Backing tracks: opinions sought

Next weekend I am performing a solo set at the South Florida Ukulele Festival. It's usually just me and my uke at these types of gigs, but I'm considering trying something different. I've removed the vocal and ukulele parts from three Barnkickers songs and put them on an iPod to use as backing tracks. Most of my set will still be just me and my and uke, but I thought playing a few songs with full instrumentation might break things up a bit. Is this sacrilege? Too cheesy? Has anyone here performed with their uke in this manner?

- Steve

From the standpoint of an audience member, I don't have anything against backing tracks, but I'd honestly rather just hear the person on stage play by themselves.

That's the whole point of seeing someone live, isn't it?

JJ

I agree, while the backing tracks are cool. I prefer to hear the person I am watching.
I saw Michael Powers in Reno, he was fantastic and very entertaining and a truly great player.
He runs his uke through a processor that turns the uke into a number of instruments. Add his loops and he is a one man band.
Again he is a fantastic musician, but I would rather hear one voice, one uke.
My advice would be to be a true soloist if you do use backing tracks, use them sparingly, at least for my taste.

I enjoy watching people use a line 6 Spider.

Adding layers to the background beat and building loops.

There are youtube videos of it.

I try to see live music at least once a week, a lot of it played on "unique" instrumentation. I have to say I would certainly rather hear the person who is in front of me playing rather than backing tracks. Being from an accordion/pedal steel background, I have heard a lot of backing music and seen a lot of midi...sends me directly to the parking lot.

Thanks for the feedback. I should mention that the backing tracks are not midi or band-in-a-box. They are live acoustic instruments: steel-string guitar, clarinet, upright bass and snare drum with brushes. They are actually remixed tracks from our CD and all of the instruments were played by me and my daughter except for the snare drum. I will be singing and playing ukulele over them and there is no click track or count in. I would only use them for about three songs.

- Steve