In desperate need of a palate cleanser after yesterday’s Health Care votes, I turn to Australia’s New South Wales Minister for Fair Trade, Virginia Judge, and her calling out of Britney Spears and her lip-synching ways in concert. Minister Judge feels "live means live" and suggests "placing a disclaimer on a ticket that would warn consumers a performance was pre-recorded."

I spent my teen years at the gigantic Day on the Green shows at Oakland Stadium produced by Bill Graham Presents, B.V. (Before Video). All-day multi-act shows led by singers with a song projecting to the third balcony. By the time a band hit that stage in front of 60,000 people they had worked their way up from clubs to arenas to coliseums and knew – from the bottom of their boots to the tips of their soul – how to put on a show.

With the arrival of Music Videos came the rise of the Video Star, able to leap atop the musical charts in a single bound with the aid of some fancy footwork, camera work and photogenic curves. Million of records sold, legions of fans borne, without our Video Star ever having put a foot on stage.

The Record Company’s solution? To surround the Video Star in lights, cameras and action. Anything to keep the audience focused on the spectacle and away – far away – from the fact the star of the show exhibited all the stage presence of a well-lit Muppet.

After college I went to work for Bill Graham Presents and witnessed firsthand the transition to, uhm, "aurally enhanced" performances. It drove me nuts that the audience seemed unwilling or unable to care the difference between live and memorex. Helpful hint: if it sounds just like the hit record, it is the hit record! Real and live is messy and imperfect yet capable of producing transcendent on-stage musical moments. The synthetic perfection of today’s stagework may entertain, but it rarely moves.

Now I don’t mean to suggest these Video Stars are without talent or ability to sing. They often have both in great supply. What they lack is the ability to show off the both at the same time, in real time. And that is a cryin’ shame. (And subject to written disclaimer in New South Wales should Minister Judge get her way).

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In comments, let’s hear a favorite live singer and a song moment of yours. I’ll start: Peter Gabriel, July 16, 1993, Vancouver B.C. Encore, last song of the show. Peter at the end of a small thrust stage in the middle of the arena. He begins "Biko", his benediction for slain South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko. As the audience joins in the house lights come up and instead of breaking the spell the crowd’s energy grows even stronger, ’til the last notes slowly, gently, fade away.

You?