Was quite ‘funny’ at superoganism in Belfast a few years back when their laptop crashed and you realised all these mad sounds were completely in the box. Not even sure if the guys guitar was plugged in 
Was a good show up until then but a lot was lost to some laptop rebooting and the singer beatboxing/doing a handstand
I think most pop concerts are a waste of time now unless you just want to go and see the staging.
A few years back me and a friend walked out of a shakira gig (yeah yeah whatever) at the Manchester Arena as she, very noticeably, only sang 4 songs live. The rest were all badly mimed when she could be bothered to backing tapes. We were quite drunk, so we argued for a refund at the customer services desk for over half an hour. We didnt get one.
I then wrote to the Arena, ticket agency and promoter (Live Nation, I think) to try and get a refund as I didnt pay to see a Mime Show. I kept it going for about 4 months, just to amuse myself in the end.
We didnt get a refund.
But then, I’m happy to go and see the Chemical Brothers and I’m not arsed if they just press a button.
Adam Neely did a good video about the use of backing tracks
I’m also a bit biased in favour of using pre recorded bits since my own live thing has been to play guitar while triggering effects and samples with ny entertainingly besocked feet.
I think when it gets to essentially miming, I’m a bit more conflicted. In part because tbh it’s essential for many bands to tour who may otherwise actually be more of a studio band than a live band… so I dont really think I can blame artists or bands who do just hit play so long, I guess, as they do put on some kind of a show that is worth seeing and hearing. On the other hand, it would be a shame if this kind of thing gave warped expectations of what live music is, resulting in the rough edges and idiosyncrasies that can make live music thrilling ending up viewed as “wrong” or “unprofessional”.
when I saw mariah carey she sang most of it but unsurprisingly mimed the whistle register stuff and you could see her holding her earpiece when she was doing it, quite funny how obvious it was
Love me a bit of Adam Neely. I also think he’s right on this one.