Completely bogus live performances

[MoireBass]

If a band doesn't bother to show up with enough players to cover the necessary parts, and doesn't bother to choose/rearrange the songs to use the people they do have - why should I bother to get up off the couch, put on pants, drive to the venue, search & pay for parking, and then pay them an exorbitant amount of money?

If all they're going to do at the concert is play the CD or CD equivalent, well I can do that at home. Without pants.

If the future is all Milli Vanilli - pretty people dancing around to tracks, I don't think I'm qualified.

 

[Paul New]

I do not like basically any current pop music, and have not since…forever. The music business is marketing to the lowest common denominator, and the product really has very little to do with actual music.

I hope someone can change my mind, but the last time I issued that challenge someone offered Harry Stiles.

 

[B String]

I'm hopelessly old-school, and in solidarity with Elton John. Either you put together a good band and play live, warts and all, and let it rip, or stay home, whether you're playing Bud's 19th Hole down on the corner, or Wembley or Madison Square Garden.

Period.

ESPECIALLY at the mortgage payment prices for tickets today.

I've had (have) a number of friends on the Elton John gig. They've all been top level, experienced players who try their best to kill it on every show.

 

[wazzel]

I walked in to a bar and there was a cover band playing. They sounded great. Upon inspection of the band, no one was plugged in. The only people actually playing live were the drummer and singer. The "keyboardist" had a backing track he would start for every song. Two guitarist, a bassist and the guy sitting behind the keys were faking it, and badly at that. We left after a few songs.

 

[Lance Bunyon]

I walked in to a bar and there was a cover band playing. They sounded great. Upon inspection of the band, no one was plugged in. The only people actually playing live were the drummer and singer. The "keyboardist" had a backing track he would start for every song. Two guitarist, a bassist and the guy sitting behind the keys were faking it, and badly at that. We left after a few songs.

That's pretty weird.

 

[pepj]

I recall a band spending all day recording the track live, and then miming when it went to 'air' but it was their 'live' track. So we are in that kind of territory here but for basic gigs, if you can't play live then its a No from me.

 

[DigitalMan]

I'm fine with backing tracks. I am not ok with pretending to sing or play an instrument while charging people to see you do so. There are rare cases where it's understandable, like in a TV studio or sports halftime show. But if you're on tour and charging today's concert prices, there sure as hell better not be anyone faking it onstage. That's fraud.

 

[bdplaid]

Let me preface this by saying I have nothing against the use of backing tracks. I think that in some cases they are necessary, for a variety of reasons.

That said, I just saw a "live" clip online of a band performing at a fair that, I guess, is coming to a local venue where I play, since that's who posted it. The band was heavily choreographed and energetic, and my first thought was, wow, they are sure putting a lot into this performance, and it sure does sound tight for a live band doing all that dancing.

Then the lead singer stepped over to the side of the stage, moved the microphone all the way down to her knees, and somehow her voice kept on going. Dang. THE WHOLE THING IS FAKE.

Now, maybe these are the same people who went into the studio and recorded that and maybe they're going to do a real performance here, but I wouldn't bet my lunch on it.

Is this the future of "live" performance? Makes me sad if it is.

Again, I have nothing against backing tracks but, at a minimum, I want to know that something coming off the stage is real. And also, who puts such an obviously fake clip up as a promotion? The whole thing seems contemptuous, as though audiences are not smart enough to notice.

I thought about posting something in the comments, but it's not my circus.

My wife saw a virtual band in a hotel in Amsterdam last week. No people, all videos of individual players.

 

[Spectrum]

Karaoke in a bar with friends can be fun. Paying a bunch of money, waiting in traffic to stand in a crowd and watch karaoke pass itself off as live, not so much.

 

[Pdaddy1978]

Shall we throw in fake "live" album's??
As in.... most of them.

 

[2112]

Is this the future of "live" performance? Makes me sad if it is.

It's not only the future but it's also the present and past. Acts have been playing to tapes for variety of reasons since the advent of recording and playback. I'm also not a fan, but I understand why it's necessary from time to time.

