when going to see a live act meant actual use of various musical equipment. I also remember my first techno/house nights when you would see DJs running around the booth, digging through crates and manically moving their arms all over the decks, mixer and effects…Nowadays you’ll go see a ‘live’ and it’ll be some pale dude in a deep v-neck staring at his macbook and flipping switches on his controller…Not quite the same impact sadly.

By: james kartsaklis

james kartsaklis — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:10:45 +0000

i don’t know that i’m into performance for dance music groups, but i do wish more experimental supergroups (like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6vb3eWsemM) would record/tour/play one off shows. performance, to me, is more enjoyable in the realm of headphone/home listening music… with dance music, the relative anonymity / decentralized focus of the dj booth is more appealing.

By: hutlock

hutlock — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:57:34 +0000

Yes, amen to Eric. Having grown up seeing all those acts he listed (808 State! New Order! Depeche Mode!), I really stopped going to gigs for the most part when this transition happened (well, and the fact that I’m in Cleveland and no one ever comes here helped). I hope more acts take the lead and go with an actual performance.

By: Tim Stephans

Tim Stephans — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:28:58 +0000

This show was fantastic. One of the best I’ve been to all year. I could have used another 100 or so people there, but that’s my only complaint.

By: Jason Rule (harpomarx42)

Jason Rule (harpomarx42) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:57:23 +0000

I agree. I’m glad to see people like Tobias, DBX, Half Hawaii, Galoppereinde Zuversicht using an all-hardware setup. Yes, laptops can be a lot more versatile (look at Cobblestone Jazz) but let’s make performers work for their money!

By: ebenoit

ebenoit — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:40:23 +0000

i think it’s sad that everyone has grown so unaccustomed to seeing electronic music live in some sort of band configuration… i miss the days of depeche, soft cell, human league, omd, 242, etc. performing with racks of equipment. it carried on at least into the mid nineties with 808 state performed with racks of equipment and dancer, the orb was a huge event, orbital was always genius, psychick warriors of gaia, etc. it seemed to go all a bit too laptop/dj in the late 90′s… outside of the warp stable like autechre, boards of canada, plaid, etc. and for the record, i have nothing against the laptop performance; in fact i think carsten nicolai is one of the more commanding presences in that context, but it became an easy option for a lot of performers i feel. even though all those reasons i am aware of, it still would be nice to see a bit more ‘performance’ and a lot less ‘smile and pose’. though i wouldn’t say i was the biggest fan of hala, it is great to see electronic dance artists bringing back elaborate shows to the masses, hopefully they will remind other electronic artists that yes, they can perform shows and not just dj or mouse-click all the time.