How do you live?

[The Mysterious Creep]

I've been thinking about live performance as of late, particularly since I sent an application to Norcal Noisefest for this October (haven't heard back so who knows). When I do my live noise sessions on video I'm usually just fucking around (AKA improvising if you want to be serious about it) with some general degree of familiarity with my equipment. They don't come out a whole lot different than the stuff I don't record. Sometimes I draw up a loose map of where I want the performance to go, but the piece turning out like what I drew up is no guarantee. I've never played a real noise show before, so I've never had to deal with a very restricted set length or putting on a "performance."

Obviously noise is a wide field, as well as one where few artists take the approach of "compose a song and play that composition's identifiable parts the same way each time" like a rock band would (I think I heard Pharmakon does that?). In that spirit, I wanna know how you perform: Improvisation or structures? Extensive practice or live discovery? Do you play "from the record" or assemble an entirely different setup for a show? Breaks for banter with the crowd or just nonstop blasting? Are you in fact the kind of freak who memorizes every knob turn and contact mic scrape to play the same "song" multiple times? Share away!

[PortiaPorcupineFan]

The few times that I played live, I would get a set up configured a month or two before the show. I would spend plenty of time getting to know how it all worked together. So, when it was time to play, I could just get into it and have fun. I tended to not get involved with audience interaction. I only did that once. There was also one time where I abandoned my original plans in favor of winging it with something else entirely. It was a fucking disaster and I didn't do that again.

[RUBBISH]

I know what I'm going to do for my next live set..not streaming but in front of an audience. Its rather simple but will be fun and look and sound crazy.

I also have a concept piece with another person that we've been discussing for a few years...The $10 million dollar law suit reading.

Some thing i had planned before covid ruined live shows was this metal milk crate on a 6 foot chain I was gonna swing and bang around in a dangerous manner...will get around to that eventually and in the right space...a cocrete floor...would look good on video or streaming.

Generally I have a vague idea what I'm gonna do and I do have some bits I can do repeatedly like for example ripping tape out of a beltless tape player or using the spring cages that have several of.

I was thinking for any new streams that I want to do something outside.

[FAP]

Adequately.

[NoiseWiki]

Well generally speaking it will be a preparatory jam which is also a gear check. If I'm adding something really new this would be more extensive. For my recent and only virtual set I've done so far I set up multiple cameras to record the live set and then edited that footage along with footage that was projected. I also shot some extra video of things I didn't capture live.

One of my future sets I plan to video tape the performance if discreet elements that will be mixed and combined to form the video and audio at the same time rather than edit video to a single track of audio. I'm pretty excited about this and hope I can pull it off.. definitely need to get off my ass to make it happen. I finally have my lab almost to where it needs to be.. there is at least enough floor space now to do what I have in mind.

[The Mysterious Creep]

Adequately.

I was waiting for someone to mention the ambiguity of the title.

[RUBBISH]

Jamming or improving with other people I think helps with being able to just pull something out of your ass that isn't a total turd.

I like the idea of noise groups.
In a group or duo if one person messes up the others will carry the rest of It if they're any good at all.

Being able to fuck up and carry on is a good thing to learn and its pretty much all mental so if you can make it 5 or 10 seconds you'll be past that fuck up.
ive noticed that what seems a fuck up to the performer isn't so much a fuck up to the listener and it is live and noise so just work with your fuck ups and use them to your advantage.

Although I'm generally not a fan of what goes for experimental music these days(there are some amazing great experimental audio artists of course) but experiment as much as possible the worst case is you break burn up some gear...lol.

I would suggest going to tall..totally... nuts a few times and see what happens.
As in with no care if you get bloody or things get broken.

I will also hesitantly (keep your physical and mental health in mind) suggest altering you consciousness and making sounds but don't use it as a crutch because that's just stupid.

[Fire of the Mind]

To take a page out of Keith Levene's book: If you keep repeating a mistake, it's not a mistake anymore. Just general advice, but I think live noise can really thrive on this mindset.

Personally, I'm torn between my love of absolute simplicity in one's setup and the sort of manoeuvrability that creates and having as much weird bullshit and as many people at hand to create as much raw sound as possible. To that end, having a personal setup which could fit on a bedside table alongside a couple of other people doing a lot of different things which they can handle by themselves without too much micromanagement seems ideal to my goals. The main concern is having everyone roughly on the same wavelength aesthetically even if they're each in their own little worlds, but that's a matter of knowing the right people more than strict logistics.

As for songs or pieces versus pure spontaneous improvisation, I'm inclined towards a little of both? I write a fair bit of poetry and do come up with semi-musical parts which I'm interested in reproducing, but the execution ideally ought to be its own beast each time, and sometimes just having a concept, a certain sound palette, and maybe a few set words is more than enough.

Now, actually *getting a gig* is an entirely different question, and in past circumstances has, on my part, largely been pure luck and more than a little gall. Very little of the content of those performances quite falls under the noise umbrella, but it was there, along with a certainxe2x80xa6 "performance art" element.

[banned]

everything i've ever recorded i've released and not edited, so i guess it's all live. i would decide on a set up and - due to the stakes involved - jam with it for a few hours before hand. and hope it works out! the worst thing that can happen is you completely lose control, which, given the situation, may be desirable anyway. gl

[parasitenurse]

For live stuff I'll usually record myself jamming a bunch until i get a solid 7-10 minutes of material that i like and i'll meticulously practice that same 7-10 minutes with a timer going for weeks before performing it live. If a part feels like it's dragging i stop and restart and tweak what i'm doing slightly until it doesn't feel like its dragging because if it feels like its dragging to me i can only imagine how it must feel for an outside audience. I wouldn't say i memorize every knob twist and turn but I always have a basic outline of what it is i'm going to do, the speed at which the sounds will be changing, quiet and build up parts, etc. But i tend to be a bit neurotic about it because performing gives me a boatload of anxiety despite generally enjoying it. Props to those who fully improvise.