Impact of lack of live shows?

[Into_The_Void]

After moving to Berlin I reached point in 2018/19 where I was almost fed up with going to live shows, because so much were happening and all these "hipster" infiltrating gigs. I remember in 2019 when I went to Hospital showcase at Berghain I stumbled into ultra regular people who where on honeymoon holiday and were just happy to get into Berghain because you could buy a ticket online. Nowadays with zero happening of course I miss the energy of LOUD music!

hahaha I was there as well! Well, that´s how Berghain works since 2017/2018 actually, I think their door policy is for the 50 % of the cases just a facade of "pseudo-alternativeness", it´s all about the hype. And the Prurient performance that night left me a bit of sour taste, so to say, exactly as the average people attending the show did.

[Johann]

After moving to Berlin I reached point in 2018/19 where I was almost fed up with going to live shows, because so much were happening and all these "hipster" infiltrating gigs. I remember in 2019 when I went to Hospital showcase at Berghain I stumbled into ultra regular people who where on honeymoon holiday and were just happy to get into Berghain because you could buy a ticket online. Nowadays with zero happening of course I miss the energy of LOUD music!

hahaha I was there as well! Well, that´s how Berghain works since 2017/2018 actually, I think their door policy is for the 50 % of the cases just a facade of "pseudo-alternativeness", it´s all about the hype. And the Prurient performance that night left me a bit of sour taste, so to say, exactly as the average people attending the show did.

This idea of "normal" people attending the show is entertaining to me. Once they knew what the average sound was did they stick it out for the show? If so, they probably weren't that normal hah...but Hospital has been a hipster label (not necessarily by design or anything) for the quite a few years. It's both an easy entry/jumping off point into a fair amount and don't they do a bunch of beat stuff now?

Personally though I think judging people for being uninitiated/normal/pseduoalt is kinda silly, especially considering how much noise was at one point focused on individuality (which unfortunately it's devolved into costume kid culture and HXCX crew outsiders). It makes me happy to see people attending shows and getting interested, you never know, this could be the solution to the "no scene" problem...

Also, regarding people that want to set up shows but have no scene, the solution is simple. Diversify your bills, like sure, it's not the same as having all PE or HN, but you'll end up with more people. Some people might be interested in the other and start experimenting themselves. That's the trend in Detroit at least, can go from some kinda stoner dead esque band, to ambient type stuff, to skingraft...stack the harsher stuff later into the evening, with a bigger audience you'd be able to get better pay for artist that are touring and who knows, you might pull some like minded people out of the woodwork.

[Into_The_Void]

This idea of "normal" people attending the show is entertaining to me. Once they knew what the average sound was did they stick it out for the show? If so, they probably weren't that normal hah...but Hospital has been a hipster label (not necessarily by design or anything) for the quite a few years. It's both an easy entry/jumping off point into a fair amount and don't they do a bunch of beat stuff now?

Concerning Berghain, there´s a lot, but really a LOT of people who would see whatever show / dj set / performance just to be able to step in the club and live the "Berghain experience". Can sound silly, still the potential this place has to attract people, and to sell a perfectly designed product, from the imagery to the experience you have within the club, is incredible. By the way, the day Hospital production was hosting the event, the Panorama Bar (2nd floor) was hosting another event, way more "approachable", so probably most of the people who "by error" went to the Hospital night, drifted probably on the 2nd floor afterward.

Hospital Productions has a very vast catalogue and not exactly a clear leitmotiv, so yeah I understand what you mean. Nevertheless, I keep on having big respect toward Dom Fernow and I´m secretly hoping that one day, he will set up an Akitsa show in Berghain, maybe around 5:00/6:00 AM, full dressed in black shirts in front of a super-high, super-polite crowd of techno-kids-whatever: would be one of the most satisfying shows of my life!

Also, regarding people that want to set up shows but have no scene, the solution is simple. Diversify your bills, like sure, it's not the same as having all PE or HN, but you'll end up with more people. Some people might be interested in the other and start experimenting themselves. That's the trend in Detroit at least, can go from some kinda stoner dead esque band, to ambient type stuff, to skingraft...stack the harsher stuff later into the evening, with a bigger audience you'd be able to get better pay for artist that are touring and who knows, you might pull some like minded people out of the woodwork.

