# Things you could do without at a concert. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 6, 2007, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-could-do-without-at-a-concert/425377 "2007-11-06T02:59:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-could-do-without-at-a-concert/425377/21 "2007-11-06T16:09:19Z")
Also, moshing when the band is playing their Ballad. This is especially the case with Saves the Day and _Nightengale_. Yeah, most of their songs are pit-worthy but this one happens to be mellow. At least people actually listen to me when I ask them to cut it out. I agree with the tone-deaf guy singing along with the song, but I’m afraid I might be that guy sometimes! But the advice to myself is if I can hear _myself_ over the band and other people singing then I am probably singing too loud and/or badly, but I’m not sure if I should sing even softer, or conversely could sing louder. Venues that are too big for you to see the expressions on the musician’s faces. The biggest venue I will go to concerts at is the Hard Rock, and even that is pushing it. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-could-do-without-at-a-concert/425377/22 "2007-11-06T16:49:56Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí] It’s great paying anything upwards of $120 to see a little blurry screen with one of my favourite artists on it. It might even make sense if the quality of recordings etc made them useful mementoes. [/quote] What really burns me is that most of these recording are [crap](http://youtube.com/watch?v=wTNJtTmiYvI). Even if you take the original recording (as opposed to the shitty scaled-down Youtube version), the video might be okay and the audio from any decent venue will sound like crap, just because your average digicam can’t handle that kind of volume & lighting. > [@](#): > > Incessant photo taking at gigs perplexes me too, especially with bigger artists. How many pictures of Bono/Justin/Ne-Yo/Brucie can I find online? It’s different I suppose if you’re getting a picture taken _with_ the artist but a pic of them on stage, what’s the bloody point? Maybe I’m just getting old. That I gotta disagree with. [I love concert photography](http://www.flickr.com/photos/troymccluresf/sets/72157594385994122/), and I want to improve as much as I can. I’m getting a photo pass for a show at the Fillmore next week for my favorite band and I’m beyond excited about it. Sure, there’s other pictures of them, but just like anything else, it feels better when you’ve created something with your own two hands. That said, I don’t take videos because it’s pointless without a near-professional setup, and when I take pictures, I position myself as unobtrusively as possible, I compose quickly, snap one or two with my hands in as tight as I can get them, and get my hands down as fast as I can. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-could-do-without-at-a-concert/425377/23 "2007-11-06T16:59:14Z")
[QUOTE=tremorviolet] Truthfully, I could do without the mandatory encore. Just play all your songs in your regular set. Then, if it’s a decent concert, we can leave. If it’s an absolutely amazing concert, come back out. But I’m tired of standing around for too long waiting for the band to come back out and play the three hits they haven’t played yet. [/QUOTE] Once when I saw John Wesley Harding, he expressed the opinion that an artist doesn’t deserve an encore unless he can touch the farthest wall of the green room then return to the stage to find that the fans have not yet stopped cheering. After his set (as has always been the case when I’ve seen him perform), he could have touched the farthest wall of the green room, put on his coat, slipped out the back, found an all-night diner, sat down for a malt, flirted with the waitress, returned to the green room, curled up on the couch for a nap, got up, then returned to the stage, and he would have found the audience still cheering. ---
**Author:** ![MoodIndigo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@MoodIndigo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoodIndigo1)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-could-do-without-at-a-concert/425377/24 "2007-11-06T17:08:31Z")
Amusing and informative thread. A sign of a generation gap: I opened the thread in order to complain about having had to cancel my decades-long subscription to the Montreal Symphony Orchestra because of another subscriber whose seat was behind mine and who found it necessary to shower in heady perfume before coming to the concert. The advantage of a subscription= great seats. Unfortunately, each concert followed by a splitting headache and runny nose just wasn’t cutting it for me anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-could-do-without-at-a-concert/425377/25 "2007-11-06T17:19:09Z")
Moshing. It’s tired. Go get a membership to a boxing club or something if you want to hit people without feaer of reprisal. I’m a big time metal head. Everything from Metallica to Dillinger Escape Plan to Trivium. I grew up moshing so I suppose it’s hypocritical of me to say enough is enough but it’s just annoying now that I’m older to have tweaking junkies kicking their legs as high as they can and running around windmilling right next to me at a show. As an aside, boxing clubs are rare these days aren’t they? I can 't find one in my local area. ---
