There is something that really irks me about dance music. Sure, I get that these amazing mind-boggling sounds are a symbol of the human race’s ability to marvel at it’s own technological achievements... and the beats touch your soul or something, but why go see it live?
Daft Punk have several albums that get regular plays in my personal collection in a variety of situations, but when I went to see them play live I couldn’t help but feel like I had just paid over $100 to watch two guys dance around a lot of flashing lights, albeit very impressive flashing lights.The same goes for Justice. Their debut album ‘†’ was filled with sounds nobody had heard before and pushed the boundaries of live music, but could two people play it “live” without a fair chunk of it being sequenced? Un-bloody-likely.
This is why I chose to ignore their tour when they came to Australia. Why bother going to see it “live” when I could listen to the same thing in the comfort of my own home?
I am not impressed by flashing lights. Well, that’s not entirely true, I am, but not enough to spend my valuable time watching them when I could be watching live music played, well, live.
If I hit a button on a sampler loaded with Daft Punk’s robotic voice in their track ‘Technologic’, it’s going to sound exactly the same as if they did it themselves... or if my dear old grandmother pressed it for that matter. If I pick up Keith Richards’ guitar, I can’t instantly play ‘Gimme Shelter’ (and nor can my grandmother). Hell, even Keith himself doesn’t play it the same every time. How could he?
Which in its own long-winded way brings me to my point. Justice. Playing “live”. According to dance music website www.beatportal.com, Justice have been faking their live sets and they have pictures to prove it.
The “live” pics show the duo exerting a lot of energy, jumping around and looking generally sweaty. Only one problem, their gear isn’t plugged in.
This comes just a week after the duo admitted there were over 400 uncleared samples on their album. FOUR HUNDRED uncleared recordings of other people's music, that they took and put effects over until it was unrecognisable.
This is an act that has such disdain for their audience that they'll take their hard earned money, fool them into believing it's a live show and then dancing around a bunch of impressive looking (but unplugged) gear will claim to be giving the audience value for money.
This seems to highlight to me one of the fundamental problems with electronic music. I saw Daft Punk twice, once in Sydney and once in Melbourne (like I said, I’m a fan), and both shows were EXACTLY the same, note for note, beat for beat. Daft Punk obviously pre-recorded (or at least sequenced) an entire set, and just play it every night. How do we know they weren’t “pulling a Justice” and just dancing around unplugged gear?
How can any of us watch this music “live” and really believe it’s live? People talk about the “atmosphere” of the gig. Well Daft Punk at the Myer Music Bowl to me had the atmosphere of 14,000 people dancing around a really big stereo.
I’m going to continue to listen to Justice. I’m going to continue to listen to Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers and a whole list of other acts, but paying hard earned money to go see them “live”? To these bands I say simply, proudly and loudly: get fucked.
