If you don't want to be with dancing people, don't go to a Pet Shop Boys concert [Archive]

matt_mcl

10-10-2006, 11:59 PM

Just back from the Pet Shop Boys concert at Wilfrid-Pelletier hall, which was otherwise fabulous. We got fabulous seats (front row centre of the first balcony), and the set list was great.

Now I don't think it was completely unreasonable to go to a Boys concert and dance, you know, being as how they are DANCE MUSIC. Playing their big DANCE hits that people want to DANCE to, like "Can you forgive her," "Heart," "Domino dancing," "You were always on my mind," etc. Sure enough, most everyone in the parterre below was dancing.

But this evil queen who was sitting two rows behind me? Seemed to be determined to keep everyone from having a good time. I got up to dance, and he actually GRABBED MY BELT LOOP and PULLED me down into my seat. Apparently he was doing this to other people too, or yelling "Sit down!"

Fuck you, honey. I'm sorry you're a little bit confused, but just because it's at Place des Arts doesn't mean it's the fucking opera. Where the fuck do you get off telling people not to dance at a dance music show? Where the fuck, in particular, DO YOU GET OFF TOUCHING ME AT ALL?

If you don't want to dance or be around people who are, don't go see the Pet Shop Boys. Hell, don't go to any kind of concert if you're going to be in such a pissy mood. What the fuck is wrong with you, you pissy little snip? Are you going to go home and masturbate to the deliciously acidic thought of how you spoiled the concert for others?

You managed to keep most of the balcony too scared to dance for the whole first and most of the second act; and even while everyone in the parterre and everyone else on the balcony was dancing during "Domino dancing" there was this radius of non-dancing people for about four seats around us.

At least I finally wised up and went to go dance in the aisle with Frank. And sure enough, you apparently left in the middle of the encore - when they played "Go west" and "It's a sin," and no force in the universe could have stopped Pet Shop Boys fans from dancing. Just couldn't bear to have people around you having fun, eh?

Fuck you, asshole. I had a great time.

mhendo

10-11-2006, 12:26 AM

Glad you had a good time. I love the Pet Shop Boys.

Sorry about the asshole. Some people just don't get it. Sure, there are some concerts where it would probably be appropriate to sit. I guess if you're there watching James Taylor or Beth Orton or something, dancing might be kinda silly.

But the Pet Shop Boys? Give me a break. That's why i like seeing bands at venues without seats, where everyone has to stand and dancing/moving is standard practice.

matt_mcl

10-11-2006, 12:30 AM

But the Pet Shop Boys? Give me a break. That's why i like seeing bands at venues without seats, where everyone has to stand and dancing/moving is standard practice.

That's the way it was the first time I saw them, in 1999; it was at Metropolis and there were no seats, just a big dance floor. I was worried something like this might happen in a concert hall.

matt_mcl

10-11-2006, 12:31 AM

Incidentally, I see they'll be in DC on the 15th. Are you going?

mhendo

10-11-2006, 12:47 AM

Incidentally, I see they'll be in DC on the 15th. Are you going?I didn't even realize they were touring until i saw your post. I tend to be lazy about keeping an eye on the touring schedules in the area.

I don't think i can go, though. Already got a bunch of stuff on this weekend. I've only seen them live once, back in 1995 i think it was, when they toured Australia. Saw them in Sydney, and it was lots of fun. They also stayed at the hotel where i was working at the time.

Odesio

10-11-2006, 02:05 AM

I had a friend who used to buy people the strangest CDs for their birthday. It isn't as if the CD was strange in and of itself it's just that his selection seemed so random and not at all based on the taste of the person in question. In the mid-90's he got me a Pet Shop Boys album and an album that was a tribute to Curtis Mayfield. My reaction was "Who is Curtis Mayfield and is this the same Pet Shop Boys from the 80's?" To make a long, boring, and pointless story short I liked the Pet Shop Boys album.

I'd be really pissed if someone grabbed me and pulled me down into my seat. I'm kind of surprised nobody beat him to a pulp.

