8static Festival 2014 - Oct 16,17,18 - Philadelphia

check out the lineup on 8staticfestival.com This year we've got:
*sorry for the shameless self-promotion - There are some heavy-hitter NES people on this year's lineup.

ANDARUGO (CIN)
CRASHFASTER (SF)
MINUSBABY (NYC)
REVENGINEERS (ROC)
VIRT (LA)
RADLIB (CT)
AUXCIDE (PHL)
DAURAGON (PHL)
SSD ENGAGE (CIN)
TRASH80 (LA)
SOLARBEAR (KTY)
DANIMAL CANNON (BUF)
THORAZINE UNICORN (NYC)
VOID VISION (PHL)
NOTE! (NYC)
BOACONSTRUCTOR (SEA)
ALICEFFEKT (MTL)
SAINT (PHL)
KRIS KEYSER (NYC)
CHEAP DINOSAURS (PHL)
DEFIANTSYSTEMS (PHL)
CHIPOCRITE (PHL)
SNESEI (DET)
TREY FREY (WV)
PIXELSEED (BAL)
SBTHREE (ROC)
BATSLY ADAMS (NYC)
ANIMAL STYLE (PHL)
PARTY TIME! HEXCELLENT! (AUS)
VAPORSTACK (NYC)

Sorry for the week old bump, can I ask how can a chip musician be a 'performer'? I know that there's the chip maestro cartridge which can allow one to make music instantly, but with something like the NES, that's five instruments going on at once. From what I've seen (and cringed), it seems to just be playing NSF files on a console while jumping around.

Good question! Some people may mumble into a microphone while the music plays. Others may play keyboard and guitar while the music plays. For the most part people use gameboys. The LSDJ and Nanoloop cartridges have more live features enabled in them for tempo change, etc. As for the Nintendo, Chip Maestro is not the only option. Neil Baldwin has made many PowerPak ready sound tools and trackers that have many additional live features. I'm not sure who uses them in the wild but they are definitely made with performance considered.

Otherwise why don't you head to a show and see for yourself. Bring some friends and you can make fun of the people on stage if you want.