Originally Posted By: eddie1261
The level of hypocrisy I have seen in the last few years makes me both angry and sick to my stomach. The same people who 5 years ago complained because there were so many musicians sitting at home then put together "track bands" and became what they complained about. Trios with tracks. If you need keyboards and horns, hire keyboard and horn players. I miss BANDS.

I recall at least one conversation here in which some folks were criticizing musicians who play for cheap/free and even those who participate in open mike night. But those same folks were fine with replacing drummers and bass players and whatever with BIAB tracks. Yeah, that is some blatant hypocrisy!

I can honestly say I would not knowingly go to a "live" performance where backing tracks were used. If it is just background bar music that's OK but if I buy a ticket to hear live music I wanna hear live music. I remember seeing American English and was both delighted and disturbed! Delighted to imagine I was at a Beatles concert as they did some really good covers. Disturbed when I realized there was way more sound coming out than those 4 actors were playing. Glad I saw them once; won't see them again.

But the times have changed. If the available jobs don't pay enough for a full band and you still want to work then using backing tracks is prolly your only option.

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Remember how ELO looked on stage with all those string players?

I also remember how they got caught mixing in prerecorded tracks to improve the sound at their "live" performances!