Marc

jayjay

10-11-2006, 07:02 AM

I'd be really pissed if someone grabbed me and pulled me down into my seat. I'm kind of surprised nobody beat him to a pulp.

It was probably a largely gay crowd. We tend to employ the withering stare and cutting quip rather than the fisticuffs. :)

Captain Amazing

10-11-2006, 09:36 AM

Wait, I'm confused. Isn't "Don't go to a Pet Shop Boys concert" good advice under any circumstances? :)

Jackknifed Juggernaut

10-11-2006, 09:49 AM

I saw them at Radio City Music Hall a few years ago (possibly over a decade ago, IIRC). It was one of the most fun concerts that I've ever attended. Every song was like a little play with actors, ballerinas, etc. It was quite the visual and aural experience. And everyone was dancing. No one sat. The woman had no right to complain. I'm guessing it was her first concert. People even get up and dance at boring concerts. I once was forced to go to a Bruce Springsteen concert and people still almost never sat down.

mhendo

10-11-2006, 09:56 AM

I saw them at Radio City Music Hall a few years ago....They're playing there again this Saturday night.

Sarahfeena

10-11-2006, 10:21 AM

I love the Pet Shop Boys live...usually techno-type bands are not too great in a live setting, but PSB really know how to put on a show.

I don't understand the sitting-at-a-concert thing. The first time I encountered this was at a Paul McCartney concert. I chalked it up to most of his fans being almost as old as he is, but come on, people...the Pet Shop Boys? What is the point if you can't dance? How lame.

Left Hand of Dorkness

10-11-2006, 10:22 AM

Anaamika

10-11-2006, 10:25 AM

I dont' mind the nondancers, but I hate the antidancers.

Nicely put, Daniel. At the end of the Blue Man Group concert we went to last Friday the band actually asked us to get up and do some Rock Concert Moves - lots of fun, with thousands of people all doing the bob in place, or the fist-pump. It makes you feel like this vast organism called Crowd, it's great.

Mindfield

10-11-2006, 10:27 AM

I only wish I could go to a Boys concert. Somehow I always seem to miss it when they're in town. :mad: Pity that wretched whinebag tried to ruin it, but if it were me I'd be telling her to either pipe the fuck down or get her stank ass to a Michael Buble concert or something. Screw being polite; you go to a concert with some energetic music by well-established pop/dance music artists, then y'know, when in rome and all that. You don't go trying to tell everyone to sit down because you're a spiteful bitch who refuses to join in the festivities.

matt_mcl

10-11-2006, 11:13 AM

Wait, I'm confused. Isn't "Don't go to a Pet Shop Boys concert" good advice under any circumstances? :)

Only when no Pet Shop Boys concert is being presented.

yojimbo

10-11-2006, 12:05 PM

I fucking hate that kind of shit.

I remember a good few years ago nearly getting into a fight with a stupid bastard at a Trad Irish gig. I was a sit down affair but once the fiddles and pipes kicked in almost everyone was up out of their seats dancing and yelping at the great music.

A gobshite behind me seemed to think this music deserved to be listened to in silent awe. Bullshit, he was told when he told us to sit own and shut up. This is music to enjoy yourself to, not to respect in that way.

Luckily I'm a big guy so the fucker just sat back down and moaned to his SO about it. When he was told to, fuck off! I'd bet a lot of money that the Aran jumper wearing fuck was a Irish teacher who has had all perspective removed from years of fighting to have Irish culture respected.

Glad you enjoyed yourself matt_mcl I was dragged to a PSB's concert many moons ago and enjoyed myself more than I admitted at the time(I was a heavy metal head back in the day ;)

chela

10-11-2006, 12:08 PM

tremorviolet

10-11-2006, 12:18 PM

Just back from the Pet Shop Boys concert at Wilfrid-Pelletier hall, which was otherwise fabulous. We got fabulous seats (front row centre of the first balcony), and the set list was great.[snip] I had a great time.

So it was a good show? I've got tickets for October 21 and I can not freakin' wait. I've been waiting to see them for 20 years...

