How can people talk throughout a show?

[Guest sterno]

I just downloaded the Hartford show and its amazing to me that people can talk through a show.

Can't they have a conversation after the show?

Before the show?

I dont get it. Pay to see the greatest band in the world and talk talk talk?

People all around me were talking during the show too.

I just dont get it.

All in all a great recording but what the hell.

[Muzzle of Dan]

I was thinking the same thing upon first listen. It's like Wilco isn't even there to them, just a background distraction.

[bjorn_skurj]

The only reason anybody talks through a show is that they don't care enough about the music to not talk through a show. I figure it's mostly people who got dragged to a show or went because everybody else was going. It makes me sad - I go to a lot of classical music concerts and NOBODY fucking talks, but that is a different societal norm up in those. In Hartford (I was there) the solution could have been to turn it up a bit - it was probably the least loud rock show I have ever been to, and the ability to easily talk over the music contributed to the chattiness, IMO.

[The Inside of Outside]

The only reason anybody talks through a show is that they don't care enough about the music to not talk through a show. I figure it's mostly people who got dragged to a show or went because everybody else was going. It makes me sad - I go to a lot of classical music concerts and NOBODY fucking talks, but that is a different societal norm up in those. In Hartford (I was there) the solution could have been to turn it up a bit - it was probably the least loud rock show I have ever been to, and the ability to easily talk over the music contributed to the chattiness, IMO.

 

I agree - a little louder, and fewer folks want to yell over the music. Doesn't have to make your ears bleed, just enough to deter the talkers.

 

As for recordings, sometimes it is the placement of the microphones and who happens to be around. Two nearby talkers can have a major impact on a recording.

 

Maybe, just maybe, another recording will surface with less chatter. We can hope - that was an excellent show.

[lfio]

I can't understand the talkers for the life of me. Especially when you have to listen to some yahoo pontificate about the genius of Tweedy's lyrics, the brilliance of Wilco, etc... during the song-nonstop! I guess they are such superfans that they don't even need to listen?!?

[watch me fall]

There are always going to be rude and inconsiderate people in this world. Unfortunately, that's just the way it is.

[PhishSticks34]

Some bitch behind me talked throughout the entire show, literally talking over the music. Just blows my mind, I gave her a few menacing stares that kind of came off as "shut your fucking mouth please" and she would stop...for a few songs. I loved it when she went to get beers because I didnt have to hear her stupid voice. Every time this comes up I always think of this rant from Tweedy from Sunken Treasure.

[Rusty Shackleford]

There are always going to be rude and inconsiderate people in this world. Unfortunately, that's just the way it is.

 

I understand that there are jerks everywhere, and I expect to encounter jerkitude on airplanes and at the mall. But when someone has paid a fair amount of money for a ticket, made their way to a venue, and nudged their way to the front of a crowd of hundreds, why would they pick that time to have a conversation? It's utterly baffling.

 

I was at a Son Volt show last year where these jackoffs waited until the show had started and then "pretended" to see their friends up front and pushed their way through the crowd, giggling all the time, as if they were fooling all of us into letting them up front to where someone was saving them a space. They proceeded to "sneak" their way up to about 5 feet from the stage, where they then proceeded to chatter all night. What the hell possesses a person to act that way? There are literally millions of places in the DC metro area where one can stand and have a conversation. Why the 9:30 club in the middle of a show?

[watch me fall]

I don't understand it either, but what are you going to do about it? The scenario you described above has happened to me at every general admission show I've ever been to. Hell, I saw Rilo Kiley in Minneapolis at First Ave and for the entire show the girls in front of me discussed whether Jenny Lewis had a boob job.

[jff]

The only reason anybody talks through a show is that they don't care enough about the music to not talk through a show. I figure it's mostly people who got dragged to a show or went because everybody else was going.

 

Surely that's part of it, but the person in front of me, who I tried to get to shut up in Atlanta got all huffy on me and said Wilco is his favorite band and that I was ruining HIS concert, and that unless I am Jeff Tweedy, I have no right to ask him to do anything at a Wilco concert.

 

Of course, several songs later when Jeff Tweedy asked the audience to cut the chatter, at least during the quieter songs, did this guy shut up, even for a moment?

 

Take a wild guess.

[crowesfan28]

My guess is if you could have asked Tweedy at that moment, he would have been more than happy to help you out. Probably with hilarious results, too.

My favorite Tweedy shut-up rant was from a European show, Germany I think, when he went off on some Americans in the crowd that couldn't stop yelling.

The blues festival here is just brutal sometimes. The people in the seats are good, the people in the beer area suck a lot of the time. And it's not about having too much to drink and being a loudmouth either, they're like that first thing in the afternoon, with the first act. So you had to choose between being among the talkers, but being able to have a beer, or being in the "quieter" section but being beer-free. Blues, 25C weather and blues go hand in hand.

I lost in on a couple women at a Kelly Joe Phelps theater show a few years ago. Non-stop talking through the show, even going so far as to mock what he was doing. I mean, what are you doing here if you don't like the music.

