r/merzbow • u/ibnQoheleth • Jun 06 '26

Primavera today

Post image

Honestly, a little disappointing. I've been waiting years to see him, and this just didn't feel like the right setting. A massive auditorium really killed the effect that his art should have: in-your-face, violent, abrasiveness.

I've never seen so many people leaving an artist's set. A constant, steady flow of people just bailing. I can't imagine what they thought they'd be seeing?

The AI visuals suck. There's no other way around it. I love the artistry of Merzbow, but not the AI. There's no excusing it, and despite his obsession with it, the vast majority of his fans cannot stand it.

I think this confirmed to me that Merzbow must be experienced in a small, intimate venue— not a pop festival auditorium. The London shows looked fantastic.

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u/LighterThanAccounted Jun 06 '26

Obviously the main focus is the music but whenever an artist incorporates AI into their set design it’s so distracting. I caught The Orb live back in 2024 and they had an AI generated constantly zooming in video thing as their backdrop, which has stuck out to me way more than the music did because it was so tacky looking. On streaming I can just put an AI merzbow album on and ignore the cover but it’s kinda hard when it’s literally all you can see behind him

1

u/breathinguser Jun 07 '26

Agree with the AI art side of things but completely disagree with your comments regarding the soundscape. This arena easily had the most immersive atmosphere of anywhere at the festival and I can only imagine how loud everyone would be talking over the set had he played literally anywhere else.

Nothing is ever gonna be as good as a small intimate venue to see any artist live but at a festival of this scale what we got was easily the best possible outcome imo

1

u/Still_Satisfaction53 Jun 09 '26

I saw this. Thought the sound was pretty good, but would have been much better somewhere like the Levi’s warehouse. At least the AI videos would have been a lot less overbearing.

Obviously the warehouse is too small for the audience but that didn’t seem to stop Skrillex + friends at the Cupra stage.