Gadarene

10-11-2006, 12:19 PM

matt_mcl

10-11-2006, 03:09 PM

So it was a good show? I've got tickets for October 21 and I can not freakin' wait. I've been waiting to see them for 20 years...

You'll have a great time. (The thing that amazes most people is not so much the music, which they more or less expected, but the staging. This one will be no different. They're practically a theatre troupe.) Just don't let anyone tell you not to dance!

MovieMogul

10-11-2006, 03:58 PM

I suspect one reason I don't go to many concerts (and when I do, they're not the type to incite spontaneous dancing) is because I think I know deep-down I'm a closet anti-dancer. Please note: I love dancing at weddings, clubs, parties, etc., but I honestly think it would really bother me if people around me were dancing--not because I don't want them to have fun, but because my idea of enjoying a concert is not having a lot of distracting behavior in my immediate vicinity.

Of course, I would never, ever act like the jerk in the OP who would confront people, ordering them about or applying physical force to stop the dancing. But it would still bother me, and I don't think I could enjoy myself. When I'm at the concert, I'm there to see the act, not the fans dancing in my sightlines (this also goes for the people behind me singing along, right into my ear). I know there's no way to stop it, and I would never presume to feel I should or had the right. But for me, it would take away from the whole experience, and concerts are expensive enough as it is that I know I'm better off not risking it.

OneCentStamp

10-11-2006, 04:19 PM

It was probably a largely gay crowd. We tend to employ the withering stare and cutting quip rather than the fisticuffs. :)
Funny you should mention that. When I saw this thread, I instantly mentally rewrote the title to, "If you don't want to be with gay people, don't go to a Pet Shop Boys concert." Double snerks when I saw the OP was matt. :)

Having said that, I'm now checking to see if they've passed through Houston yet...I bet that would be a fun show. :D

matt_mcl

10-11-2006, 04:20 PM

I can definitely understand that point of view. And I certainly wouldn't have danced if I would have been the only one. But practically everyone in the parterre was dancing, as I say.

You know, they really should have held this at Metropolis or some other venue without seats.

PunditLisa

10-11-2006, 04:49 PM

Wow. Someone grabbed you by the pant loop and told you to sit down? Amazing. Why do people go to public events and then resist the notion that there will be other people there as well?

My brother once had a patron tell him to stop singing along at a concert by the woman sitting next to him: "I came to hear ELTON JOHN sing, not YOU." :eek:

I would have danced. But then I'm a bitch.

Anaamika

10-11-2006, 08:03 PM

My brother once had a patron tell him to stop singing along at a concert by the woman sitting next to him: "I came to hear ELTON JOHN sing, not YOU." :eek:

Well, how loud was he singing? Was he singing all by himself, loudly? :D Cause that to me smacks of slightly loony behavior. :D

Anaamika

10-11-2006, 08:04 PM

Wow, smiley overload. Sorry.

Odesio

10-11-2006, 09:31 PM

Quick tangent: MGibson, you're consistently one of my favorite posters. Not necessarily because you're the wittiest or most incisive, but because you always seem like one of the most all-around genuinely good people here. Just wanted to share that.

</tangent>

Wow, I really don't know what to say. Thanks. I can be a jerk sometimes but I try to be decent most of the time.

Marc

Alma

10-12-2006, 10:13 AM

"I came to hear ELTON JOHN sing, not YOU."
I do say this kind of thing to my sister, who has a tendency to sing very loudly over the radio music in the car. I find that extremely annoying, but usually I just turn the radio up.

I would never even think of suggesting that at a concert venue. I was dragged forcibly to a Neil Diamond show last year (I confess, I had fun) and I don't think Mr. Diamond was all that interested in singing himself, because he had his microphone pointed at the crowd most of the time. Who wouldn't sing?

mhendo

10-12-2006, 11:10 AM

I would never even think of suggesting that at a concert venue. I was dragged forcibly to a Neil Diamond show last year (I confess, I had fun) and I don't think Mr. Diamond was all that interested in singing himself, because he had his microphone pointed at the crowd most of the time. Sweeeet Caroline.

