What makes music live, to me, is going to a venue and watching performers on stage playing live instruments together (for example drums, bass, guitar and vocals) with the audience experiencing the liveliness of it; no live performance is the same. With the use of electronic equipment like drum machines and the ability to loop tracks, one could say that the performance is no longer “live” since there not many or no live instruments being played by someone, in my opinion using different electronics make the overall performance more interesting since you can see the artist using it on stage.
Chet Faker performing “1998” Live on KCRW
This Chet Faker performance was filmed in a small studio. The artist performed by himself using only a Korg synthesizer, 3 effect and drum machine pads and his own vocals.
When watching the performance, one can tell that the artist didn’t pre record his instrumentation, he is controlling every instrument sound he has on his effect pads and making it feel like a live performance instead of a normal music video or even a performance in which the artist already has the instrumentation recorded beforehand.
What makes this performance feel live is the fact that not only he is using his various electronics to make the base sound of the song, but he is also adding and taking away effects when he feels like it; he is also using the looping and layering of the instruments to his advantage, which allows him to play some chords on his synthesizer keyboard and sing. He does this throughout his performance.
Although there is not much interaction with the audience, or in this case interaction with the camera, this still gives me the experience of liveness in a performance. I say this because at about 0.52 seconds the artist makes a small mistake, he attempts to play the keyboard but forgets to turn on its sound and has to, on the go, turn it on and not mess up the song. Additionally the vocals also make this performance feel live due to him singing into the microphone, using the electronics at the same time and us, the audience, watching him do so.
Mariana Bagulho 