wherefore drum machines?

Show tonight. Yes. Good time, Apse undoubtedly ruled the night. I felt like we played a pretty good set, and didn't falter too much in presenting a new song. Sabres were awesome and brought a lot of old people out.

I'd like to point out, however, a disturbing trend, embodied by Sleeping Kings of Iona, who were talented and sweet and had some really pretty points and I think would be really good music to listen to while reading or doing homework or whatever: the drum-machine-cum-drummer setup. Being a drummer, I'm obviously a fan of real-life percussion. But I can see the use of a drum machine sometimes. Both at once, though? Apse had some electronic percussion going on, but it was mostly from an electronic hitpad that one of the two(!) drummers was hitting, physically. It was a nice addition to their amazing array of pedals and crazy-looking guitars. Sleeping Kings, though, depended pretty heavily on the drum machine for beats, and at times didn't have a drummer playing. To their credit, I guess they had a drummer formerly who is no longer playing with them, so perhaps their show was different then, and they're just scrambling to put something new together. Even if this was a stopgap measure for them, though, I've seen other bands do the same thing.

Why? What engenders the need for this sort of thing? If you HAVE someone drumming, why doesn't s/he lay down your beats for you? Is there a primal yearning for something electronic and artificial that can't be satisfied with mere synth noises and pedals? If you have answers, talk to me. If not, allow me this rhetorical indulgence.

(PS--The synth Apse had was called the Rogue Moog. Nice.)