In this article the author argues that the use of the laptop in performance causes various negative responses from the audience, who feel a loss of spectacle and performativity in the action. This occurs as a lack of gesture and visual cues from the performer and the loss of focus from the audience, who have no visual object to ground their aural experience. The author suggests that a shift in focus from an understanding of the visual spectacle in performance to that of aural performativity is needed. Once this is understood, the audience can approach the performance with a shifted focus and come to new understandings of the aural object and contemporary digital audio.