# Concert time keeper? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 23, 2017, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concert-time-keeper/799657 "2017-10-23T20:29:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concert-time-keeper/799657/21 "2017-10-24T14:01:35Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I saw Bob Dylan perform in Pittsburgh years ago. He looked at his watch in the middle of a song, stopped singing, and thanked us for coming. Boom, end of the show. Wow. That sounds pretty harsh. He didn’t even finish the song? I’d be interested in knowing if that has ever been commented on elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concert-time-keeper/799657/22 "2017-10-24T14:53:42Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > Wow. That sounds pretty harsh. He didn’t even finish the song? I’d be interested in knowing if that has ever been commented on elsewhere. I think this was in the 90s. I had heard at the time that Dylan was not enjoying performing and was doing the minimum to satisfy his contracts. That said, it was a great show. Pittsburgh had recently completed their “T” (trolley line) and one of the cars stopped overhead and riders listened and cheered. ---
**Author:** ![Orwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/dfb087/32.png) [@Orwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orwell)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concert-time-keeper/799657/23 "2017-10-24T15:04:09Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Dylan… That said, it was a great show. . Sounds like an oxymoron to me. 😉 It has to be a timer for each act to fulfill a contractual minimum or maximum time on stage. If it were a curfew, a regular clock would be much better. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concert-time-keeper/799657/24 "2017-10-24T15:22:31Z")
> [@Orwell](#): > > Sounds like an oxymoron to me. 😉 Stop it! I’ve seen Dylan many times, and all but one show was great. The bad show was my _first_ time seeing him live. It was during his “religious” phase. The opening act was a gospel group. The crowd drowned out their music with chants of “Dylan!”. When he finally came out, the gospel band stayed on as his backing band. It was awful. He didn’t sing anything except for his religious stuff. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Bert\_Nobbins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@Bert\_Nobbins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bert_Nobbins)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concert-time-keeper/799657/25 "2017-10-24T15:50:18Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Stop it! > > I’ve seen Dylan many times, and all but one show was great. The bad show was my _first_ time seeing him live. It was during his “religious” phase. The opening act was a gospel group. The crowd drowned out their music with chants of “Dylan!”. > > When he finally came out, the gospel band stayed on as his backing band. It was awful. He didn’t sing anything except for his religious stuff. ☹ That was my exact experience at my only Dylan concert; Blackbushe 1978. It was not a good night. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concert-time-keeper/799657/26 "2017-10-24T20:49:42Z")
I saw Dylan about 10 years ago, and while he didn’t walk out in the middle of a song, it was pretty obvious that he was only playing his older/popular stuff because he was required to. It took us until the chorus to identify All Along the Watchtower, because he was playing one of his new songs, but singing the words to Watchtower. He really didn’t want to be there that night. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concert-time-keeper/799657/27 "2017-10-24T22:18:50Z")
Huh. I did not know Dylan had a religious phase. Learn somethin’ new here every day! ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concert-time-keeper/799657/28 "2017-10-24T23:23:22Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Huh. I did not know Dylan had a religious phase. Learn somethin’ new here every day! When I was in college in the mid-to-late '80s, I was in a church group with a number of evangelical / fundamentalist Christians. Several of them really liked Dylan’s albums from that period, but those were the only Dylan albums to which they’d listen, and they bemoaned the fact that he’d stopped recording songs with those sorts of lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concert-time-keeper/799657/29 "2017-10-24T23:25:39Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Huh. I did not know Dylan had a religious phase. Learn somethin’ new here every day! It was hell. I struggled through it. There was one album (the only one of his I never owned). “Train” is in the title. ---
**Author:** ![Dingbang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@Dingbang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dingbang)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2017, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concert-time-keeper/799657/30 "2017-10-25T14:23:44Z")
I once saw Lenny Kravitz forcibly removed from the stage at Chastain Amphitheater in Atlanta because he played past the curfew. The outdoor theater is in a residential neighborhood and they enforce the curfew (10 pm, I think). Lenny was enjoying himself and kept playing, so two cops came out, took him by the arms, and walked him offstage. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2017, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concert-time-keeper/799657/31 "2017-10-25T19:23:01Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Huh. I did not know Dylan had a religious phase. Learn somethin’ new here every day! He is coming out with a box set chronicling his born again phase next month. > **[New Bob Dylan Box Set Installment to Explore Singer’s Gospel Period](https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/new-bob-dylan-box-set-gospel-period-7972863/)** > > 'Trouble No More - The Bootleg Series Vol. 13 / 1979-1981' will explore the folk hero's gospel period. It was pretty controversial at the time especially since for a while he refused to do secular songs in concert ---
**Author:** ![Mercury1989](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Mercury1989](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mercury1989)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concert-time-keeper/799657/33 "2020-05-26T15:14:56Z")
Haha, funny, if someone will leave an answer, remind me here ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concert-time-keeper/799657/34 "2020-05-26T15:24:32Z")
> [@Underwood1988](#): > > Really interesting question. I have some variants of answer. firstly, maybe this watches are for the audience. Think that it is more convenient to watch the time on yhe big watches than to find own phone in the crowd. Secondly, of course music festical is a very expensive thing and organizators pay a lot of money for the sound, light and stage systems, and a additional hour of a famouse singer can cost for them thousands dollars. if you are interested, I can promise you that [the best outdoor mobile stage equipment is here](https://www.mobilestagehire.co.uk/). Welcome to the SDMB. Reported, btw. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concert-time-keeper/799657.md?page=1)