I am really considering not going to any more live shows.

Last night at Tori Amos, the amount of drunks talking all through the show , texting, messing with their cameras, and barging their way through the audience spilling beer and smoking their brains out...why do they bother paying lots of cash for concert tickets and act like they are in a beer garden !!!! idiots spoiling it for the rest of us

That's not just there. I go to most concerts in NYC and I wonder the same thing.

- I was amazed at how many Springsteen fans were still tailgating in the parking lots so far into the concert, then walking back and forth to the bar once they did come in.

- I went to a baseball game last week, and I wanted to ask one group of people if they even knew who was playing...

- I've seen this other places, too.

I go to the bathroom and get "supplies" before the show starts, and only leave if it's an emergency, there's an intermission, or I don't like a song and use that opportunity.

to each his own, I guess.

[Edited 7/17/10 8:32am]

Behavior like this absolutely drives me nuts. I know rock gigs are not the opera, but is it asking too much to not spoil the experience for others?

I won't go to live shows anymore unless it's an act I absolutely can't miss. Almost without exception my enjoyment of the show is diminished by some drunk clumsily making out with his irritatingly hot girlfriend, some clown making small talk about his kid's graduation or some buffoon getting up every fifteen minutes for a beer or piss or wank for all I know. Why do these people even bother parting with the money for the ticket? They surely can't be getting anything out of the show.

My huge issues with concerts in "bigger" venues is this. I often end up hating everyone near me that constantly goes to get a drink, doesnt want to hear this song, has their cell phone out to record a crappy version to email their loser friends that they are at a concert. And of course talks and talks about a song or this or that. Look if you want to hear a certain song, then stay home and play the record, if you dont want to hear a new song, then stay home, your ticket gets you in, concerts are a gamble, all the artist has to do is show up they dont owe you anything but a full concert of what THEY want to do. and yes people need to chill with getting up and sitting down, they spend more on drinks than the ticket that they bitch cost too much

I've been going to gigs since 1977 and have noticed this behaviour more and more over the past 10-15 years.... recent highlights (lowlights) being:

Stevie Wonder - during "My Cherie Amour" (slow love song remember) a group of around 10 middle aged men & women began fighting in the stalls (drunk). Frankly bizarre.

Prince - aftershow at IndigO2, the club was packed with staggering drunks and people talking loudly. Years ago people appreciated an after show and watched in awestruck silence. One guy was sexually harrassing female members of the audience, touching them etc. He was only ejected by the door staff AFTER it had gotten so bad that one guy punched him out for molesting his girlfriend.

Paul Weller - folks chatting loudly during EVERY song only to stop & cheer at the end of each song, then continue chatting once the music started again!! Upon leaving the venue I heard them comment "that was the best gig ever", even though they hadn't listened to a single note.

And please folks......... put away your camera/phone. Nobody is interested in seeing your crappy quality, low res clips of half a song on YouTube.

Oh, I almost forgot... another thing becoming more prevalent at UK gigs lately is people throwing plastic cups filled with piss into the audience and recent reports from a few festivals indicate that throwing bottles either at the band or into the crowd is this year's dumb sport

[Edited 7/17/10 16:14pm]

* {edit}

[Edited 7/17/10 16:15pm]

pacey68 said:

I've been going to gigs since 1977 and have noticed this behaviour more and more over the past 10-15 years.... recent highlights (lowlights) being:

Stevie Wonder - during "My Cherie Amour" (slow love song remember) a group of around 10 middle aged men & women began fighting in the stalls (drunk). Frankly bizarre.

Prince - aftershow at IndigO2, the club was packed with staggering drunks and people talking loudly. Years ago people appreciated an after show and watched in awestruck silence. One guy was sexually harrassing female members of the audience, touching them etc. He was only ejected by the door staff AFTER it had gotten so bad that one guy punched him out for molesting his girlfriend.

Paul Weller - folks chatting loudly during EVERY song only to stop & cheer at the end of each song, then continue chatting once the music started again!! Upon leaving the venue I heard them comment "that was the best gig ever", even though they hadn't listened to a single note.

And please folks......... put away your camera/phone. Nobody is interested in seeing your crappy quality, low res clips of half a song on YouTube.

Exactly and PLEASE if you are going to record video and put it on YOUTUBE, ONE-stand still TWO-do not SING ALONG.....im so sick of hearing everyone sing-along, if i wanted to hear you sing i would buy your record.

And also the nonsense of talking during songs has to stop, IM SORRY that you dont dig anything but the hits that have been heard a million times, but when i hear something i have never heard I WANT TO HEAR IT, if the artist took time to put it in the set list, they should be heard, Your ticket gets you in to see the show, all that other shit you do is not in the price of admission.