Absolutely, I agree. Diversification brings for sure some results in terms of people attending, but for me is very important in a show to have somehow a "red wire" connecting all the acts / project, to have a substantial uniformity but with different artistic expressions.

[host body]

When the pandemic started, I was kind of sick of shows as I've played 5-30 shows every year for the past 15 years or so. I had no energy to go out on a free weekend, preferred to stay at home with my dogs and synths. Now after a year i'm sick of sitting at home and can't wait to go out again. Still, the past year has been very therapeutic and I've loved all the time no shows has given me.

[Duncan]

I don't at all miss the stressful parts of putting on live music - finding a venue, struggling to sort out equipment, worrying whether anyone will show up and you can pay people, figuring out where the touring bands will sleep...none of that is fun and it's only worth doing because it's the only way a particular artist or memorable night can happen in town.

I didn't really find the first year of all the restrictions too tough overall - didn't miss many luxuries, gigs included. I do now miss the social aspects though and yeah, the atmosphere of being around some really good music, perhaps a 2-3 day event of some kind even though these things are rare. I miss and traveling to other parts of the country too and all this has made me realise I want to spend more effort and time on doing so because the UK is small enough to make weekend fun out of traveling out of town for even just a small show.

Despite all of this, I don't miss bad music just because I've not seen it live for over a year. There are gigs of some kind most nights in the city I live and 90% of it - even a lot of the experimental/noise stuff - is quite poor quality. I always really respect everyone's efforts to do their own thing and perform/organise shows even if they're not to my taste, but if it all started up again tomorrow I'd probably only show up for the sake of seeing people and having a drink. It has been really nice to reduce the amount of time spent standing up in front of boring or samey stuff. Since I get a lot more out of home listening anyway I've found the period of inactivity a lot more inspiring than a standard year of what was normal before. For my own stuff I've long felt that the time spent getting stuff ready for a live performance often really takes up lots of time/energy that would be better spent on making recordings or something more permanent. I wonder if this has been the case for anyone else.

[tisbor]

Last year I managed to see a great John Duncan performance and play a show myself, crammed in the few months when it was possible to do something.
It was bizarre to wank in front of a seated audience (of mostly women, even more bizarre) and not be able to walk among them as in an usual Fecalove show.
I do miss traveling for gigs and having the chance to hang out with some of you assholes.

[ekastaka]

I hope shows never come back honestly. The current predicament has been a blessing in disguise. Imposed restrictions requires one to be creative and really brings out the true spirit of underground culture. Friends and I have put on 2 shows since covid started. These shows have been among my favorite as we could really focus on the presentation and mood of the shows. We had total control over every aspect of the gig. I hope to pull together another in the near future and would like to see other people set up their own clandestine events.

[Euro Trash Bazooka]

I hope shows never come back honestly. The current predicament has been a blessing in disguise. Imposed restrictions requires one to be creative and really brings out the true spirit of underground culture. Friends and I have put on 2 shows since covid started. These shows have been among my favorite as we could really focus on the presentation and mood of the shows. We had total control over every aspect of the gig. I hope to pull together another in the near future and would like to see other people set up their own clandestine events.

For the sake of global human and possibly music quality control, I would like to see you attend as many of these gigs as possible.

[tiny_tove]

As some of you know, I have stopped playing live due to tinnitus and other issues about 10 years ago. I did only another performance under a different name for a design event (call me art fag aha ah). I have been thinking of trying to do some caligula031 special events after I was invited in interesting situations, but as soon covid kicked in I renounced.

I have been following live streams and chatting a lot with friends who are really missing that,
Personally, as much as I am allergic to the "scene" word especially in such varied world like the extreme experimental scene, I think the lack of events is surely deteriorating many aspects and also somehow damaging bands who made some little cash by selling merch and having live experiences...

Nobody in noise makes big bucks by organizing and playing live, but surely it is a great way to make network, and simply have a laugh.

As Tisbo says i am missing myself a lot to spend crazy nights with many of you.