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Concert Etiquette


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that was one of the great things about the other night - no beers for sale
very cool....as I recall there was no beer at Purdue either. Nor at the Univ of IN show. I am liking no beer and no smoking a whole lot....

 

LouieB

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You're right, I forgot about that. I think at the benefit show last year, I was able to get out during On & On & On without missing much.

 

I was just kidding anyway...I seem to be able to block everyone out for the most part and try to enjoy the show.

 

 

try the bar in the basement, by the men's room. we hit that one during the 2004 shows, and there was never a line.

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very cool....as I recall there was no beer at Purdue either. Nor at the Univ of IN show. I am liking no beer and no smoking a whole lot....

 

LouieB

 

 

Suppose to be no smoking - but I think there was some folks doing that. Jeff said we were the smallest but the best audience of the tour.

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There is no rock concert etiquette...everyone knows that. Anything goes!! You can puke on someone, spill beer on them, burn them with your cigarette, push them aside to get upfront, scream at the top of your lungs even during quiet songs, talk during the entire show even if you paid alot of money for tickets, threaten people for no reason, get on stage and accoust the performer, etc. etc.

 

:omg Puking, burning, pushing, threatening, accosting is just bad etiquette period. Maybe it's just me, but while I don't doubt that some of this stuff happens...I gues I just don't see it in this rampant form that everybody here seems to report. I mean, i've been at some ofthe same shows that people provide a recap that the crowd was horrible and I didn't even notice it.

 

"Talking during the entire show even if you paid alot of money for tickets"...it's their money to waste. However, you paid for your ticket as well and if somebody is in your space physically or vocally, fucking tell them. Jesus.

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Suppose to be no smoking - but I think there was some folks doing that. Jeff said we were the smallest but the best audience of the tour.
Smaller than the Purdue crowd? I would guess there were about 2000 people in a 6000 seater in West Layfayette.

 

LouieB

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Are you shitting me? Damn.....nice....

 

LouieB

 

no - that room only holds a thousand I think

 

the show did not sell out

 

after the show - there was only about 10 people waiting by the buses

 

I talked to Jeff again and got another photo - Tracy will put the photos up when she gets home

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i pretty much have an anxiety attack at any GA show I go to now-a-days (which is very few). the idea of holding a spot for a friend using the restroom is the most horrifying thing. knowing that you and you alone will have to fend off any number of insane people clamoring to infringe on your personal space is just getting too much for me. after the tweedy solo show in january i just lost it. how is it that i told a couple "sorry but my friend is standing there and is using the restroom" and then they actually ignored me and then i got heckled by a drunk moron behind me for even attempting to save the spot! am i not human? do i not deserve to be treated with respect? its like it all goes out the window and nothing matters.

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:music "In any given situation there is always going to be more dumb people than smart people. We ain't many, we ain't many..." Ken Kesey 10/31/91 during Dark Star

 

Well, i feel compelled to toss my two rusted cents in here...

 

Sack up and ask someone to shut up if you are hurt by their behaviour.

Just don't expect that behaviour to change. In fact, you may bet on it escalating! If they are drunk and obnoxious do you really think that they will all of a sudden sober up and take your rational position?

I have friends who print out cards that say "Your being an asshole. Please be a little more quiet. Sure you paid money for this show but i did as well and you are ruining my and other people's around you experience. If you shut the hell up i'll send you a free copy of this show!".

 

Usually I'm a big fan of the dagger stare, the body block and if all else fails and i must address said offender i'll say, "You know, i can hear you better than i can hear [insert band]. Would you please whisper if you must talk during a song? Thank you very much.", of course at 6'2" 205 that's a little easier to pull off from time to time. But in the end the least thing i want is to be ejected from a show if a drunk reacts poorly and starts a fight.

 

I have an unwritten law / experience when stealth taping a large show that i will wind up next to the chattiest idiots to ever stumble through a turnstile. That's why it's a good idea to bring "D" with you. [insert big thanks to those whop ran "D" for me at the 10.13.06 San Antonio show!]

 

I will add that opera and classical shows in the States are full of poor behavior and offer no respite from the Amerikan Boor. Whether it's cell phones, krinkling candy wrappers or the dude snoring, you are not immune to disrespectful behaviour at "classier" gigs. In the end it does tend to be an Amerikan deal. Not that shows in Dublin or Berlin are really less rowdy, it's just that on a whole we tend to be more self-absorbed listeners/yakkers than our cousins overseas or to the South... :music

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/HAVE SOME RESPECT FOR THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU AND ASSUME THEY DIDN'T COME TO HEAR YOU SCREAM JEFF'S NAME DURING QUIET PARTS OF SONGS OR TO LISTEN TO YOU CATCH UP WITH OLD FRIENDS AT THE TOP OF YOUR LUNGS DURING A PERFORMANCE OR TO BE SUBJECTED TO YOUR DRUNKEN IDIOCY.

