Laptop Rock

[blnkbnkr]

Originally Posted by Chaorta

i hate laptop shows.

Agreed.

Way back in the early 90s (around the time of our conflict with Saddam and the Iraqis), me and my high school friends would simply turn around and leave a show if we showed up and saw a synthesizer on stage. Nowadays, synths aren't the icon of bad taste they once were, but I feel similarly about laptops. Maybe I'll soften-up about them in another 10 years.

[smopo24]

i feel the same way about a band with turntables or 7 string guitars; but thankfully it's not as trendy to have those things anymore.

[mbc113]

it depends what the hell you're doing with your laptop. folks who just sit in front of their screens fingering their trackpad aren't that interesting to watch... but if you're using actively using a controller or some other interface then it's not much different than watching any other musican on stage... and you're hopefully making some kick ass sounds that you couldn't get with a typical hardware synth...

what i do hate though is just the random "i'm cool" laptop on stage, where someone is just singing and playing guitar.. and simply has iTunes open, playing back the backing tracks. that pisses me off.

however, if a musician is just siting behind the computer w/o a controller, they're improvising, and the music is awesome.... then great, i might still be able to enjoy the show... but unfortunately these shows are pretty rare, since its pretty hard to "perform" compelling music using only a trackpad... but it's possible.