I’ve been to very few rock concerts where it wasn’t de rigueur that everyone rose to their feet for the featured artist. The sole exception I can think of is when Roger Daltrey toured solo and performed Tommy in its entirety - the audience stayed seated until Listening To You, when everyone rose to their feet and stayed that way for the remainder of the show.
Interesting. I’ve been to more concerts the last couple years than I’ve been to in my entire life and I still can’t work out the way this is supposed to happen. Several awkward experiences with this myself. My thinking is “If I paid for a seat, I’m going to sit in it.” Otherwise I would buy tickets on the floor. I’ve heard arguments like “But this is a dance group [Pet Shop Boys] and I am going to dance!” which I totally get, but 90% of the people seeing the Pet Shop Boys are tired middle aged people like you’re describing. That having been said I would expect Aerosmith to be a “stand up” show because of the rocking.
I was really surprised when we were able to score tickets to Paul McCartney’s “Up and Coming” tour (get it?) because my husband is a Giants season ticket-holder at AT&T park where he was performing. He bought the max (4) planning to re-sell them and I said “Uh, I would like to see Paul McCartney” and apparently so did his nephew and friend so we ended up going and Nephew and Friend were standing because they were so excited (it might’ve been their first concert? They were like 16/17) but everyone else was sitting and when they were asked to sit they did with only minor grousing.
Assorted boy band concerts I’ve been to: All standing, all the time. Mass hysteria. So many songs involving jumping and throwing your fist in the air. One I went to (One Direction opening for Big Time Rush) we were seated in the balcony and the jumping was causing the balcony to actually BOB UP AND DOWN. A hysterical mother next to us ran to security who informed her the balcony was on hydraulics for precisely that reason.
Oddest experience: recent Monkees concert (the original boy band, though Disney’s “Dapper Dans” are trying to claim that title): I assumed everyone would be my age and older and there were a slew of teens there, in the VIP section, some who have been to multiple shows! Down front was all about the standing, the rest of us? Not so much, and the standers were quick enough on the uptake to not have to be told to sit down.
Years ago in London I saw Alan Price (ex Animals) at some snazzy theatre on the Thames. He had a hot youmg band and, when they got going, much to my displeasure, a few people started to stand up. At the end of the number he told them to sit down, “I’m the show, you’re not.” He got a pretty good round of applause from the large majority of the audience.
But if the mood of the people generally is to rise up no-one can stop them.
An interesting phenomenon as Rock music survives along with its fans into their old age, and crowd control by means of Hells Angels swinging loaded pool cues is no longer an option.
Slithy Tove, I think you are on to something. Maybe 20 years ago, those 30 year olds would have all been standing.
In general, I think I tend to notice my environment and make a point of not getting in others people’s way. People who are oblivious to others (you know the type, they tend to be found talking loudly in movie theaters and standing in the way at buffets and escalators) are the bane of my existence.
The thing is:
If everyone is sitting, everyone can see.
If everyone is standing, many can’t see.
That is an undeniable truth, and all your whining about needing to get up and feel the music, etc isn’t going to make it not true.
I’m 6’, but I am also aware of other people and try to make sure my enjoyment of a show doesn’t ruin it for someone else. The first time I saw Tori Amos was at Schuba’s in Chicago. The record company bought the house to reward record store employees, and they were seated in rows of chairs. Then they let the rest of us in, standing room. So I was right behind the last row of chairs. Predictably, there were any number of women behind me, and like most women, they were much less than 6’ tall. So, I could either give up the location I had waited hours for, or I could kneel down and let the people behind me see.
I spent the entire show kneeling.
I am pushing 50 and at most of the concerts that I attend, and I go to ~30 a year, you’d get laughed out of the place if you told someone to sit down and stop dancing. Of course I sit if everyone else is sitting but that’s not the norm when I’m at a show.
But you do get that everyone was sitting in the OP, right? Of course I didn’t ask someone to sit when it was clearly the norm to stand, dance, whatever.
Part of the point of a concert - particularly a rock concert - is to get up and move around. The only concert I have ever been to where some people chose to sit was featuring Aerosmith and KISS. I could get maybe sitting down at the beginning while Ted Nugent played the national anthem on electric guitar, but fucking Aerosmith? Some people asked us to sit down. I’m like, you’ve gotta be fucking kidding me (but I sat, because I’m polite.) If you want to sit and listen to music, go do it at home. Concerts are a free-for-all, jumping up and down adrenaline-charged extravaganza; that’s part of the fun. If you’re not breathless and crazy by the end, you aren’t doing it right.
On re-read: It’s all ‘‘When in Rome.’’ If everyone’s sitting, you sit. But like I said, I’ve only ever been to one concert where sitting seemed to be the norm.
I spent half of the last Madonna concert I attended watching two women in front of us stand and dance in front of their seats, while singing along, on a tier where virtually no one else was standing. It was incredibly annoying, particularly for a show that started three hours later than it was scheduled. I wouldn’t have dreamed of standing up and impeding the view of the people behind me. They all paid for their tickets too.
And here I thought the national anthem was the one song people are socially obligated to stand for.
I would of stood up.
It’s really not true at all. If everyone is sitting, some people still can’t see. I know. It’s usually me.
Honestly it might have been ‘‘America the Beautiful.’’ It was a long time ago. At least 8 years. My point is it was an opener, people were just warming up. I had assumed until that point that everybody at all times stands at concerts, because I’d never seen otherwise.
What I hate is people who TALK throughout the entire gig. Yap yap yap, they jibber-jabber away, using the concert as background music to their conversations. Talking in a movie theater is one thing–I can always get the DVD and watch the movie at home. Having to listen to people flap their gums at a concert can horribly detract from a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Otto from The Simpsons has some advice.
Heh, Old People Problems.