Mary Rose Cook

I always knew music was better, and now I know why.

When it is live, as it should be, it is a performance. Anything can happen when I am on stage. I might find some new, more beautiful, sadder melody to sing; my laptop might explode; I might be see my own thought in the face of someone in the audience; I might sing louder and change the whole character of the song; I might finally realise what I’m singing about.

Films are different. The artist creates the art, distributes it, and then it is static. That is fine, but I find it less compelling. The default mode for music is to have some sort of live, unpredictable interaction with the audience, whereas director Q&As just don’t happen very much.

However, Tracy + The Plastics are slightly different. They are a band that blend live music with live video. Wynne Greenwood, playing Tracy, stands on stage and sings in front of a projected video that shows her acting out the parts of her band mates, Nikki (keyboards) and Cola (drums). The interesting part is that Greenwood puts pauses in her videos and sections where she converses or even argues with her bandmates.

So, what Greenwood has achieved is live, unpredictable film: