Random Play: @fltfoxz. Gr8. C u 2moro
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Texting in front of me in a movie - where the bright light takes away from the dark theatre - will earn you a prod in the head from my foot.
But texting at a concert - where everyone's dancing and focused on the bright stage anyway - I've got no problem with.
Eddie and Danielle, we are all the same: talking at gigs is just wrong!
Also, "electronic beeping"? Do people seriously still have their cellphones beeps on? Srsly?
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A good way to deal with it in the past (I play bass for Anika) is stopping the show and seeing if the whole crowd can join in the conversation that the people are having. It is really annoying at times when you're playing and people are just talking and ignoring the show. But, they've paid their money and it's up to them how they spend the time at our show. It's our job to be able to handle things like that and to still deliver the best show we can to the people who really wanna be there to see it.
For us, it is mainly the more pub-like venues where there is a mix of people wanting to specifically see the show vs the regulars who take it as a given that they can be as loud as they want, when they want. Seated gigs really do draw the crowd to silence (generally), however to be honest I find that just as hard to deal with as an overly talkative crowd (shit, sounds like I'm in the wrong job!)
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As for Tom's general point - in Wellington at least the problem is one of venues
That's true. Some acts such as Fly My Pretties play in places like BATS theatre, but those are usually one-offs.
A lot of the live music I've seen in the past few years hasn't been at "gigs" per se, but people playing in cafes or small bars where the patrons are expected to talk through the music. And a lot of the gigs I've been to are at bar/venues with small cover charges where, as people say, there's a mix of regulars or people who just turn up on the night and those who are there specifically for the band. A place like Mighty Mighty might have a curtain between the bar area and the venue area, and when someone like Alex the Kid are thrashing away the bar chatter is hardly going to interfere; but if it's some sort of winsome folkiness then the bar sounds will intrude. And to those who object to people talking or ordering drinks at the bar: it's a bar. I'm here for a drink and a chat. Deal with it.
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A lot of the live music I've seen in the past few years hasn't been at "gigs" per se, but people playing in cafes or small bars where the patrons are expectedto talk through the music.
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And to those who object to people talking or ordering drinks at the bar: it's a bar. I'm here for a drink and a chat. Deal with it.
Agree, in those circumstances. Incidental/background/pub covers band is a different context to a gig. So I don't think my grumps really have any application in that context, and I don't think the 2nd part of what I quoted above has any application to a proper gig.
Indigo, for example, is a venue first and a bar second (who goes to indigio/SFBH to drink?). And Fleet Foxes, for example, was 55 bucks. In those circumstances, I think you have a reasonable expectation of people paying attention to the music and mostly shutting the hell up. [Wow, that sounded grumpy]
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Or I might forget I'm not in the living room, get me kit off and start twirling around in my undies.
GIF! GIF!
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Watch a football crowd in the UK (and other countries too, no doubt). See them react to the big moment. The goal, the win.
Old style: crowd forms one mass, one roar, one jump, the sound of two hands clapping.
Modern style: fans hold mobile in one hand, look around, capturing the moment, the moment when everyone held up their mobiles. Tinny, rhythm-less clapping. (You try doing it).
I know this because I stop roaring and jumping and clapping and watch them do it. Nobody's going to out-meta me.
The next step is to provide the noise artificially (see Warriors et al). The crowd can get on with texting each other about the fantastic atmosphere they no longer provide.
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I've texted at gigs and I'm not ashamed.
If it's a personal text, it's going to be more like "[band] is going off. You should have come!" to a friend who's missed out. Otherwise I'll do some twitters as a sort of document of the experience.
For example, at the Breeders concert at the SFBH in August, I sent two twitters (this one and this one) of funny Kim Deal quotes that I wanted to share with others and record in some form.
But I always text between songs. It's impossible to compose a text if you're totally engaged in a performance. You can't text in a mosh pit! Though, like Tom said, if a performance is kinda low-key and hasn't grabbed you, then perhaps the situation lends itself more to texting during a song.
But the one thing I refuse to do is take photos. I'm all for professional and amateur music photography, but I don't get the people who stand at a gig, holding their cellphone up so they can take a shitty, blurry photo of some distant rock star - or worse, they record a video.
