Tronic @ Blackfriars Basement, Glasgow or 'How to play live with a computer'

In the spirit of exploring everything that my new home has to offer, we headed down to Tronic's monthly night at Blackfriars Basement in the Merchant City last Friday. Tronic is a "live music night set up to promote and showcase all styles of innovative electronic music" and there were four acts that all took a slightly different take on how to present electronic music live.

We arrived just in time to catch the end of Araya's set which was just upping a gear and got the crowd nicely warmed up. I was a bit disappointed that it was the stereotypical 'could be checking your emails' electronica set up with a man at a table hunched over a laptop with little interaction with the crowd. This got me thinking about how to 'do' live electronic music because its a really hard one to get right.

The music from all four acts was really good. From the chilled electronica of Dextro, polished layered textures from headliner Christ and the more uptempo beats of Satellite Dub who finished up. I was a bit distracted after the first act with how each performer was actually 'performing'

Dextro had a slightly more interactive setup with a side on stance, keyboard and some live guitar although the guitar playing was all done with his back to the audience! This may have been due to the lack of monitors so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Still, I often think the 'man behind a table and a laptop' stance creates too much of a barrier between the crowd and the performer so putting things side-on helped a lot although there wasn't much eye contact still.

Christ went for a slightly different tack. He had a live drummer and he himself was playing keys with both seemingly playing to a laptop based backing track. To provide a bit of visual interest they also had some pre-set visuals playing on a TV in the middle of the stage. It was the most visually interesting so far, with Christ himself rocking out and obviously getting into the music freed from the need to stare at a screen to control samples but it also seemed to lack some spontaneity, giving the feeling that they were both playing over a rigid backing track with little space of happy accidents and looseness that makes live performances really 'live'.

Satellite Dub went for the pared down option of a controller and laptop, I assume triggering samples and scenes from Ableton Live by the look of it. Despite this minimalist approach I thought he got he closest to pulling off a 'live performance'. I couldn't quite put my finger on why - maybe it was because the music was more uptempo, maybe it was because everyone had a couple more drinks but there was certainly more energy in his performance than the others. I also heard what I thought were a few mistakes in tweaking parameters and firing scenes. The thing was, that actually lent a more live feel. This guy was flying by the seat of his pants, you could tell he was, and that seemed to add a certain something to the whole feel of the set. I think the other major thing was that he wasn't engrossed in his laptop screen the whole time. He was controlling most things using just his custom looking controller which is waaaay better in my opinion that hitting keys on your laptop, even if you're actually doing the same thing.

So, how to perform a good live electronic set? Well, its a lot harder than it looks and I have ultimate respect for all four guys for getting up and doing their thing live, whatever the outcome but I reckon there's a few thing that I'm going to aim for when I get round to sorting out a live set:

1. Don't hide behind a table and a laptop. This might not be possible but I think it just creates a barrier between you and the audience that puts you at an immediate disadvantage. Even just turning the table diagonally so its not straight across helps I think.
2. Set up your laptop/controller high. Again, difficult if you're at the mercy of the venue but setting things up high enough to be standing up rather than hunched over your laptop helps to give you a stage presence rather than hunched over in the classic electronic musician email checking pose.
3. Get a mic. This is something that I've noticed from some hip hop DJs like DJ Z-Trip. Even if there's no singing or MCing in your set, just saying 'hi' at the start and 'thanks' if people cheer and clap makes a connection with the audience that just isn't there something with electronic music performances.
4. At least give the illusion of spontaneity. This is vital I think. If people feel like you really could be checking your emails whilst playing a CD then you're on to a loser with the casual observer. If you're sweating profusely, hitting buttons and tweaking knobs and somehow making it sound as though this is being contructed before your very eyes, this energy will be transferred to the audience pretty quickly. How to do this? I'm not sure yet but you instantly know it if you see/hear it.

So, there's some sage advice from someone who's never played live in their life so please take it all with a pinch of salt and feel free to dismiss it in an instant if you want. I should repeat though that all four acts have balls of steel for doing what they do and they all contributed to a great night. They also inspired me to get my act together and work out a live set for myself.

Definitely going to check out Satellite Dub at Bar Bloc on 24th July so we'll see how the people playing there do it too...