I went to see the Pipettes, who released the best album of 2006, at the Empty Bottle here in Chicago last night. The show was amazing, and if they’re coming to your town during this tour, I cannot recommend going enough - especially after their album finally gets a domestic U.S. release this August, you’ll probably never get a chance to see them in such a small club setting again.
Anyway, the Empty Bottle is a small club, and it’s set up in a V or L shape with the stage being at the point in the middle and the audience fanning out mostly to the left and right of the stage. The left fork is stepped and goes up to a raised platform; these steps and this platform are where the shorter audience members tend to congregate, as they’re raised and can easily see over the rest of the crowd.
Standing exactly at the front of this section was The World’s Tallest Man. This guy was easily 6’8" or taller, a true living giant. I actually considered calling the Guinness or Ripley’s people at one point. This man-monster positioned himself exactly in the front and center of that entire section and completely blocked the view. It was literally as if someone had come in and erected a wall. He came in and positioned himself exactly in front of about 10 short girls that were just trying to watch the show, to their cries and protestations.
As if that weren’t bad enough, his girlfriend was about 5’, and he constantly leaned over to talk to her, blocking an even wider swath of viewing space. There was a constant motion of people behind him leading and moving to try to see around him, and each time he leaned over, it looked like the audience at a baseball game doing the wave.
It seems like every time I go to a concert or other capacity event, incredibly tall guys place themselves right in the middle of the crowd, or even up front, inconsiderately blocking the view of the unfortunate normal-sized people behind them. If you’re tall and you want to be in a crowd, go to the back - you’ll still be able to see over everyone in front of you anyway!
Hey, I gotta spend at least 5 minutes every time I go anywhere talking about (or at least listening to) how tall I am. So, I might take this into consideration (I generally do) but I really don’t care too much.
I think that guy was standing in front of us at Noodles & Co. a few weeks ago, which is one of those places where you look UP at the menu to decide what you want while you wait in line. It was very crowded, so we didn’t have the option of moving back or to the side to see around him. This guy was very animated too, and we also had to do the wave to try to read the board. I wasn’t annoyed so much at him (as if he could help it) as at the situation. (But I wish he could have stood a bit more still!)
So, you want him to either watch the show by himself, instead of with his girlfriend, or force his girlfriend to watch from the back, where she can’t see?
I think he made the right choice, which is to do the best for himself and his girl, and ignore whatever malcontents such as yourself want him to do.
I also go to a lot of concerts and sometimes I get stuck behind the guy with the big afro or behind the world’s tallest man. But I don’t come bitching here about every little thing that’s wrong, like you seem to be doing incessantly.
There are multiple things he could have done other than stand in the very front of the “short people section.” He could have stood against one of the walls on the floor with the girlfriend. He could have stood apart from her so that other people could see.
He stood front-and-center, willfully blocking a large swath of people.
Eh, you can blow me. I will try to minimize how much I obstruct the view of people behind me at events like this, but only up to a point. I’m certainly not going to stand by myself in the far back at a concert just so I don’t risk possibly inconveniencing someone else, nor am I going to force my wife to stand where she can’t see.
People like you will always have sand in their vagina about something. Catering to them is a futile exercise.
I agree with the OP. I’m tall enough that I can see around people, but I hate seeing some 5’0" person who paid 20 bucks to look at the back of some dude’s shirt. I’m six foot, and I’ll always let a smaller person stand in front of me.
This reminds me of the time I stood behind 6’11" Bill Walton at an Allman Brothers concert in 2006. I started a thread and bitched bitterly about it… oh wait, I was vaguely amused, and started a joke thread. Being short is actually an advantage for me because I can get over myself.
I feel bad for the tall guy in question because of the short girlfriend issue, but what he did was pretty thoughtless. If you’re that tall, there’s no reason to stand in the front row of a raised part of the club.
I’m short, and have been blocked by people all my life. But they have every right to be there and if wanted it more, I would have shown up earlier. No reason that only short people should be able to have front row center seats.
