I think Neko Case has a pretty good view...
Pitchfork: Your live show is a weird mix of stark seriousness during the songs and goofball bathroom humor in between, can you explain the dichotomy?
Case: I have a hard time taking myself seriously, so anything serious that does come out is in the songs. My band doesn't take me seriously, which is why I love them. We can't stand up there and pretend. What we're doing is really important to me and it's my job and I love it, but I can't just stand there unflinchingly noble in front of the audience.
I just think of my own experiences going to see shows. For example, I went to see Lucinda Williams in Vancouver and there was this Australian woman opening the show. Nobody had ever heard of her and she was all right, but there were people talking and she just started bitching them out like, "I can't believe you're talking! You don't love music!" I thought, "These people just paid to get into your show and they came to see Lucinda Williams, so if they're gonna talk a little bit, fucking get over it." It would kill me if people felt like that at my show. A live show is one of the last holdouts of a thing that makes you feel a part of a community, where you'll go and maybe meet your future wife or boyfriend, or you're taking your sister to her first show. These are the things that you remember later in your life. So bands shouldn't come and act like, "You're here to stand and be quiet while we do our thing and it's fucking important!" That shit is laughable, arrogant, and stupid.