I've played in bands, and written music, and have recently become involved with techno, and the phenomenon of "Live PA". For those who aren't familiar with the idea, the "PA" stands for "Performance Art", and it's basically about performing music live.
Live music! What an incredible idea! And to think, I thought I've been watching bands play live for years.
Yeah, the idea's not new of course, but the problem is that most of the traditional justifications I can think of for live performance (from the audience's perspective) are gone. The "live" in live techno ranges from trivial to non-existant.
A friend of mine said, "if you can't screw up, it's not live." That's a pretty liberal definition, but even so, a large number of live performances don't even meet that criteria. There are the Live PA guys who have a sequencer and just fake it on stage. Much like the big pop acts these days. Sure, it'll make money, but what does the audience get out of it?
Before we get to how to please the audience with live music, we've got to decide why we're performing live in the first place.
Many artists, myself included, prefer to treat MP3s and CDs as marketing, distributing them for free, or to cover expenses. To these artists it's the concerts that provide them with a living.
This argument hasn't held up since the record player hit households everywhere. Just buy the album -- cheaper than a concert ticket, and reusable.
The DJs have killed
Almost any time you see a performer play a smaller venue, you'll see a small crowd of people not dancing and standing around the performer. Sure, you'll find the usual groupies and hangers-on looking for whatever second-hand recognition they can get, but if you look closer, you'll see another group. The other musicians checking out the guy's gear and his talent. Stealing tricks and just appreciating what he's doing.
The old saying goes, "no only must Ceasar's wife be virtuous, she must appear virtuous." The same goes for performers. Not only must you be making the techno live, you must also appear to be making it live. Showing up with a laptop and mouse doesn't cut it. I can move my mouse around the screen too, and it doesn't really impress anyone.
Laptops aren't anathema to Live PA, but the mouse is. Dump it. Get some good MIDI controllers, and learn to use something like {Max http://cycling74.com/products/max} or PD to make controllers handle what your mouse used to. If people hear a sound when they see a key pressed, they think you're making music. If they see a knob twist as the filter sweeps, they get it. They don't get the little mouse motion at all.
Cameras help. Don't try to get wide angles -- the audience already sees that. Zoom in tight on your hands, or the places where your hands spend most of the time doing interesting things. One over your faders, for impressive transitions, or one looking across your keyboard if you play a lot of synth lines. Give the audience a close-up of the action.