If you look at it from the strict standpoint of a performance's purpose being to entertain an audience, then the whole thing boils down to a question of whether the audience was or wasn't entertained, regardless of how the performance was crafted or delivered. But, if you expect the performance and/or pieces of that performance adhere to your own personal preferences for how performances are crafted and delivered, then I would expect that you, as a musician, are going to be disappointed. Just like I would be.

In particular, I do not like performances that are billed as genuinely live and/or performed by the actual recording artists when they are not (e.g., Milli Vanilli)... in other words, don't lie to me.

In the case of TV performances, I don't automatically consider anything I see on TV as genuine anyhow, so I'm not surprised or offended when I find out that a "live" performance was actually played to tape.

I'm good with backing tracks much as I am with sequences and samples. And synthesizers. All of these things are created by humans to deliver pieces of a live musical performance. That their sounds aren't necessarily created acoustically, and many times not even in real time, doesnt bother me. But, for the purposes of live performance, I do prefer that they are triggered and delivered, by humans, in real time during the actual performance.

 

[Lance Bunyon]

You realize that American Bandstand was lipsynched...

 

[Nev375]

It's called "showbusiness" for a reason.

It's easier, more reliable and therefore more profitable than talentbusiness.

 

[retslock]

Let me preface this by saying I have nothing against the use of backing tracks. I think that in some cases they are necessary, for a variety of reasons.

That said, I just saw a "live" clip online of a band performing at a fair that, I guess, is coming to a local venue where I play, since that's who posted it. The band was heavily choreographed and energetic, and my first thought was, wow, they are sure putting a lot into this performance, and it sure does sound tight for a live band doing all that dancing.

Then the lead singer stepped over to the side of the stage, moved the microphone all the way down to her knees, and somehow her voice kept on going. Dang. THE WHOLE THING IS FAKE.

Now, maybe these are the same people who went into the studio and recorded that and maybe they're going to do a real performance here, but I wouldn't bet my lunch on it.

Is this the future of "live" performance? Makes me sad if it is.

Again, I have nothing against backing tracks but, at a minimum, I want to know that something coming off the stage is real. And also, who puts such an obviously fake clip up as a promotion? The whole thing seems contemptuous, as though audiences are not smart enough to notice.

I thought about posting something in the comments, but it's not my circus.

We’re in the era of the spectacle. Authenticity is only one casualty. What we do is almost irrelevant in a streaming, instant gratification world. Performance entertainment has reached a sort of Busby Berkeley meets A.I. Point. The spectacle is all.

 

[JKos]

I've come to the conclusion 90% of the audience just doesn't know.

I’ve come to the conclusion that 90% of the audience doesn’t care.

 

[LBS-bass]

The Who were one of the first bands to use backing tracks in live shows. In the 60s they ran a bass track for a song where John Entwhistle played French Horn. Then they started using pre-recorded organ/synth tracks in the 70s-80s for songs like "Won't Get Fooled Again", "Baba O'Reilly", "Eminence Front", and others.

Yeah, I didn't want to get too far into the weeds but The Who is the tribute I was talking about upstream. You can't do a tribute to them without tracks if you don't have someone who can play those parts, and The Who didn't, so it's hardly a requirement.

 

[LBS-bass]

You realize that American Bandstand was lipsynched...

That's been pretty thoroughly covered here and elsewhere and mainly had to do with technical limitations in television studios at the time. We're not talking about that here, this is a band that's playing with full FOH support on a big stage at a county fair in 2023.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Nope, go back to Bony M, to have the first well known example of that. Of course, seeing as how Bony M and Milli Vanilli were both produced by Frank Farian, that shouldn't be that big a surprise.







I don't know if this has English subtitles, but maybe if you switch on the CC.

Ironically, in the first video the narration is also fake, in the sense of not a human.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

My wife saw a virtual band in a hotel in Amsterdam last week. No people, all videos of individual players. View attachment 5140280

If you are going to fake it, have a believable number of left handers in the band.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Karaoke in a bar with friends can be fun. Paying a bunch of money, waiting in traffic to stand in a crowd and watch karaoke pass itself off as live, not so much.

Sometimes it's not fun if it's watching tired old versions of bands do it live. I've seen oldies do it well (King Crimson, Rolling Stones) but many do it badly. It's also raining very hard so I'm glad I'm not at a festival.