We pay to go to a live show. The crowd is excited to see the artist. You can feel it in the air. They appear on stage, plug in, start with a quiet but heartfelt acoustic number.
And 600 people keep their conversations going.
What. The. Hell. People?
Between songs, the artist makes polite but vague statements about how even with the PA, he can’t compete with all that noise.
They keep talking.
Grrrrrrr…
Not that it wasn’t a thing before, but it got way worse after the pandemic. A lot of people really forgot how to act in public after staying home for an extended period.
And assholes who think you go to a show to hear them sing along.
I’m the guy who goes to some low budget film to see the movie. Everyone around me was on a date.
I still say it should be legal to carry a bottle of lemon juice, and a tiny squirt gun. They start singing, with their mouth wide open, singing horribly, that when you squirt them. Right in the eyes.
The only issue is that no one else will know it’s just lemon juice.
Unfortunately, we live in an awful world.
I like how lemon juice straight to the eyes is only problematic in your mind because other people might mistake it for something EVEN WORSE!
I work in contract security… I’ve been sprayed with all manner of things. had nasty ass mid-western-flavorless-potato salad thrown at me. (Dill. I spent the rest of that shift smelling like freaking dill.).
I’ve been spat at. Pissed at. (sometimes on purpose. Also. Why do drunks pissing on your wall always try to shake your hand? Also, why do FNG’s never listen when I tell them to always initiate from a reasonably safe distance…?)
I’ve also been maced. Quite frequently, actually. It’s part of training, and I’m the guy doing the training… Protip. If the attacker has been exposed to mace enough, it’s not something that’s going to stop them. We train our guards to build up that tolerance so they can work through it. otherwise it’d incapacitate the guard as much as the subject. Even if they’ve never before been exposed… if they’re determined enough, it still wont’ stop them. It’ll just make them angrier.
Suffice it to say, lemon juice just ain’t that offensive. Wouldn’t want you to get slapped with any of a dozen possible charges involved in spraying people with chemical agents. And yes, any security or LEO outfit worth their pay is going to be framing that as “unknown chemical or possibly biological agent”. until they know-for-damned-certain its not. (and that gets expensive, so, uh, you’ll be footing the bill on that, at the very least. probably also some variation of assault.)
Yes! I’m the main character vibes. :(
Go to a hardcore show.
Is that when the crowds have sex louder than the artist’s performance?
If you get a good one
Then the singer shouts “shut the hell up!!” instead. I dig it.
In a word, yes.
I think that it has gotten substantially worse in the last 10 years, but I don’t have hard data.
At first I thought it was just a festival phenomenon, where people present might not be particularly interested in that act. But it happens at individual band shows, and not just during the opening act.
Are people more self-absorbed? Or have ticket prices ironically meant a higher percentage of filthy rich people in attendance who don’t care all that much?
Get a good quality set of earplugs. I got some Hearprotek ones and I don’t know what voodoo they have, but I hear the artist crystal clear and can’t hear any crowd noise. Not the people behind me, not my partner right next to me, none of that. But I can hear every note Crystal clear. Oh and my ears are happier at the end of the concert too
People suck
2nd reason why I refuse to goto live shows. People…
Some of my most intense, fun and vivid memories are seeing live music with friends/ family.
I know it’s not as cheap or accessible as it used to be and that adds to the frustration. But If music is something you’re passionate about, I would highly recommend doing it while the bands you like are still around and you are still able.
If you generally don’t like concerts then you do you and that’s fair.
I love music more then most things, but between Ticketmaster and the general public’s self centered attitude, I just don’t bother.
I’d rather spend the money on a great paid of studio grade headphones and listen to em that way.
Not the person you replied to, but I was the same way until I realized all my favorite artists were either dying or retiring and chances to ever see them were slipping away, and quickly. I just go to whatever shows I can and just be present in the moment. Even small local shows. I’ve found a bunch of cool artists by going to shows with artists I don’t even know.
Like, imagine having the opportunity to see a Zeppelin show in their prime, then imagine thinking about going, then saying “meh.” I couldn’t even comprehend the regret I would feel passing something like that up. And it circles back to not knowing you’re in the “good old days” until they’re already past. I just don’t want to look back at missed opportunities and kick myself for the rest of my life.
Like they said, it’s not for everyone, especially not these days. Ticketmaster is a plague, most shows are ridiculously overpriced with food and drink to match, and way too many people are focused on taking a video they’ll never watch. But if things only get worse, I’m going to go down swinging and keep going to shows until doing so would financially break me.
There’s this shit that younger people in São Paulo do in techno parties that is that they start screaming “hue hue hue hue…” and interrupt the music the DJ is playing and is fucking annoying, but I can’t really complain, I love to clap with the folding hand fan, I know some people don’t like it but I found that in general it gave good reactions (have never talked about it with DJs to know what they think about it).
