What do you want from a live performance?

Noise, pretty lights. Quantities can vary.

Leather pants.

I'm a simple soul - actual humans performing, a view of said humans (ie banked seating or, if standing, nobody above 5'7" standing in front of me), and waking up next morning without a stiff neck and with my hearing intact.

Decent sound quality on top of all that = best gig ever.

I want some beer. And I really want that fucking asshole standing behind me to shut the fuck up during songs. Why do people go to shows and then talk the whole time? And to top it off, they STOP talking when the song is over and applaud. Fuckers.

PERFORMANCE. Like MASONNA going insane.

I don't want to feel bored by bands playing "old hits". To me that equates with miming your songs. Why rehash everything in a way already done by you? Do some new stuff in each performance for fuck's sake.

A mixture of familiarity and surprise. Charisma. Attention paid to the rhythm section, but not indulgence. Some sensation of group interplay if it's a group. If songs are to be the focus of the evening then make the lyrics and melodies audible. If beats are to the the focus of the evening then let them be slammin'. If textures are to be the focus of the evening then for mercy's sake make sure the amplifiers and acoustics can cope. If dancing and costumes are to be the focus of the evening then make them spectacular. A venue with character. Seats and standing options. A good bar. Performers who talk to the crowd. And if you're going to have a fucking film or a slideshow then for gods sake make it at least half as long as the intended performance.

That's my minimum.

That new song that doesn't have a title yet.

Rubbish, Tim. You have to know all the songs so you can sing along loudly and annoy all and sundry.

Oh but Ally, you haven't heard this new one yet. It's fantastic.

1. A good ratio of new music to old favorites, most of the time I would like this at 2:1

2. Variations on those old favorites, instead of playing them as is.

3. At least one cover.

4. Vocals that I can hear.

5. Eccentric frontman backed by a technically precise group. Frontman goes off, other members reel it back in.

6. I like for the band to talk in between songs, with the audience and within the group. 7. Audience participation

8. At least one encore.

animal corpses. dancing.

Tim,

Is it the same one as the one called Haunted Melody? I guess not, but I have never heard the latter & the "like ghosts" line & the Scott Walker reference made me wonder.

Mooro: dunno. I only know the new one as the new one.

There is a general point here too, though. I do like bands to play new material and in-progress material. I'd much rather that than some perfectly-rehearsed set they've been playing forever.

I knew someone who went to see the La's something like 26 times. Of those 26, they apparently played the same songs in the same order 23 times. Or something like that.

Oh, and no encores. I really hate encores.

If it's Rock : I want a Jesus Lizard Show, around 1994. Perfect.

If it's Electronica: I want someone in a bunny suit, covered in chocolate and fake blood.

If it's Avant-Garde: I want a 12 kz sine wave that will make everyone leave them room, except for the dorks like myself who will sit around trying to surmise what kilohertz sine wave is being played.

If it's Pop: I want all the college kids to go home and destroy their Belle and Sebastian albums.

I want to be harrassed by the lead singer of the band. I want him/her to be able to manipulate the crowd and get them to do stupid crap, such as forming a ring of people holding hands, while the singer seduces everyone in said circle with a plastic shark. i want the lead singer to rip his pants, and force members of the audience to give them their jackets so he can make a skirt out of said jackets. at the end of the performance, i want the lead singer to come out from underneath the stage on a scooter and i want to grab his legs and push him around like we are 12 again. i want all of that in a live rock show.

Confusing, jagged, intricate, undanceable rhythms and a crowd that knows how to dance to them. That and BPM blasphemy.

Cute boys shaking their bums. Hence the Steve Earl gig being a major BUM-MER.

Something scary & gorgeous, like Will Oldham's eyes rolling back in his head & the perfect harmonies on the chorus of "All Around." Audience forgets to try to look cool because they're having fun. Nice pants.

I think every performance should include at least one cover song.

This is an amazing thread! Surprised and pleased that some mix of vocal audibility and intelligibility is being called for. I always wonder why people bother writing words if no one's going to hear them. They should just write strings of phonemes instead, to really optimize the voice as an "instrument" or whatever. This kind of relates to what I want: a band/act fighting through the noise they're producing to communicate something.

speedy surcease, usually

Well I'm not going to a live performance with you.

Instrument trashing. Instrument throwing.

"And you will know us by the trail of dead" are pretty good at this.

And I really want that fucking asshole standing behind me to shut the fuck up during songs. Why do people go to shows and then talk the whole time? And to top it off, they STOP talking when the song is over and applaud. Fuckers.

I especially like the people who talk about other gigs they have seen while the band is playing. (I think I've only heard this at jazz shows.) Then they can go to whatever performance they see next and talk about the show they are now missing while they talk--music lovers. Don't they want to see how much they can hear?

What I want from a live performance is: I want something to happen. I don't want to hear a band play their record note for note (though I have heard people rave about musicians who do this). I like live music that has an element of improvisation. This is one reason I go to see more jazz than my relative lack of enthusiasm for jazz would lead you to expect. (Sun Ra Arkestra are in their own category of course, and I am quite happy to see them.) If the music is largely not improvised, then it's nice if the performers throw in some spectacle: put on a light show, wear costumes, or at least jump around a little. Psychic TV live recodings mostly sound like crap, but the shows were a lot of fun designed to produce the pschedelic experience through the use of light, color [which I sometimes mis-heard as "Paula"], and sound. I remember getting a "non-dancing" friend of mine to come along to a PTV show, and he ended up dancing on the stage at one point (while half the band was in the audience). That was not one of their better shows, either. People who improvise musically and put on a show (like the Arkestra, or like Hassan Hakmoun) get extra credit.

If it's a band playing music that I am dancing too, they don't have to worry about the spectacle as much, since I will be providing part of the spectacle (making a spectacle of myself on the dance floor). I still like the unexpected in live dance music, which is one reason Latin music works for me.

Another way that something distinctive can happen is acoustically. I remember seeing the Steve Reich Ensemble play part of Drumming. Aside from the visually gripping nature of the very precise movements the musicians were making, there were these almost painful acoustic pulses that would develop, something that I never got from hearng recordings of this piece. I don't have the language to describe this, but something weird and wonderful was going on acoustically.

House music!!!!!!

What, Ronan, you want the band to come to your house? ;-)

yep

Free marijuana, preferably very potent.

...and a good, not-too-loud sound mix.

For the artist to start on time and end at a reasonable hour so I can catch the last train!

A nice chair.

I used to want to meet my future wife at a show. It didn't work out that way, now going to shows lacks that element of high expectations.