Author Topic: Please pardon my rant (Read 484 times)

bracheen · « **on:** June 17, 2004, 03:58:17 AM »

Last night I attended an Eric Clapton concert. He and his band put on a brilliant show. However the night was constantly disrupted by people who looked like they should know better getting up and down, going back and forth, mostly in order to buy another outrageously priced, cheap beer served in a plastic cup. Or they would stand in the aisles blocking others view while chatting with their buds.
Whether or not one likes Clapton?s music or style the fact that he is one of the most influential musicians ever cannot be denied. Yet the greater part of the audience was behaving as if they were at a tractor pull. I would have thought that people in their middle age with some degree of education and affluence, judging by appearances, would know how to act in public.
Thanks for letting me vent.

Sam

dnburgess · « **Reply #1 on:** June 17, 2004, 05:02:43 AM »

I think the problem is that Clapton has become such a brand that there are a lot of people in the audience that wouldn't know the difference between Clapton and a tractor pull - i.e. they have little musical appreciation and are there because its the thing to do.

BTW, who was the bassist?

dadabass2001 · « **Reply #2 on:** June 17, 2004, 05:28:27 AM »

I had a similar experience last year at a Steely Dan show in Chicago. A whistling fan behind me basically ruined the $80 a seat night for me by singing along (badly), talking, and whistling whenever it got too quiet for his taste. (Grrr) I get angry again just thinking about it.
Mike

bracheen · « **Reply #3 on:** June 17, 2004, 05:39:49 AM »

Nathan East I think. BTW the opening act Robert Randalph and the Family Band were awesome. If you've never heard Jimi Hendrix played on a steel guitar, you're missing out. On their finale they ran around during the song swapping instruments. I think they all ended up playing each instrument and never missed a beat. Incredable. Too bad all the redneck yahoos had to miss it. I actually heard someone behind me say they could have skipped this part

kmh364 · « **Reply #4 on:** June 17, 2004, 06:22:23 AM »

That's precisely why I didn't go to concerts for years: couldn't deal with obnoxious, inconsiderate, drunken/drugged-out, chain-smoking idiots. I saw Yes at Madison Square Garden last month and suffered through a combination coating of cigarette and pot smoke and beer from the idiots around me. Special thanks to the shaven-head jerk who came in late with all his friends, stepped all over me a dozen times to get beers, wouldn't shut-up during the show, and alternately chain-smoked joints and cigarettes the entire time he wasn't getting a beer (or mostly spilling them...on the floor or on me). The breeze was blowing just right, so I think I got more of what he was smoking than he did. Thank God for those No Smoking laws/big fines that are in effect in all NYC indoor spaces, LOL! All this for a measly $100 ticket fee, plus the deck parking and the train fare, etc. I'm getting too old for this sh*t, LOL!

alembic76407 · « **Reply #5 on:** June 17, 2004, 06:36:08 AM »

I can deal with the cigarette and pot smoke, what pissess me off is the girl next to me that feels the need to sing as loud as she can, I paid $80 a ticket to hear her sing? I don't think so!!!!!!

David T

David Houck · « **Reply #6 on:** June 17, 2004, 07:08:35 AM »

When I go to a concert, which is not often, I'm there for the rare opportunity to see and hear great musicians. So, my experience is also lessened by the examples mentioned above. (In fact, I don't like it when people shout and clap in the middle of solos, because I can't hear the notes above the noise!) However, I suppose that one should consider the viewpoints of others. For instance, the people doing Ecstasy and dancing non-stop may be there for the rare opportunity to dance with their friends and others of a like mind to the music of these particular musicians. They aren't interested in the way the bass player and drummer communicate with each other, they just like experiencing the groove. And they are probably writing in a different forum about how they don't understand people that go to concerts and just sit in their seats the whole time. And the people that talk through the whole show; perhaps their goal is to get away from their normally stressed out lives and be with friends they no longer get to see very often at a live concert that they rarely get to attend any more. So the guys that are chain smoking and constantly running back and forth to the rest rooms and beer vendors and constantly talking to their friends and whistling and singing along, etc., that night might have been the highlight of the year for them, a respite from the misery of their day to day existence. And the fact their actions may be impinging on the experiences of others may not occur to them; or it could be the case that their craving for some sense of enjoyment in their lives outweighs in their minds the goals of others sitting near them.

