My wife and I are in our late 50s. I grew up attending countless rock shows, and playing in a rock band. I still play in an acoustic string band. Last couple of decades, most of the concerts we’ve attended have been classical or bluegrass/oldtime. At most of those shows, the audience pretty much is seated by the time the show is scheduled to start, and - for the most part - is pretty quiet during the music. I mean, they might shout out or clap at various points, but they don’t just engage in conversations with their neighbors. I just say this to point out that I am not a complete stranger to various types of music played in various environments.
Last Friday we went to see John Hiatt. I liked him since he was a rocker in the late 70s/early 80s. Since then, he enjoyed some considerable fame as a songwriter and playing more Americana/roots rock. He was playing solo, mostly just him and an an amplified acoustic guitar. The venue was a local community college - a 800 seat auditorium we’ve been to many many times. They sold beer and wine and allowed it in the auditorium. My impression is that many people drank quite a bit. A solo guitarist played a short opening set.
The audience was mostly our age. Some older, some younger. We were surprised at how many people came in after the opener began. Rather than waiting for one song to end, they just came in whenever, talking as they made their way to the seats. The folk behind us kept a running conversation going until we asked them to keep the volume down. They reduced the volume, but kept talking throughout the entire show. The guy in front of us had his phone out and was texting throughout. Other people were openly taping John Hiatt. The impression we got was that people were acting as tho they were hanging out in their living rooms, just chatting, messing with their phones, whatever.
Wondering if any of you might be able to help me get my mind around what we experienced. Was this just an exceptionally rude crowd? Are my wife and I just old fuddy duddies? Is this typical of certain types of current audiences?
It sounds to me like they were treating it as a “party with live music” kind of concert rather than a “the performer is putting on a show for you” kind of concert.
It sounds to me from what you’ve said that it was definitely supposed to be the latter kind of concert, and that they were behaving inappropriately. Maybe something about the way it was promoted, or their past experiences with other concerts, led them to expect, or be more used to, the former kind?
Having been to many rock and pop concerts, I’d say that what you experienced is pretty typical. It’s not at all unusual for the venue to be half-empty for the opening act (espeically if it’s a relatively unknown performer).
And, yeah, lots of chatting, lots of texting on phones, lots of selfies and taking videos of the performance.
Yeah, it’s typical. Between that and the morons that feel they have to go WOOOOOOO! WOOOOOHOOOOOO! WOOOOOOOOO!!! every time someone says, sings or plays a note, concerts have to be really good before I’ll attend.
At the latest jazz fest in Newport, OR, one of the headliners stopped dead in mid-toot when a cell phone (right behind us) started ringing. He gently chastised the audience about this sort of thing, saying that musical performances are meant to be appreciated by all, a chance to be part of a community of music lovers and artists who want to escape the daily noise just for a short time.
What I find truly baffling about this is that people spend a fraction of that money to go see a movie, and the general expectation in a movie theater is that you won’t be babbling to your friend non-stop or dicking around with your phone. In fact, some theaters will throw you out for that kind of thing. But pay between 5 and 50 times as much to go see a musician, and it’s a free-for-all. I don’t get it, never will.
Oh my god, this. I listen to mostly folk and acoustic music. Who goes to an acoustic performance and sits in the back and goes “WOOOOOOOO!”? I dunno, but that person exists, and everybody else in the venue wishes he or she didn’t.
We saw John Hiatt a couple months back, same tour. For the most part, that crowd was very well behaved, perhaps more than your audience. Similar demographics. Many in the audience sang along to most of it. Fans.
A few weeks back, we saw Ringo and his All-Starrs. The crowd was focused like lasers on Ringo, and as far as phones, yes everyone wanted to film everything. We’re in Row #7, and people kept running up beside me for a pic, and the usher would run down again and tell them to leave. Very distracting.
Also, a young woman in front of me, in Row #6, felt the need to dance all night. All. Night. I got really pissed about that also, but I could see around her pretty well. Why do you need to dance right now? The Orchestra Pit takes up Rows 1 to 5, so she had Clear Air in front of her. Nope, gotta stand up.
Oh well, we enjoyed it and didn’t want to miss Ringo.
We saw Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in 2008. There was a couple sitting in front of us, probably in their late 20s – it was clear that “American Girl” was their favorite Heartbreakers song, because they screamed “PLAY AMERICAN GIRL!!!” in between every song, and frequently in the middle of other songs, as well. (Yes, they were also putting away overpriced Bud Lights like it was going out of style.)
Eh, other than the phone thing, I wouldn’t say behavior has changed that much over the past 30 years (at least at rock - type shows). For example, I remember going to see Tom Petty back in the late eighties, and the seats were half full for the opening act (The Replacements!), and a good deal of the audience wasn’t paying attention or were talking amongst themselves. When Petty came on, more attention was paid to the stage, but the audience was still quite noisy, going back and forth to concession stand to get beer, etc. I went to plenty of other shows besides Petty, and I don’t remember thinking that the Petty crowd was comparatively ruder than others. Concerts I’ve seen lately seemed pretty similar, although now of course there are more people obviously filming the show.
The biggest difference I have noticed, aside from the cell phone recording, is that there are no longer clouds of marijuana smoke over the audience, especially up in the cheap seats.
There was no yelling during the songs when Doc Watson was alive. More than once I saw him stop and say, “If y’all are yelling, I’m not picking.” Worked every time.
I’ve been going to rock concerts for 37 years, and there have always sometimes been assholes in the audience. I especially remember the guy who sang along throughout the whole of “Sweet Child Of Mine”, totally out of tune and twice as loud as Axl from the stage, and the guy who was chatting with a friend while Wilco played “The Lonely One”, one of their quitest songs and one of my favorites. THAT guy got a stern scolding from me and then shut up, and I’m the most non-confrontational guy you’ll ever meet. I have learned to live with cell phone use at concerts, I like to take some pics too sometimes, so taking pictures and videos is ok, but not fucking talking on your phone when others have come to listen to the music.
I don’t see anything wrong with showing up late to the opening act or skipping it altogether. When I spend good money to see a concert, I want to maximize my enjoyment of said concert. Much of the time, the opening act is some second-rate performer that no one’s heard of before or will ever hear of again. Why should I be forced to put up with music that I hate before the good stuff begins? I can think of a million better things to do between 7:00 and 7:50 than sit in some concert venue where the opening act begins at 7:00 and the main act begins at 8:00. (I am willing to put up with the suck-ass opening act if my seats aren’t assigned and I want a good spot to view the main act, though.)
I like getting to see the opening acts, but it’s always been standard in my 30-years-ish of concert going to skip out on the opening act or come in late.
That said, I don’t know about seated concerts. Concerts with seating have a different vibe to them, and I don’t like them as much. 95% of the concerts I attend there is no seating. The behavior described in the OP is pretty typical from a general admission type of concert venue. The cell phones, especially, drive me nuts. Why are you fucking watching seemingly the whole concert through the back of your phone instead of enjoying it? And there should be dancing and movement in the audience, at least in the types of shows I attend. Nothing worse than I bunch of folks standing there with there arms folded like statues.