I've just about given up on going to concerts. The last Sting concert I went to the 4 people sitting behind me were passing a cell phone around to show pics from their Italian vacation & talk about the food. Why go to concerts if its just a social occasion? Wouldn't dinner be cheaper? Ticket prices aren't stopping me from going to concerts - its the party atmosphere.

thedoorkeeper said:

I've just about given up on going to concerts. The last Sting concert I went to the 4 people sitting behind me were passing a cell phone around to show pics from their Italian vacation & talk about the food. Why go to concerts if its just a social occasion? Wouldn't dinner be cheaper? Ticket prices aren't stopping me from going to concerts - its the party atmosphere.

One time I saw Prince in a hotel-casino. 4 High-rollers had been comp-ed the tix, but had no idea who they were seeing. They kept talking, and got the security guard to try and make me sit down! After a huge argument because I paid $250. for my ticket and was going to shake my ass, they finally got up and left. The man made a point of saying loudly that they only came because it was free.

STAY HOME IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE THERE!!!!!!

pacey68 said:

Oh, I almost forgot... another thing becoming more prevalent at UK gigs lately is people throwing plastic cups filled with piss into the audience and recent reports from a few festivals indicate that throwing bottles either at the band or into the crowd is this year's dumb sport

[Edited 7/17/10 16:14pm]

Is that really new, though? I recall hearing stories like that back in the mid-eighties - I distinctly remember being fairly horrified and swearing that I would never, ever go to a UK music festival...

I cannot handle this either. Outdoor shows are the worst! All I hear is the roar of chatter and people just blitzed out of their minds.

Maybe this is how people are used to "listening" to their music collection - distracted, blitzed out of their fucking minds - so it seems natural to act like it's the beer gardens or crackhouse.

damosuzuki said:

I know rock gigs are not the opera, but is it asking too much to not spoil the experience for others?

The only thing worse is a completely dull "rock" crowd that can't move an inch to nod or dance.

My worse experience was a Meshell show but she deserved the disinterest with her funky attitude and playing against the audience. 2/3rds through and even I was in the bar hanging out.

sosgemini said:

My worse experience was a Meshell show but she deserved the disinterest with her funky attitude and playing against the audience. 2/3rds through and even I was in the bar hanging out.

Isn't the story that she is epileptic and hates audience camera flashes as a result?

Cinnie said:

sosgemini said:

My worse experience was a Meshell show but she deserved the disinterest with her funky attitude and playing against the audience. 2/3rds through and even I was in the bar hanging out.

Isn't the story that she is epileptic and hates audience camera flashes as a result?

No, I've seen her half a dozen times and she has always been on point. This show, she was just in a funky mood and was giving the audience attitude. This was during the Cookie tour and I had talked a handle full of my friends to join me cause of how awesome the previous shows had been. Well, those people stopped taking my recommendation after that.

And I've seen her since then (for Comfort Woman and for Infidel) and she was back to being killer. Well, except she was stoned out of her mind for the Infidel show but that kind of worked being that it was a jazzy show sans her vocals.

Cinnie said:

I cannot handle this either. Outdoor shows are the worst! All I hear is the roar of chatter and people just blitzed out of their minds.

Maybe this is how people are used to "listening" to their music collection - distracted, blitzed out of their fucking minds - so it seems natural to act like it's the beer gardens or crackhouse.

Yes! I was on the lawn at PNC Bank Arts Center in NJ, and this girl started throwing up right next to me!

She was completely wasted and couldn't hold her beer. THEN she started that crying nonsense!

I will NEVER buy lawn tix again!

PurpleCharm said:

It happens here in the US too. I co-sign w/ Cinnie about the prevelance of this type of behavior at outdoor venues. I almost didn't go to Erykah Badu's concert because it was at an outdoor arena. So many people think it acceptable to constantly walk around, drinking and socializing during the performance. I can't stand it. I think it's very disrespectful to the performers. I saw the legendary Chaka Khan at this outdoor arena and saw the same behavior. I was appalled. And it amazes me that so many people come to concerts extremely late.

its not just outdoors its indoors and in small clubs BIG TIME, i went to see this girl that i know perform at the Highline Ballroom here in NYC and the club was pretty full and other acts went on before her and then when she came on the crowd that wasnt there for her decided it was ok to be talking and drinking and being loud, i politely yelled out to some group of people "shut the fuck up" during a ballad when all i heard was this group of girls talk about their dumb ass boyfriends.

lastdecember said:

i politely yelled out to some group of people "shut the fuck up" during a ballad...

lastdecember said:

PurpleCharm said:

It happens here in the US too. I co-sign w/ Cinnie about the prevelance of this type of behavior at outdoor venues. I almost didn't go to Erykah Badu's concert because it was at an outdoor arena. So many people think it acceptable to constantly walk around, drinking and socializing during the performance. I can't stand it. I think it's very disrespectful to the performers. I saw the legendary Chaka Khan at this outdoor arena and saw the same behavior. I was appalled. And it amazes me that so many people come to concerts extremely late.

its not just outdoors its indoors and in small clubs BIG TIME, i went to see this girl that i know perform at the Highline Ballroom here in NYC and the club was pretty full and other acts went on before her and then when she came on the crowd that wasnt there for her decided it was ok to be talking and drinking and being loud, i politely yelled out to some group of people "shut the fuck up" during a ballad when all i heard was this group of girls talk about their dumb ass boyfriends.

