Your Favourite Live Performances (No Concert Footage)

[grindy]

Fans of fusion and/or prog should check this out.

[Saulaac]

Nice one, Grindy. Fuckin good

[grindy]

For the jazz fans:

[Saulaac]

Stabat Akish, a french zeuhly jazz prog band, had a brief run a few years ago. They were the dog's bollox as far as I'm concerned. The band members have since split up and regularly morph into new things, which is not a bad thing imo:

Edit: I forgot to mention that this tune is called Vortex which was on their first album, released under John Zorn's "Tzadik" label in 2009. I've heard a lot of good things about John Zorn and really need to check him out more.

[Lexi Darling]

I know I'm technically going against Suburban's aim for this thread, but I didn't see a dedicated thread for live performances that also included concerts.

I was just blown away by this performance, so raw and energetic. As someone who has managed an electronic instrument rig onstage, it's not easy working with synths, drum machines, electronic drums, sequencers and live instruments in that setting, even more impressive given they were working with 1985 tech. This is such a great example of live electronic music and it makes me miss being in bands.

[Lisnaholic]

I know I'm technically going against Suburban's aim for this thread, but I didn't see a dedicated thread for live performances that also included concerts.

^ Yeah, I feel like you're good to go with a concert performance, especially as I'm not sure that Suburban comes here anymore: his last post in this thread was in Dec 2023.

I was just blown away by this performance, so raw and energetic. As someone who has managed an electronic instrument rig onstage, it's not easy working with synths, drum machines, electronic drums, sequencers and live instruments in that setting, even more impressive given they were working with 1985 tech. This is such a great example of live electronic music and it makes me miss being in bands.

^ That's an interesting glimpse at your career as a musician !
I wouldn't have used the phrase "raw and energetic" to describe that New Order performance, though. I think I would use words like "controlled, polished...studio-quality sound" as that's what New Order seemed to be aiming for: impeccable musicianship, which they achieved in spades. On second thoughts, "energetic" is fine for describing the pulsing electronics that keep the whole song really bouncing along. Personally, I could've done with more glockenspiel, but it's a great performance, which I think I'll be downloading to play loud in my car - and there is no greater praise than that !
Thanks for the rec, Lexi !

[Lexi Darling]

^ Yeah, I feel like you're good to go with a concert performance, especially as I'm not sure that Suburban comes here anymore: his last post in this thread was in Dec 2023.

^ That's an interesting glimpse at your career as a musician !
I wouldn't have used the phrase "raw and energetic" to describe that New Order performance, though. I think I would use words like "controlled, polished...studio-quality sound" as that's what New Order seemed to be aiming for: impeccable musicianship, which they achieved in spades. On second thoughts, "energetic" is fine for describing the pulsing electronics that keep the whole song really bouncing along. Personally, I could've done with more glockenspiel, but it's a great performance, which I think I'll be downloading to play loud in my car - and there is no greater praise than that !
Thanks for the rec, Lexi !

Glad you enjoyed it!

In terms of sound quality I can certainly agree with that. I'm talking more about rawness in terms of the performance; the little imperfections and timing discrepancies that come with humans interacting directly with analog synthesizer gear. Electronic music often comes out as more clinical, precise and digitally quantized, particularly a lot of stuff made with modern gear that has smoothed out the imperfections of older, technologically limited gear. Which is perfectly valid as an artistic intention, but compare the New Order performance to something like the video below and I think what I mean by 'raw' in electronic music context should be pretty apparent.

[Lisnaholic]

... I'm talking more about rawness in terms of the performance; the little imperfections and timing discrepancies that come with humans interacting directly with analog synthesizer gear. ... but compare the New Order performance to something like the video below and I think what I mean by 'raw' in electronic music context should be pretty apparent.

Any imperfections or timing discrepancies passed me by completely, Lexi - so all that rawness was lost on me.
I listened to about 40 mins of Ben Böhmer (admittedly as background music while otherwise busy) which was a smoother, dedater type of electronic music,  though more than its flawlessness, I noticed how intrusive the audience applause sounded to my ears. That reminded me if TDream's Ricohet, which says "recorded live" on the cover, but has all audience noise removed from it - which better conveys those ethereal, sublime sounds imo.   

[Saulaac]

After reading TH's prog thread about One Shot, I went a bit deeper into Magma's past, and watched with glee this concert in 1981 at the Théâtre Bobino.

(My favourites are "Who is my Love" and "Otis" around the 49:50 mark.)

It's a long concert. Although I liked this jazz pop disco side of Magma, I don't think the majority of Magma or long-term prog fans really appreciated it. That said, I think it was an important intersection in pop jazz fusion, so that listeners could embrace all kind of jazzy proggy metal sounds into their repetoire.

[Saulaac]

And my error but I should have been more switched on when it came to their Otis and Bar-Kays rememberence. Who would have thought Magma would have nodded their hat to Shaft? Who would have thunk that?
Well only the funky mothers who existed before identity politics got involved. That is all I will say on the matter for the foreseeable.

[Saulaac]

Well, obviously a damn fine tune from the Jay Kay outfit.

Music of the Mind (Live at Glastonbury, 1993)