(ba ba baaaaa)

:)

Mangetout

10-13-2006, 06:17 AM

Nicely put, Daniel. At the end of the Blue Man Group concert we went to last Friday the band actually asked us to get up and do some Rock Concert Moves - lots of fun, with thousands of people all doing the bob in place, or the fist-pump. It makes you feel like this vast organism called Crowd, it's great.Dunno about you, but I'm still aching from the behind-the-head-leg-stretch.

Only Mostly Dead

10-13-2006, 06:38 AM

My brother once had a patron tell him to stop singing along at a concert by the woman sitting next to him: "I came to hear ELTON JOHN sing, not YOU." :eek:
And that is why I don't go to too many concerts. If I fork over $100 for a ticket to see Elton John, I'd want to hear Elton singing. If I want to hear a random, untrained, possibly drunk woman butchering "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", I'll go to a karaoke bar for a lot less.

I know that some people feel more connected with the experience if they're singing along. But I just feel like your caterwauling is fucking with my ability to hear the only person in the venue who is obligated to sing. For all that person will remember of the show, they might as well just pop in their Greatest Hits album and scream away with that.

shizaru

10-13-2006, 06:59 AM

Hmmm....grabbing you and pulling you down to your seat. I think that would at least gain the puller a "Look, one warning...don't touch me again." warning. Thats pretty rude.

PunditLisa

10-13-2006, 03:19 PM

And that is why I don't go to too many concerts. If I fork over $100 for a ticket to see Elton John, I'd want to hear Elton singing. If I want to hear a random, untrained, possibly drunk woman butchering "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", I'll go to a karaoke bar for a lot less.

I know that some people feel more connected with the experience if they're singing along. But I just feel like your caterwauling is fucking with my ability to hear the only person in the venue who is obligated to sing. For all that person will remember of the show, they might as well just pop in their Greatest Hits album and scream away with that.

Actually I'd argue that if you want to just hear Elton John sing, YOU ought to pop in his CD. Live concerts are different because (drum roll, please) PEOPLE will be there. They'll be clapping, they'll be dancing, and they'll be singing along with the band. It's all part of the experience. And if you're not into it, then you really ought to stay home.

I daresay Elton John himself would far prefer to have the fans, drunk or otherwise, singing and dancing along, too. The performers feed off the crowd. "Crocodile rock" is a whole different animal performed live. And therein lies the beauty of a live performance.

fluiddruid

10-13-2006, 03:43 PM

Well, there's appropriate singing (singing softly, or singing along with refrains along with the crowd) and inappropriate singing (loudly singing, particularly drunkenly or with wrong lyrics).

Rube E. Tewesday

10-13-2006, 03:46 PM

Well, there's appropriate singing (singing softly, or singing along with refrains along with the crowd) and inappropriate singing (loudly singing, particularly drunkenly or with wrong lyrics).

A Dylan concert can be hilarious, as the crowd sings the album lyrics, and Dylan sings something altogether different. I'm not sure who's inappropriate.

Mama Tiger

10-13-2006, 07:10 PM

A Dylan concert can be hilarious, as the crowd sings the album lyrics, and Dylan sings something altogether different. I'm not sure who's inappropriate.

You can understand what Dylan is singing? We saw him a couple of years ago and were hugely disappointed -- we couldn't even recognize the melody of most of his songs, let along make out one single discernible word the entire evening. And it didn't help that he hid in the back corner of the stage all night and would step out of the light the second a song ended.

If there's only one person standing up and dancing, then maybe they should get a clue and sit down. But sitting down at a PSB concert? It sounds to me like it would be as inconceivable as sitting down for an enitre Great Big Sea show. It's just Not Done.

born too late

10-13-2006, 07:33 PM

Actually I'd argue that if you want to just hear Elton John sing, YOU ought to pop in his CD. Live concerts are different because (drum roll, please) PEOPLE will be there. They'll be clapping, they'll be dancing, and they'll be singing along with the band. It's all part of the experience. And if you're not into it, then you really ought to stay home.

