But did the protester have a point? Should we be grateful for this interruption? Do we give a fuck? really? 
if the music is being played completely live?

After all its been made entirely on a computer, quite possibly the one they've got in front of them.

Obviously the aforementioned scenario didn't actually happen although the proposed campaign is real enough. Brainchild of progressive stalwarts and minimal commercial trend-chasers Marcus and Sabastian of Son Kite. According to them "only a handful of trance acts play properly Live" (as they do?) and this causes the problems they have with some promoters not properly catering for their extra requirements.

As a former guitarist happy to slap a Musicians Union "Keep Music Live" sticker on my guitar case in the late 80s and quick to ridicule any notion of a band miming on stage, I'm all for the idea of performed music being as live as possible and I sincerely hope it moves in that direction. However calling musicians who've spent days and weeks creating tracks comprising a complex vorti of multilayered original sounds matured in oak production vats "Fake Live Artists" for playing their tracks as audio from a computer is going a bit far.

What do they mean by "Live' anyway? Constructing new sequences on the fly?  Unlikely. Singing? - please don't!!  No, more likely its the ability to mute and unmute mutliple pre-made tracks on a computer-based sequencer, preferably using a knobs and faders midi controller with a couple of flashing lights on it (so we know its switched on). And possibly tweaking effects levels or dropping in random samples, although they could just as easily be spreading margarine on slices of bread for all we could - (or should?) - tell.

Its worth bearing in mind at this stage in the argument that progressive minimal music (like Son Kite's)  uses far less sounds and effects than full on trance and is on average a full 20 bpms slower thus making it alot easier to replicate live (if thats what you want to call it) from the computer sequencer rather than an audio file. However, artists pushing the limits of current computer specs, (as alot do) are far more at risk of computer crashes when attempting the same feat.

Just to confuse matters further a number of artists are starting to use the aptly named 'Ableton Live', which blurs the distinction between live mixing, audio playback and sequencing, giving the possibility of various degrees of Liveness.

Maybe this is the way forward and will keep the self-righteous grumbling minority happy? We certainly don't want to regress back to a couple of 303s and a drum machine however much we liked it at the time.

Personally speaking, lay on a bit of dry ice, a dynamic lightshow (with strobe) some awseome music, a couple of pills and a laptop-centric nodding duo and I'll be happy (in about half an hour).

Just so long as there are no interruptions / crashes etc to ruin the moment.

©Dave 'Matchstick Man' Griffin