Re: Phil Keaggy -- looping in general

[Steve Sandberg <stevesandberg@earthlink.net>]

Title: Re: Phil Keaggy -- looping in general

  well there are a couple of looping recordings... but none of them capture
10% of what happens in a good live show. 

> he is one person who i fear wil never make the great record that's in
> him..but here are my favorites .

I have been following this Phil Keaggy thread and find these comments fascinating, because they are pointing to something that I am discovering in looping.
I've been looping for about a year now, and find that I absolutely love it at home.  I can get lost in loops, I can play and hit wonderful zones where I feel that I can go on forever, I sometimes create loops that I can listen to for a long long time and go to some wonderful emotional places with.
However, sometimes it's just dry -- and not really happening -- and this seems pretty much out of my control.
And this makes it kind of scary for live performances.  I like the freedom of looping.  I don't really like planning things in advance -- but it seems out of my control whether anything is going to work live or not.
Another thing that seems to make things work or not is, the levels of overdubbed sounds in a loop really contribute to making something ordinary or magical -- and this seems hard to control, too.
I recently did a half hour of live looped music in Williamsburg accompanying modern dance.  We recorded two nights of videos -- and the first night (which, oddly, I thought was the better one) made me cringe.  The second night was pretty good.  
I'm wondering if my looping experience is par for the course, or if there's something I'm missing -- anyone have any thoughts on this?