I daresay Elton John himself would far prefer to have the fans, drunk or otherwise, singing and dancing along, too. The performers feed off the crowd. "Crocodile rock" is a whole different animal performed live. And therein lies the beauty of a live performance.

Sadly, the last two expensive concerts I've been to, people don't even seem to be paying attention. There's always large groups of people talking loudly on their cell phones and/or pissing off their friends. I couldn't help overhearing someone tell this group of people how big his dick was while Tom Petty sang Free Fallin'. It boggles the mind that anyone would pay upwards of 60 bucks for a ticket and then not even pay attention.

Equipoise

10-13-2006, 08:15 PM

You'll have a great time. (The thing that amazes most people is not so much the music, which they more or less expected, but the staging. This one will be no different. They're practically a theatre troupe.)

Cool. Too bad only the people in front, standing up and dancing, will be able to see that.

A short person, who lost count of the number of times I've paid good money to see a show, then had to tell people "I was there, but I never got to see the band" because people were standing up in front of me. I might as well stayed at home and listened to the CD.

Miss Purl McKnittington

10-14-2006, 01:02 PM

Sadly, the last two expensive concerts I've been to, people don't even seem to be paying attention. There's always large groups of people talking loudly on their cell phones and/or pissing off their friends. I couldn't help overhearing someone tell this group of people how big his dick was while Tom Petty sang Free Fallin'. It boggles the mind that anyone would pay upwards of 60 bucks for a ticket and then not even pay attention.
Heh heh heh. My parents go to a lot of Tom Petty concerts. The most interesting experience they ever had at one of his concerts was when two girls smelling fragantly of something illicit, turned around and asked them if they had a match. Apparently the girls had left home without a lighter or any other firesource. The disappeared for a little bit and found a match apparently, because they were even more fragrant when they got back. Once The Heartbreakers started playing, the two girls began spinning in circles with their arms straight out -- like you do when you're little and being dizzy was the best ever. They did that for the entire concert, taking a break only when the band did. Spinning for over two hours. Wow.

Freudian Push Up Bra

10-14-2006, 09:05 PM

I don't like being touched inappropriately and what that guy did is way up on my list of "Bad Touch". Whenever I get groped in a club (rare as it is, I still loathe it), I use my reflexes to grab the hand and twist the wrist. Everyone thinks I'm a huge bitch but I haven't actually hurt him (or her as it once was) and I don't care what they think, NO TOUCHY!

JpnDude

10-16-2006, 02:56 AM

I went to a Pet Shop Boys concert in Tokyo about 6-7 year ago. From the very first set, many of us "westerners" started dancing in front of our seats. It was about half way through to show that most of the Japanese guests got up to move to the music. :D

Donovan

10-16-2006, 03:18 AM

First time I saw They Might Be Giants, something similar happened--only this time it was the freakin' security people who wouldn't let anyone dance (this was at Duke University, a pretty weird venue for them anyway). About halfway through the show, the Johns told people to ignore security and come up and dance, and we did so.

I dont' mind the nondancers, but I hate the antidancers.

Daniel

Will they ever learn? I was at TMBG concert over a decade ago where they pretrty much did the same thing - I believe the exact phrase was 'Ingore the fire codes and get up and dance!' - except when the crowd complied, the stage collapsed... don't let their light-hearted, quirky music fool you; sociopaths, both of em.

Foldup Rabbit

10-16-2006, 05:22 AM

Antidancers? Nondancers? I hate the overdancers. I am not putting anyone here in this category, of course.

I go, I dance, but I do not appreciate the antics of the two teenaged girls who pushed, bullied and whined their way to the third row (beside me, of course) at the Belle & Sebastian show in Seattle last September. They pretty much just moshed, flailing their arms about, whacking other fans, calling the ones that berated them "dirty old bitches". Seriously, kids.

Dancing at a concert is a serious business and a delicate balance.

looking busy

10-16-2006, 05:34 AM

matt_mcl, adding to the chrous of voices here, the guy needs to get a life. But seriously, if anybody dared to grab me like that there would certainly be a little more than words exchanged, and I would have made it a point to dance, if for nothing else than to fuck him off.

