Squonk
My wifes school put on their yearly Irish Pub Evening that is really a 'Fundraiser", but the parents dont mind donating funds on Kilkenny and Guiness etc.
My Point (I dont know if I have one) is, the previous year the performers were Stuart Irving (Ex Ballyhoo) and Cindy Alter (Ex Clout) who entertained for four hours or more with nothing more than 2 acoustic guitars and their voices, very average guitarists but quite strong vocally.
This year they had a professional band that specialise in corporate functions etc, very famous, internet page etc.
Lights, smoke, vibey, flashy, LOUD etc. There were instruments, but nearly all the music came from the Laptop.
For obvious reasons I preferred the previous years Act, which IMO was hugely more entertaining and had REAL instruments.
Then in the course of the evening, a lot of people, young and old, commented that they preferred the "Real Muso's" and the BAR took a dive in takings from previous year as well ?
I AM IN NO WAY ATTACKING BACKING TRACKS. I know there are people on GFSA that use backing tracks and it's their bread and butter!
I suppose the age group should be taken into consideration, the parents all varied from late twenties up to early forties.
The type of event, it wasn't a night club, or bar type event, it was more an entertainment event, and it was good to see that a lot of people preferred the "Real instruments" over the computer generated backing tracks!
Still don't know what my point is ?
I think I am more of a purist than I think I am... :-[
ezietsman
I don't think backtracks in acts are evil at all, but it depends on the execution of the performance.
In Cape Town there are a couple of acts that frequently perform in bars/restaurants etc. The one guy plays quite frequently at the German restaurant at the Waterfront and he sings and plays his keyboard along to backtracks. Its a little bit annoying when he's there cuz his backtracks are cheesy and he walks around and tries to 'entertain' people by sitting at their tables and so forth.
There's this other guy called Francois who does the same except he plays his guitars along to backtracks. This guy is in another league altogether. He plays very very well and sings well too. In fact, I've made effort in the past to go to a place where he was performing because I knew that would be a lot of fun (He plays guitar like he means too, if you understand that)
So I think for a thread with no point, my non-point would be that some acts will use any old backtrack they can find and just sing along to it -> boring, cheesy and others will make it their own and fool you into thinking there's a full, well rehearsed band that enjoy (and know) what they're doing -> lots of fun
?