Because photography means taking yourself out of the moment for a long time. What you're focussing on isn't the performance on the stage, it's the operation of the photographic equipment.
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Nice to see so many relaxed, refreshed and just, kinda, copacetic people following the break :)
And, no, I don't go to gigs to listen to music. Never have. To do that you need to sit in a very precisely defined room surrounded by speakers and listen to a studio recording.
Live stuff is about community and being among people. We have to accept that this now includes people who may no physically be with you at the time, but with whom you wish to share the moment...
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What everyone here needs is a back stage pass and a laser pointer. Then from the safety of being on the other side of the security guard you can select the annoying punters with your laser and do that threatening two finger gesture - you know the "I'm looking at you" one.
they have comfy seats and nice loos back there to. -
I have been an old curmudgeon for most of my life. There has always been plenty to be curmudgeonly about and technology always creates lots of opportunities to be grumpy. I hated the way Mr Bell's telephone used to interrupt us when we were drinking the port after dinner back in the day.I enjoy reading discussions such as this one.
But I find it hard to accept that in a discussion on the etiquette of texting in a particular venue some of those posting comments are forgetting the etiquette which makes this forum so much more pleasant than others. I do not think people should be called rude cunts under any circumstances. Personal abuse, apart from anything else, usually indicates that one's case is not strong. -
I do not think people should be called rude cunts under any circumstances. Personal abuse, apart from anything else, usually indicates that one's case is not strong.
And/or indicates that it's a post from Craig Ranapia, who has a... unique sense of etiquette. (Said with tongue firmly in cheek, Craig)
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Long time watcher, infrequent poster............
I am with John V. I, too, have no idea about the whys and wherefores of texting at a concert - but it seems kinda unnecessary to me. But each to his own.
I won't put up with it at the movies though, no way, no how!
I recall attending an afternoon movie a few years ago, it was sparsely populated. Guy entered, 5 mins into movie, sat next to me. I remember thinking that was strange when there was plenty of other seats. After awhile I became aware of movement from him in my peripheral vision. When the cogs in my brain had slipped into place I realised he was ummm errrr masturbating.
Then began this great internal dialogue about OMG is he, OMG yes he is! What to do, what to do? OMG. Finally after some internal debate and angsting I stood up and announced to the rest of the occupants of the theatre that the guy next to me "was masturbating.
Oh the scramble. The rushed hurriedness in which he got himself together and left the place. Oh sure, I could have gone out, contacted the staff, got the police, he would have got a slap with a bus ticket. I got more satisfaction from my actions frankly.
Sorry for the tangent. Perhaps seeing Irina Palm last night triggered the memory.
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I've texted at gigs and I'm not ashamed.
Same, although I am beginning to be.
I haven't done it often, but it has usually been to tell someone what they are missing. As in "you couldn't get here, but you would be loving it if you were."
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But has anyone actually enjoyed receiving a message that the gig they're not at is cracking?
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. I do not think people should be called rude cunts under any circumstances. Personal abuse, apart from anything else, usually indicates that one's case is not strong.
To be fair, I don't think Craig was actually calling Giovanni a "rude cunt", but people who revolve around their phones in public. But I think Giovanni was unnecessarily rude before that and I should have jumped in sooner. We can be rude about each other's arguments without be being rude about each other personally.
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But the one thing I refuse to do is take photos. I'm all for professional and amateur music photography, but I don't get the people who stand at a gig, holding their cellphone up so they can take a shitty, blurry photo of some distant rock star - or worse, they record a video.
Because photography means taking yourself out of the moment for a long time. What you're focussing on isn't the performance on the stage, it's the operation of the photographic equipment.
Oh, I quite like grabbing the odd video clip, even if the sound is usually crap. It's way less complicated than texting. My video of Shihad at the BDO last year was cool like that even if some self-appointed audio policeman in the comments had a blue fit about the sound:
The weird thing was that the comments wound up with people arguing about Kurt Cobain.
I don't to cellphone video any more, of course. Not since I, er, upgraded to an iPhone ...
