I suppose this could go in MPSIMS or the Pit, but it’s about concert-goer behavior…
It was just Sam Beam. He was amazing. His voice actually sounded BETTER than on the recordings. How many artists truly have that kind of talent?
And dozens of people in the audience videoed it and basically watched from their phones. Quite a few people kept taking photos, so there was the glow from their phones and the LED glow as their cameras focused. I was only 20 feet from him, and yet most of the time I couldn’t see him. All I could see was a cloud of cell phone screens.
Maybe once in a while it would be good to put your phone away and live in and enjoy the moment.
I’m done with live shows, and I suppose everyone will be glad this grumpy old man is gone.
There’s also bands who encourage recording them on your phone in the hopes that you’ll post/share a good clip and get them some publicity. I doubt Kate Bush or Sam Beam need that kind of PR, though.
It’s not much of a solution for a low-key act like the one you saw, but more raucous shows have little of this, because the phone is almost certain to be knocked out of your hand.
I hate this crap. I shoot concert videos for a living, and I have to edit around a sea of glowing rectangles. For one, they never hold them up just high enough, their arms are always fully extended. And the picture quality is always terrible, overexposed and jittery, coupled with overloaded audio.
The only thing worse than some jackass holding a phone up is one holding up an iPad.
[Off-topic, mostly] An interesting thing about Kate is that she never sent out a press release about her residency. She simply posted a notice on her web site, which was instantly picked up by fans. The word spread like wildfire among her many various fan sites, then was picked up by the press in the UK and reported in every newspaper, television and radio news outlet, which then spread to Europe and Australia. As usual, the US ignored her, except the New York Times. But fans in the US knew, so it didn’t matter. The tickets for fans who got a promo code sold within minutes. A few days later, tickets for those without the promo code sold out within 15 minutes. 21 dates at the Eventim Apollo (formerly the Hammersmith Odeon) sold out almost immediately, and all based on a notice on her web site.
Then, she put a notice on her web site asking politely that people stay in the moment and not take photos or videos. Again, the word was spread and debated through fan sites and again, picked up by the press. The word spread so well that none of the concerts featured that sea of phones and tablets that’s become so prevelant. Some people did take photos, and all the shows were at least audiotaped, but people were very very discreet about it. It’s amazing to me, the entire run of shows sold out, people came from all over world to see her, and once the shows started they were declared a triumph by all the UK press outlets, and through it all she never sent out one press release, never gave one interview (not TV, not radio, not newspaper, not magazine, nothing), never uttered one single word to anyone outside of two notes on her web site, directly to fans.
So yeah, no, she definitely didn’t ever need the publicity.
I saw the Stones a few weeks ago and some people around me watched the whole show on the phone they were holding in front of their eyes while the real actual live Stones were there to be watched. As I said to people later at least when these people watched their crappy videos they could tell their friends, “It looked exactly like that live!”
This. I thought phones were bad, now it’s tablets. It’s rude and annoying and makes me not want to go out to live music. If they’re not holding up their device, they’re sitting next to me, looking thru their pictures, and the glow is so distracting.
Louis CK does a hilarious bit on this phenomena. I think he did it on Conan one night.
I’m in complete agreement with the “live in the moment” argument. What’s the point in recording it for memory if the memory was recording it? You pay dearly to see an amazing artist IN PERSON, and you choose to view them via a 2x5 inch screen? Unreal.
If people are spending all or most of a concert (or other event) taking pictures or video, then I totally agree with the “live in the moment” argument.
But if someone takes, say, a couple of minutes out of an hour or two of his enjoyment to record the performance for posterity/friends/bragging rights/whatever, it’s not like:
(1) his ears are plugged while he’s using the camera
(2) the performer is doing something so unique every single moment of the performance that taking a picture once (or even a few times) will be an irretrievable loss of seeing it live. :rolleyes: IMHO, there’s not a whole lot of “blink and you’ll miss it” moments in a concert.
If someone argues that holding up a glowing phone or tablet during a concert is distracting to others, that’s a different thing. On one hand, hundreds or a few thousand people doing something once or a few times looks like everybody’s doing it all the time because someone is doing it at any given time. :eek: On the other hand, few concerts are known for the hushed “no distractions!” atmosphere of an opera or golf tournament. But like the xkcd cartoon, I don’t find the “you will miss something” argument particularly persuasive.
Well, I think you sort of nailed it. I don’t care if some random people want to stare at the Grand Canyon through their phone/camera. I do care if I have to crane my gaze over a glowing river of rectangles to see the act I paid to see.
I saw Rob Zombie this summer and he said he would pose in cool poses on stage for one minute if everyone agreed to put their phones away for the next song after that.
I like recording snippets of concerts, but I try to be the least obnoxious person about it. My phone has a leather flip cover, and I let it close once I have the stage framed, so no glowing rectangle. I also try to only record a minute or so at a time, rarely even a whole song.
My phone has extremely good audio recording and a solid video camera, so the clips I get are pretty watchable and it really can be fun to remember the moment.
Times change. Back in the early 90’s, when I was in HS, if you had a cell phone or a beeper… you were “declared” a drug dealer and they would confiscate the phone/beeper, detain you, and call a K9 unit to sniff your locker and bag, etc. If you had a CD or cassette player on your person they would confiscate it for 30 days the first time, 90 days the second, and permanently the third. I remember the HS orientation with the principal going in detail on the procedure, the manila envelope was held up showing where it would go, etc. He was quite thorough.
Getting caught at a concert back then with a cassette recorder would get you thrown out and they’d keep the equipment. They’d confiscate digital cameras as well if you had it. No expectation that you’d get it back at all. None, it’s gone gone.