Or not.

811952 · « **Reply #7 on:** June 17, 2004, 08:15:58 AM »

In 1988, my soon-to-be-wife and I went to a CSN outdoor concert in Indianapolis. Most of the audience were between 40 and 50 years old it appeared, and didn't seem like typical concert-goers. Anyway, the first half of the show was difficult to appreciate because everybody was drinking and spilling beer, and smoking joints as though they hadn't in years. And apparently they hadn't, because before too long three quarters of the audience was literally passed-out cold. It was one of the funniest things I think I've ever seen at a concert. The most beautiful thing was that we could at last hear and see everything. Bob Glaub was playing bass, too, and I've always liked his tastefully reserved style. Anybody else experience this at a show?
John

kmh364 · « **Reply #8 on:** June 17, 2004, 08:20:59 AM »

One should be able to cut loose and have a good time without being totally inconsiderate to others. This guy, no matter how highed-up he was, could not have missed the fact of how pissed I was at his behaviour. He simply didn't give a sh*t. His Mommy must have raised him in a barn. I love to see bands out, and I always try to have a good time, but I at least try to have some consideration for others who have presumably paid good money and are also actually interested in seeing/hearing the artist perform.

David Houck · « **Reply #9 on:** June 17, 2004, 08:22:48 AM »

John, that is indeed funny and unusual!

bracheen · « **Reply #10 on:** June 17, 2004, 10:50:16 AM »

Dave, I thought I had a dry sense of humor. You are the King.
Or in case you were being serious, Good Points.

Sam

hollis · « **Reply #11 on:** June 17, 2004, 12:17:40 PM »

My wife and I had really great seats for Widespread Panic last year?At least they were great seats until five minutes after the music started?That?s when the entire venue came ?down? to the front, dancin? and a smokin?, and a jumpin? and a laughin? and whatever else was available to them. Even the spinning guy that has been to every concert I?ve ever seen was there?Okay, I suspect it?s not the same guy?. But it is definitely the same spin.

At first, I was getting really pissed off at the inconsideration of these kids?. Then I remembered something..That was me 30 years ago?. And I?m pretty sure I was having a great time... Soooo, I spent the next few tunes watching the audience enjoy the music in their amazingly youthful way. Then another thing occurred to me; If everyone is down here....

My wife and I got up and half walking half dancing made our way up to the second section center row? The sound was better and the view was spectacular.... And there was nobody there but us. Shhhhh, don?t tell anyone, but we?re going to do the same thing at the Dead show in July?I?ll say hi to the spinning guy?..

xlrogue6 · « **Reply #12 on:** June 18, 2004, 07:15:37 AM »

Reminds me of the first time I went to see the Flecktones (back in the Howard Levy days). The show was at a small club (long since gone) here in Santa Rosa--not a bad seat in the house, unless of course you were sitting directly in front of a table full of people whose conversation was so witty-repartee'-filled that they deemed it unnecessary to stop just because those pesky musicians started playing. In fact, even my polite (yet firm) reminder that some of us were, in fact, there to hear the music fell on (wonder of wonders) deaf ears. Don't think they even noticed when Vic did his standing backflip while playing thing.

Humans--you gotta love 'em!

zappahead · « **Reply #13 on:** June 18, 2004, 03:59:51 PM »

Heh heh and people wonder why I dont go to many shows anymore these days.

The worst thing I can remember was at a Bob Weir (Ratdog) show at Constitution hall right after Jerry Garcia died. It was only a couple days after and it was Bobs first show since the news. The bass player, Rob Wasserman, was playing Amazing Grace on his bass and the place was so silent and placid, Ive never seen anything like it at a show. Then somewhere towards the end some buffoon stands up and starts yelling at the top of his lungs stuff like We miss you jerry, we love ya man or whatever. It was kinda funny though because then probably 10000 people or so all turned around and said shut the **** up!. I wouldnt be surprised if someone cleaned his clock. He utterly ruined the mood of moment for everyone, I think it was just plain screwed up that someone couldnt appreciate what was going on without ruining it by opening their piehole.

811952 · « **Reply #14 on:** June 18, 2004, 07:34:30 PM »

Piehole. Funny. I've got to remember that.
John