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-could-do-without-at-a-concert/425377/26 "2007-11-06T17:51:09Z")
Moshing. It’s tired. Go get a membership to a boxing club or something if you want to hit people without feaer of reprisal. I’m a big time metal head. Everything from Metallica to Dillinger Escape Plan to Trivium. I grew up moshing so I suppose it’s hypocritical of me to say enough is enough but it’s just annoying now that I’m older to have tweaking junkies kicking their legs as high as they can and running around windmilling right next to me at a show. As an aside, boxing clubs are rare these days aren’t they? I can 't find one in my local area. ---
**Author:** ![Spit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/76d3ee/32.png) [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-could-do-without-at-a-concert/425377/27 "2007-11-06T18:29:46Z")
I’m definitely not walking near any of y’alls lawns… My gripes: People who try to spread their stance at a standing room show, just so they can hold that precious space against the fence in the front row. Sorry, hoss. If your girl walks out of the crowd, she is never getting back in. That spot is mine. Or the guy/girl next to you. However, it is no longer yours. On the flip side, I can’t stand people who see the guy spreading his stance, and won’t move in. Girls who go to shows dressed like they stepped off the cover of Vogue. Bonus points when they get as close to the stage as possible- then whine because they are getting pushed around/feet stomped/makeup smudged. Although I do enjoy watching them being lifted over the fence- crying, makeup smeared, hair a mess- and having to stumble past everyone on the remaining stilletto heel they are wearing. Movers. “Oh Shelley! Look! It’s Michelle and Hannah! Hannah! HANNAH! HANNAH!!!..Dammit, she can’t hear me- _furiously waving arms_ MICHELLE! MICHELLE!! _Michelle finally waves back_ OOOOOOooooo!!! Let’s go over there with them!! What? I said LET’S GO OVER WITH THEM!”…and then the mass exodus of no less than 4 girls and (always) 1 drunk guy start linking hands and snaking their way through the crowd. Weed. I get so aggravated going to a show- smoke all around me, everyone laughing like idiots, going home smelling like I drove Willie Nelson’s tour bus- BECAUSE YOU MOFO’S HOLD OUT ON ME. Pass that thing around, dammit. ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-could-do-without-at-a-concert/425377/28 "2007-11-06T20:04:00Z")
…all but three or four of the speakers. I have never been to a show where I really wished they’d turn up the volume a little louder. I go to hear the music, and it’s nice that the super-intense songs can cause my precious internal organs to tremble… but I also would like to be able to distinguish between the high notes using something other than the resonant frequency of my teeth. I wear earplugs to most shows and still end up with nausea and a headache from the volume of the sound. I know it goes to eleven guys, but the folks in the back of the room can hear it just fine when it’s turned up to four. ---
**Author:** ![Tool\_of\_the\_Conspiracy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@Tool\_of\_the\_Conspiracy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tool_of_the_Conspiracy)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-could-do-without-at-a-concert/425377/29 "2007-11-06T20:51:11Z")
[QUOTE=nevermore] The one really drunk, really loud, _really_ enthusiastic fan. Knows every lyric, and probably every inflection, but chooses to SCREAM along rather than sing, jumping and flailing his drunken arms in a tightly packed space. He’s not trying to be an asshole, but for him, nothing else exists in that room except him and the band, and it shows. [/QUOTE] How about this guy? As soon as each song ends, he yells the name of the band’s biggest hit… the one that they’re obviously saving for the encore. Or, to show that he’s the biggest fan there, the name of a B-side that most of the audience has never heard of. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-could-do-without-at-a-concert/425377/30 "2007-11-06T21:04:06Z")
[QUOTE=Tool of the Conspiracy] How about this guy? As soon as each song ends, he yells the name of the band’s biggest hit… the one that they’re obviously saving for the encore. Or, to show that he’s the biggest fan there, the name of a B-side that most of the audience has never heard of. [/QUOTE] Heh. To continue in the **Saves the Day** vein, I sort of did this once. Except that I did it when there was a lull in the concert when it was obvious they were just about to do a big song. And sure enough, after I shouted “Funeral” they indeed played “At Your Funeral.” Then there’s the opposite example, where I saw Saves the Day on an acoustic tour in a really tiny bar-sized venue, and they did a whole set, and said that at the end of the set they’d take “requests”. Okay, most of them were requests, but up until that point Saves the Day had not played _Jessie and my Whetstone_, their most famous acoustic song. Did they not think that the whole audience would scream that out as their first request? Sure enough, I screamed it out as the first request and they did play it but I’m sure everyone else did too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-could-do-without-at-a-concert/425377.md?page=1)