[Central Scrutinizer]

This discussion comes up frequently, but I honestly believe it has become a bigger problem over the years, and it's not just concerts. The advent of iPods, cell phones, PDAs and texting has made people oblivious to what is an appropriate and inappropriate setting. You go to movies and people chat throughout, talk at the screen, make cell phone calls. Go to a restaurant and people yammer on a cell phone two tables away droning out the conversation you're trying to have across the table. People are so hung up on their inner monologue, their inner soundtrack, that the outside world is just background noise.

[crowesfan28]

I completely agree with this ^^^^^. I do my best to not go a theater anymore. I bought a projector and built a nice big screen. For the cost of a night at the movies for two I can just buy the DVD or Bluray.

Every once in a while we'll get a gift card for a night at the movies. It's wrong to complain about a gift, but after saying thanks I often think in my head, have you never been in my basement? A 96' screen, comfy couch, cold beer 10 feet away, no people yakking on cell phones, and no kids kicking your seat. Why would I want to go to a theater? Oh, and I can put on a Wilco DVD if you want as well. Not that many people I know care about that.

[rwilson580]

Those people are more important than you guys are.

[cracked & hooked]

This is something that I have struggled mightily with over the years but I've gotten much better lately at not letting it get to me. Staying in the moment, blocking it out. However, the two shows I went to last week - Montclair #2 and Hartford - left me seriously considering whether or not my show going days were over. The asshat:civilized person ratio was probably the worst I've experienced. There was a foursome in Montclair who only stopped talking and beer running long enough to makeout during You and I. There were these chicks behind us in Hartford who shrilled and cackled throughout. I lost control and broke my cardinal rule of not going there and went there, asked them so nicely to please be quiet. Oh god. It became their raison d'etre to annoy me for the rest of the show. "Ooooooooh - so serious!!" And we were there with two children who were giving them the hairy eyeball, too. At one point one of the chicks starts talking so loud about avocados! That's become the running joke in our household, shrieking "avocado!" randomly.

 

I always fantasize in those situations about yelling out "Hey Jeff - we've got a talker!" I really wish they would add something to their new pre-show policy announcement about it. Or if they could just say something about it halfway through the show. I think it would make a world of difference. It's really, really bad out there.

 

As a musician friend says about dealing with unruly audiences "Being in public is difficult." And how.

[Wendy]

I completely agree with this ^^^^^. I do my best to not go a theater anymore. I bought a projector and built a nice big screen. For the cost of a night at the movies for two I can just buy the DVD or Bluray.

Every once in a while we'll get a gift card for a night at the movies. It's wrong to complain about a gift, but after saying thanks I often think in my head, have you never been in my basement? A 96' screen, comfy couch, cold beer 10 feet away, no people yakking on cell phones, and no kids kicking your seat. Why would I want to go to a theater? Oh, and I can put on a Wilco DVD if you want as well. Not that many people I know care about that.

You have a 96-foot screen? That sounds huge!

[thejokeexplained]

You have a 96-foot screen? That sounds huge!

 

mines only 20'! i can't imagine what a 98' screen looks like...

[theashtraysays]

People are so hung up on their inner monologue, their inner soundtrack, that the outside world is just background noise.

Perfect.

[crowesfan28]

Those people are more important than you guys are.

Well, I figure everyone is more important than me, but after we've established that they can shut their yappers.

 

96 foot screen! Oops I meant 96 inches.

Is that screen actually 20 feet? Nice. I think my projector can only do about 160 inches. And do I see only 2 chairs and a cooler?

[LouieB]

Because they can.

 

This has been a topic here on VC ever since I started coming here. It isn't that they don't care, it is that rock audiences don't think talking at shows is rude. Other kinds of audiences do think it is rude, but not rock ones.

 

LouieB

[thejokeexplained]

Well, I figure everyone is more important than me, but after we've established that they can shut their yappers.

 

96 foot screen! Oops I meant 96 inches.

Is that screen actually 20 feet? Nice. I think my projector can only do about 160 inches. And do I see only 2 chairs and a cooler?

 

20X12 and its on pulleys so i can raise or lower it like a sail. With three small kids it's the perfect alternative to the Drive in theater. All the wilco dvd's have graced it's canvas.

 

BTW we allow talking during the screenings.

 

http://backyardtheater.com/

[crowesfan28]

Wilco on the big screen, outdoors. The perfect way to piss off the neighbors. And I've got a few that could use it!

[Dmada]

not all of those people in attendance care about the music as much as you might

 

for some, it may be an excuse to get together with friends

talking to that friend may be more important than listening to the music

just saying-people go to shows for different reasons

[lamradio]

not all of those people in attendance care about the music as much as you might

 

for some, it may be an excuse to get together with friends

talking to that friend may be more important than listening to the music

just saying-people go to shows for different reasons

 

You are correct, but that doesn't change the fact that they are douche bags, and their "different reasons" ruin the concert for everyone around them.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

I call it the 'movie star' syndrome. Everybody is starring in their own Movie and nothing else matters.

 

A cuter way of saying that Solipsism is running rampant.