EDM: Live vs DJ (Simian Mobile Disco Thread)

[know ID yuh]

When EDM acts play live shows, they do their original music, which occasionally features existing music. When EDM acts play DJ shows, they mix other exissting music with their own. They are pretty similar, no?

One side of the spectrum, Chromeo's live show includes live instruments and minimal samples, while their DJ show included no instruments, with many samples. Most EDM acts don't play live instruments though.

For example, SMD do not play traditional instruments, nor do they sing, so how is their DJ show going to be much different than their "live" show? I don't recall a dude in their band singing, "If I had the money to go to the record store I would." I'm sure their light show will be different, and you'll hear a couple Loverboy and Michael Jackson samples, but other than that, what am I missing?

[Pea]

good question, i would love to hear from someone who knows more about this as well. i was wondering what the difference was myself.

[beatspacifik]

In my experience, seeing Crystal Method, Chemical Brothers and Bonobo do both live sets and dj sets, the dj sets ended up being a lil lack luster in comparison. I would expect them just to have a mac book and there favorite choons.

But I don't know about this act in particular it will be exciting to see non the less

[frenchy949]

live sets are dope. you get to see the artist playing a bunch of their tracks, mixing them together in ways they can only do while live, and tweaking or remixing the tracks on the fly. its pretty awesome.

dj sets are mostly the artist playing a bunch of their favorite tracks, mostly from other artists but also some of their own (usually remixes and stuff). this is what im more accustomed to. sometimes the artist takes the set in a different direction than you were anticipating and that can sometimes lead to some sort of disappointment... but more often it leads to some sort of an awesome fucking surprise.

i dig both. when you know the music well it kind of pays off with the live sets, being able to hear the bass line of one track being mixed into the synth part of another track in a way that can only happen live leads to a pretty unique experience. its what deadmau5 does all the time, finds different ways to mix his tracks together... over and over and over and over again. dj sets are fun too. different vibe.

i dont really have a preference most of the time, ive seen smd live and it was awesome, but the whole reason i even love them so much is because of their mixes. with smd it doesnt really matter if its live or not, to me atleast. they didnt have a band at ultra, or an electric drum set, was just them and the equipment they use to make their music.

sometimes theres a bigger difference between an artists live act vs their dj set... example: calvin harris, chromeo, and booka shade

[zach149]

I saw them do their DJ set last year at lolla. It was pretty much their music and mixing of other Djs with their tracks. Having that said, it was undeniably SMD's sound through and through.

[know ID yuh]

Thanks for the knowledge. That is about what I was expecting, since SMD are basically DJs to begin with (somewhere Gregg Gillis is throwing things).

[partimeetard]

I have seen SMD four times now and regardless of Live vs DJ set they are amazing. Most of the time DJs play DJ sets versus live to save money. For example, the cost of putting on a live Chemical Brothers set and lugging all of their equipment and roadies etc. is far greater than the bringing records to play on a turntable (or cds into a cdj in this case). Regardless, SMD will blow you away if you like to smile and dance.

[frenchy949]

agreed. they are sick. cant wait. high expectations for boys noize and booka shade as well. both have blown me away in the past.

[parenthesees]

I saw SMD perform a live set. It was spectacular. They had this 5 foot tall sort of triangle of stacked keyboards/synths/crazy gear that i dont even know about in the middle of the stage that they would use to compose their original material live. Much different, I would think than using laptops and intertwining their original material with other music.