Idlewild

10-16-2006, 06:01 AM

I'm still floating on a clowd from going to see the Pet Shop Boys here in Boston this past Friday and I have to say that entire concert was geared toward having the audience on its feet in joyous dance for at least the last twenty minutes of the show. Our audience skewed pretty middle-aged, which was really nice to see, and by the end everyone was on their feet clapping, swaying, and in general adding to the concert vibe rather than sitting quietly sucking it up like so much soundproofing. It was rather excellent. And for the record, I was sitting in the back of the orchestra section and I'm perilously short for a storm-trooper. I understand the frustration of being short and up the back, because I've done it in far worse venues, but to me, to be a part of a concert experience where people are participating rather than passively receiving music is worth it. I accept that mileages will vary.

BwanaBob

10-16-2006, 02:18 PM

This is a toughie for me. I've been on both sides of this argument. Because I think when "dance bands" tour they ought to reserve the whole floor for those who want to dance, and the upper decks for those who just want to watch and listen. Both viewpoints are valid. Sometimes I want to dance, sometimes I want to watch the band perform.

It sucks when the two crowds get commingled.

Years ago, I was at a concert (Jethro Tull) where I got 2nd row balcony seats. I was thrilled, figuring I wouldn't have to contend with tall people standing in front of me blocking my view of the stage (I'd given up on floor seats untold years before).

So my luck I get this drugged out hippie-chick in front of me and my friend who felt compelled to dance to every song. Now 95% of reasonable people would not consider Tull a dance band.

I wasn't the only pissed off person. Shouts of "sit down" rained down on her, to no avail. Someone up behind me threw a hamburger at her and hit her in the head. She turned around and started cursing out my friend, convinced it was his burger. My friend told her to fuck off and finally the girl's boyfriend pulled her away from the crowd. Incidentally, he sat in his seat the whole time.

So this "problem" goes both ways.

anu-la1979

10-16-2006, 03:38 PM

Thanks for the heads up that they're on tour, matt. I just bought a ticket to see them in LA at the Wiltern theatre. I've been sulky since missing Depeche Mode last year, must make up for it with PSB.

Now, if they'll only play Jack and Jill Party I think I'll be a happy clam (of course, they'd need Pete Burns)

interface2x

10-16-2006, 06:44 PM

I've been sulky since missing Depeche Mode last year, must make up for it with PSB.

Think that's bad? My roommate and I missed a DM show in May when it was canceled - two hours before the show. Talk about a letdown!

Of course, we were 10th row at their previous Chicago show in November 05...

InternetLegend

10-17-2006, 01:58 AM

Will they ever learn? I was at TMBG concert over a decade ago where they pretrty much did the same thing - I believe the exact phrase was 'Ingore the fire codes and get up and dance!' - except when the crowd complied, the stage collapsed... don't let their light-hearted, quirky music fool you; sociopaths, both of em."Disappointing show/
Man, those guys blow...
Then the next song came on/
That's when it all went wrong/
And the PA fell on the crowd/
Then the cops came/
And took us away/
For an extended period of questioning about the PA..."

You were at that show? It's on the "Gigantic" DVD, y'know.

Nava

10-17-2006, 07:17 AM

I suspect one reason I don't go to many concerts (and when I do, they're not the type to incite spontaneous dancing) is because I think I know deep-down I'm a closet anti-dancer. Please note: I love dancing at weddings, clubs, parties, etc., but I honestly think it would really bother me if people around me were dancing--not because I don't want them to have fun, but because my idea of enjoying a concert is not having a lot of distracting behavior in my immediate vicinity.

That's one advantage to most concert venues here in Spain: you get "bench" tickets and "floor" tickets. Mostly, people on the benches don't intend to dance and people on the floor do.

People who are on the benches and want to dance move out of the row of seats and into the stairs, where there's room to dance.

PSB is one of those people whose shows are worth it even if you don't like the music (not if it grates on your nerves, of course).