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Eddie Clark mentioned Gillian Welch at the Paramount as one way of solving the alt-country-in-noisy-bars dichotomy. I went to this gig. The seated audience/stage performance dynamic was wonderful: rapt, largely silent attention from the audience through all the extended solos (who knew from the recordings that, when playing, David Rawlings appears to enter a trance and bend and dip round and round from the hips?) and wonderful singing.
The sound was also well managed within the space: it sounded close to the recorded sound, so that the variations from the album tracks were all the more special. (You may not have thought it was possible for "Revelator" to rock, but you would be wrong.) I imagine, however, that with just two performers who record a live-type sound anyway, that's probably not too hard to achieve.
The waiting, however, was the hardest part: audience admitted, seated by the start time and then waiting and waiting. Welch and Rawlings were late starting, which of course is no big deal in a bar venue, but in a concert hall setting it was tough, with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Audience members were shouting out pleas for the show to begin (and someone cried, "thank you for coming!" when eventually the performers made the stage). So again, an incomplete synthesis, but one that fixed the problems under discussion here.
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Thanks, Megan. Sorry I missed the gig (I managed to go to the Paramount box office 3 times and find it closed each time).
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As I recall, a few people had that problem! I'm from Christchurch so it was all booked on the tubes. The higher number of folks working in Wgtn who are willing to walk anywhere to do anything sometimes works against 'em, it seems...
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And in the unlikely event we're ever sitting across a table from each other
Wait, it's just occurred to me: are you telling me that you're chickening out of the Sarah Palin bet?
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Funny story.
A few years ago, David Gray played in Wellington, but t was $90+, which my wife and I thought it was far too expensive, and my parents and brother were visiting that weekend because it was Easter, so we decided not to go.
Anyway, it turns out that my brother's flatmate in Wanganui is a huge David Gray fan and went online as soon as tickets were available and clicked reload until such time as he was able to order the three centre seats in the front row for himself, his girlfriend, and my brother.
To complicate matters, my brother had borrowed a lawnmower and the Rolling Stones were playing Westpac Stadium, as can happen. And did I mention it was Easter. So the flatmate is driving down from Wanganui at top speed with his girlfriend, three David Gray tickets and a lawnmower in the car, when he rounds a corner to see a massive backlog of stopped traffic. He screeches to halt and just manages to avoid rear-ending the car in front.
And then he gets slammed by the driver behind him, causing the lawnmower to fly through the car and somehow injure the girlfriend, and next thing you know they're all off to the hospital. Luckily, they're mostly okay, though the car needs work and the lawnmower is totalled and the tickets are lost in Kapiti somewhere.
Long story short, my brother and my wife and I decide to go down to the venue and try to claim the tickets at the pickup window, so we can sit front-and-centre and watch David Gray, which we duly succeeded in doing.
However, my brother is naturally concerned about his flatmate and friend, so spends half the show texting them in the hospital. (There you have it, I am not off-topic.)
I guess I found it a little distracting from the next seat, but not nearly as annoying as the people shouting and talking behind us at Wilco. (Note to blond woman: Jeff doesn't care that you love him.)
I'll tell you who did seem to find it annoying though: David Gray. It wasn't the best show in the world, and maybe he is always like that, but he seemed a bit put out by the lack of enthusiasm from the audience (no dancing!) and I'm sure having some guy texting away in the very centre seat of the very front row did not help.
The funny thig is my brother is mostly blind so holds his phone right in front of his face, and he could barely see the stage anyway (even from the front row) so was oblivious to this effect. I've always thought that if I ever meet David Gray the first thing I'll do is apologise on his behalf.
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Sidelight: Anika Moa (way upthread there was a mention) came to
Big O and left a copy of "In Swings The Tide" (I really like her work) and a note "There are no pubs here!"Thus are places judged...also people, by such other important matters as their language. Crudities cease to be cute - or cutting. You see a name, roll your eyes, cease to read.
Or at least I do, now.
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You see a name, roll your eyes, cease to read.
I thought it a bit strange that nobody would remark on that particularly gratuitous use of the "c" word, but then of course neither did I. Maybe summer is the season for shrugging and moving on.
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This Atlantic article written by Polly Frost appears relevant.
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This Atlantic article written by Polly Frost appears relevant.
Fantastic. And I love the fact that you signed up to a blog commenters' community in order to share it with us!
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