 

Not aimed directly at you, of course, but there are common courtesies that should be upheld. I have had to tell WAY too many people to shut the fuck up over the years because I could hear their conversations louder than the music. Also, there are appropriate times to show your love and appreciation for the band. Yelling out a song request in the middle of another song is not one of them. Being at a show usually means being confined in a small space with strangers for a lengthy period of time. I'm usually up front at shows and it drives me insane when people are so wasted or so egotistical that they shout at the band, to their friends (or to whoever happens to be next to them) at inappropriate times as if the performance is actually a movie and the band can't hear what they're shouting from 3 feet away.

i AGREE with MOST of WHAT your SAYING! My point is it is a rock show and you should have fun. And yes it absolutely your right to speak up when your concert space is being invaded either physically or verbally.

 

I once peed on a guys leg in freedom hall('82) at a Van Halen show because I did not want to loose my spot in the second row. He turned around and reared back to knock my block off and the security guards grabbed him over the barrier and threw him out. Not acceptable concert etiquette?

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:omg Puking, burning, pushing, threatening, accosting is just bad etiquette period.

 

To be fair, so is yelling in someone's ear, holding an overpowering conversation while someone else is singing/giving a speech/ giving a presentation, shouting at someone when they're trying to talk.....

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:omg Puking, burning, pushing, threatening, accosting is just bad etiquette period. Maybe it's just me, but while I don't doubt that some of this stuff happens...I gues I just don't see it in this rampant form that everybody here seems to report. I mean, i've been at some ofthe same shows that people provide a recap that the crowd was horrible and I didn't even notice it.

 

"Talking during the entire show even if you paid alot of money for tickets"...it's their money to waste. However, you paid for your ticket as well and if somebody is in your space physically or vocally, fucking tell them. Jesus.

Obviously I am kidding (well half..), but the more often you go to shows the more crazy shit you see. But you can make a stab (literally or figuratively) at trying to get someone to understand that they are being obnoxious, but usually the obnoxious one won't acknowledge their behavior. I know we have been down this road before, but GA shows and the lack of ushers, security or good common sense even at seated shows, is pretty much out the window at some gigs.

 

i pretty much have an anxiety attack at any GA show I go to now-a-days (which is very few). the idea of holding a spot for a friend using the restroom is the most horrifying thing. knowing that you and you alone will have to fend off any number of insane people clamoring to infringe on your personal space is just getting too much for me. after the tweedy solo show in january i just lost it. how is it that i told a couple "sorry but my friend is standing there and is using the restroom" and then they actually ignored me and then i got heckled by a drunk moron behind me for even attempting to save the spot! am i not human? do i not deserve to be treated with respect? its like it all goes out the window and nothing matters.
GA shows are what everyone wants but everyone still sort of hates. I mean I have been to GA shows where it isn't yet crowded and yet the people behind you are already on your ass, literally, not figuratively. And then holding down a tiny piece of floor (1x3) is entirely anxiety provoking. I love going to clubs where you can walk around, hang with people in different parts of the club and not feel like you are going to get knocked over for a small peice of real estate.

 

LouieB

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Wait. You work as a head chef? :ermm

Executive Chef, more paperwork than food these days :hmm

I was 15 years old at forementioned show, I did not see any food production going on

I was a dishwasher @ the local country club at that time :stunned

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It's not going to stop until venues stop serving alcohol at shows, and get rid of all seating. Simple as that. Alcohol loosens tongues, and seats encourage complacent pseudo-enjoyment of a set. When forced to stand, one is forced to acknowledge the music without the ability to lean back and have a conversation with some dumb schmuck. Without alcohol...well, it's obvious that people are loud when they're drunk. No need to be drunk at a show. You're supposed to be there because you enjoy the music while sober. You shouldn't need to be drunk to like it. If you need that, you probably wasted your ticket money, not to mention what you paid for the overpriced underflavored concert beer.

 

That said, I think too many people, performers and listeners, take audience noise too seriously. "Free Bird" is not an insult to the band, it's not a serious request for that outdated fucking relic of a song, it's a joke. If you can't laugh at what is so obviously a joke, or at least brush it off as a poor attempt at humor, if that's your opinion, you're taking yourself, and your life, too seriously. Whoops and hollers are, in general, an expression of appreciation. I have rarely been to a non-punk show where audience noise actually obscured my listening. Even been to a Metallica show and I heard the band just fine. Only shows in which I missed some of the music were the two Flogging Molly shows I went to a couple years back, but hearing the music is not really 100% of the point at a punk show.

