# lighters at concerts

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighters-at-concerts/213776>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 17, 2003, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighters-at-concerts/213776 "2003-11-17T21:52:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighters-at-concerts/213776/21 "2021-10-26T21:41:44Z")

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[This site](https://www.ajournalofmusicalthings.com/forgotten-canadian-invention-holding-lighters-rock-concerts/) claims it happened first in Canada to impress John Lennon. No idea about the veracity of this claim.

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighters-at-concerts/213776/22 "2021-10-26T22:12:40Z")

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> [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#):
>
> I remember in the olden days of smartphones, before the bright LED “flashlight”, there was an app I saw at a few concerts that was an animated (gif, I assume) BIC lighter. There was also a “flashlight” app which just turned your screen bright white, but I thought the lighter animation a bit more clever.

I remember a phone commercial from before the days of real phone flashlights (might even have been before smartphones), where a concert attendee realizes he doesn’t have a lighter on him, and waves his phone (with illuminated screen) instead. And of course, soon everyone else at the concert copies him.

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**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighters-at-concerts/213776/23 "2021-10-27T00:38:59Z")

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Ryan George commentary on the practice:

[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/yeYwntRc81U/maxresdefault.jpg "The First Guy To Ever Hold Up A Lighter At A Concert") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeYwntRc81U)

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**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lighters-at-concerts/213776/24 "2021-10-27T17:36:47Z")

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I went to a Taylor Swift concert a few years ago. When we went in they gave us these wrist things that lit up. They would randomly change colors and such, but sometimes each section would be all the same color. Everyone went in through the same gates and it was after the tickets were taken so they must have been controlled somehow so each section looked the same.

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