"Ladies and gentleman, with all due respect, please shut the fuck up."

peppeken said:

I am really considering not going to any more live shows.

Last night at Tori Amos, the amount of drunks talking all through the show , texting, messing with their cameras, and barging their way through the audience spilling beer and smoking their brains out...why do they bother paying lots of cash for concert tickets and act like they are in a beer garden !!!! idiots spoiling it for the rest of us

Since when is is just a UK and Ireland thing?

I've seen in in every country I gone to a gig in.

The biggest problem at concerts now is the damn mobile phone brigade, obscuring your view with their crappy video recordings. Its enough to send me off to the bar again........

SquirrelMeat said:

peppeken said:

I am really considering not going to any more live shows.

Last night at Tori Amos, the amount of drunks talking all through the show , texting, messing with their cameras, and barging their way through the audience spilling beer and smoking their brains out...why do they bother paying lots of cash for concert tickets and act like they are in a beer garden !!!! idiots spoiling it for the rest of us

Since when is is just a UK and Ireland thing?

I've seen in in every country I gone to a gig in.

The biggest problem at concerts now is the damn mobile phone brigade, obscuring your view with their crappy video recordings. Its enough to send me off to the bar again........

Totally agree, just go through Youtube and thats all you find, total shit recordings on phones, everyone is trying to be special, guess what, youre not special, the artist really doesnt give two craps about you at the end of the day when they leave the venue. The constant sticking your arm up in the air for a blurry out of focus shot for what?? to show your kids 20 years from today on how big a dick you were back then.

You know what it is right, yer getting old son

Glad its not just me that's noticed this!! There are some grade-A w*nkers going to concerts in the UK at the mo. Went to the last O2 Arena Bon Jovi show few weeks back and there were two guys clearly trashed, who thought it was funny to throw they empty and half empty plastic beer cups all over the people in front of them. And it went on all show!! I was praying someone would turn round and knock them out....

Worst one was Madonna at O2 last July...we were in the upper tier and as soon as Madge came out, my sis and I got on our feet, as you do (Madonna isn't a sitting down show, fools!)...some fat guy behind me immediately tapped me on the shoulder and rudely said "Sit down". I asked him if he planned to sit for the whole show and he said yeah, so I said to him "Why the f*ck didnt you just stay at home and watch it on Sky 1 instead?!" (Sky were showing the 2008 leg of the tour on TV that very night)....with that I grabbed my sis and stomped all the way down to the lower tier and marched to two spare seats nearer the front, best move I ever made!

For the most part the arena staff couldn't give a toss and let people get away with all sorts (including our seat moving, I guess). What exactly they do to warrant their wage, I'm not sure!

And why do people insist on filming the whole thing on their mobiles? You know its gonna come out crap, and why pay all that money to watch the show through your rubbish mobile phone screen??

pacey68 said:

I've been going to gigs since 1977 and have noticed this behaviour more and more over the past 10-15 years.... recent highlights (lowlights) being:

Stevie Wonder - during "My Cherie Amour" (slow love song remember) a group of around 10 middle aged men & women began fighting in the stalls (drunk). Frankly bizarre.

Prince - aftershow at IndigO2, the club was packed with staggering drunks and people talking loudly. Years ago people appreciated an after show and watched in awestruck silence. One guy was sexually harrassing female members of the audience, touching them etc. He was only ejected by the door staff AFTER it had gotten so bad that one guy punched him out for molesting his girlfriend.

Paul Weller - folks chatting loudly during EVERY song only to stop & cheer at the end of each song, then continue chatting once the music started again!! Upon leaving the venue I heard them comment "that was the best gig ever", even though they hadn't listened to a single note.

And please folks......... put away your camera/phone. Nobody is interested in seeing your crappy quality, low res clips of half a song on YouTube.

Oh, I almost forgot... another thing becoming more prevalent at UK gigs lately is people throwing plastic cups filled with piss into the audience and recent reports from a few festivals indicate that throwing bottles either at the band or into the crowd is this year's dumb sport

[Edited 7/17/10 16:14pm]

I've heard mixed things from the Prince Indigo2 shows. I did two, and didn't have any problems. I was there for the last one, and by the time Prince came out for his last encore at 4am in the morning all the a*seholes had gone and it was only the hardcore fans left...it made for an awesome atmosphere even if the club wasn't full anymore. And I'm sure Prince was digging the fact that he was now planning to true fans and only true fans!