 

I've heard plenty of bootlegs which were obscured by audience noise, however, and I have a suspicion that some of these posts may have an underlying sentiment of, "quit ruining my bootlegs." Concerts ain't about the secondary market. No bootleg recording will ever be as good as having been to the show. That sentiment should never be the undercurrent of this conversation. Not accusing anybody, it's just that I've seen this movie a couple times before, and a few characters always end up really being angry about their bootleg quality.

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is, there could very well be a problem, and bootlegs provide documented evidence of a minor problem. But when I'm at a show, it takes a truly vile individual to mess with my listening pleasure. I'll relate the story of that vile individual now:

 

I was at one of The Who's shows a couple years back, the tour when they only played two or three dates in the U.S. My show was at the Hollywood Bowl. My family happened to be visiting old friends in the Bay Area when The Who came through, so we went up to LA to catch the show. The opening band was a big, steaming pile of hot, sweaty crap. Just awful. Put John Mayer, Jason Mraz, and any number of other acoustic singer-songwriters that won't be trendy in five years together, and you get the godawful pastiche that was this opening band. Just terrible. Bad and wrong. It was one of those things that makes you feel like The Chosen One in Kung Pow: "There should be a word for things that are bad and wrong. Like badwrong. Or badong." This opening band was badong.

 

But no matter how bad a band is, I usually hold my tongue, you know? I mean, I'm not up there exposing myself to the world--what right do I have to lampoon somebody who has the sack to throw his hat over the wall like that?

 

Enter the Vile Individual. Actually, he's been right in front of me the whole time, right in front of my brother and me. About a minute into the first song of the set, this asshole, and we're talking middle-aged, former-hippie-who-never-really-got-the-movement-and-was-only-in-it-for-the-drugs-and-music-and-sex-with-the-yuppie-he-eventually-married, thinks it's still his generation that matters and his dangerous to the establishment even though he's a fucking banker, kind of asshole, he starts heckling the band. Now, keep in mind, the band can't hear him--he's easily a half mile away. Hollywood Bowl's a big venue, and we got our tickets pretty late. It's a purely symbolic gesture, and the other ineffective aging hippies are starting to chuckle along with this guy, who's having entirely too much beer (see first paragraph.) My brother and I are going irate, a row behind the son of a bitch, and finally we can take no more. The bastard's screaming, "Get this band off the stage! We didn't pay our hard-earned money [this is an interesting idiom endemic to the rich white male population: they think, for some reason, that they've earned their money, when in fact they haven't worked a day in their life for a red cent of it.] to see some crappy opening act!"

 

My brother and I launch into our counter-tirade. "Get this asshole out of here, I didn't spend my hard-earned money to have my listening experience fucked up by this guy!" I yelled. My brother leaned in real close to the sextagenarian's closely-cropped silver hair, and yelled, "Boy, it sure must be right to be right all the time!" "Yeah!" I chime in. "Being so judgmental would be a major bummer, if you weren't always right!" We go on like this for two and a half songs worth of time, with the drunkard's audience aghast at our audacity, and he himself hunkers down in his chair, chastised. At one point I looked up at the other audience members, who were totally shocked at our behavior, and shouted, "What are you staring at? You used to do this! Remember that? Remember when you stood for something? Remember when you counted?" And they all looked away.

 

Eventually, the guy apologized, assuming that we had known the band personally. We berated him again, for assuming that we would only defend a band we liked, or knew personally. He didn't respond.

 

That's my story.

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That's absolutely true,especially from a pharmacological standpoint.I have always said I'd rather be around a group of heads than drunks in any situation(even though I myself love my beer).

 

It seems as if we've entered another "Drunken Nation" phase in this country.Lord knows why.

Judy??

Incredibly, some people enjoy being drunk.

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There is no rock concert etiquette...everyone knows that. Anything goes!! You can puke on someone, spill beer on them, burn them with your cigarette, push them aside to get upfront, scream at the top of your lungs even during quiet songs, talk during the entire show even if you paid alot of money for tickets, threaten people for no reason, get on stage and accoust the performer, etc. etc.

 

LouieB

So don't get mad...get elitist! That's right, folks, despite the fact that rock music is a vital, democratic, blue-collar, working-class, energetic art form, with constantly new and evolving ways of expressing itself, abandon it for a dying, decaying corpse of a bourgeousie musical form: classical! That's right, listen to stuff by guys that are so dead, they make your grandparents look alive and kicking! Listen to the final death rattles of an art form devised specifically by and for the upper class as a way of distinguishing themselves from peasants. Listen to the expiratory throes of a form that refuses to acknowledge its own irrelevance!

 

Don't like the smell of beer on your clothes when you come home from a show? Got yourself in a tizzy over cigarette-scented underbunnies? Not to worry! Go to a classical show and listen to dead music! Who knows? You just might end up dead yourself!

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