| Author | Message | ||
     cosmo vitelli Member Username: Cosmo Post Number: 163 Registered: 05-2005 |
saw Yo La Tengo at the roundhouse last night and they were superb however all the quiet songs (gorgeous acoustic 'Tom Courtenay') were ruined by people around me talking. I am sick to death of listening to f***ing idiots blathering on at concerts. Why go to see the band at all? I was so upset that I am seriously considering foregoing future gigs altogether unless I know the band are going to be loud enough to drown out the noise of the morons | ||
| cosmo vitelli Member Username: Cosmo Post Number: 164 Registered: 05-2005 |
the night before I saw the High Llamas at the Luminaire play before a good crowd who did not make a sound through out their set other than applause etc at the end of songs. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 3387 Registered: 05-2005 |
shit missed high llamas, again! cosmo, i agree. its always been an annoyance, yapping at gigs, it used to be speccy spotty students with half a beer inside them many moons ago, now its so called beautiful young boys who love their appearance so much they feel like shouting about it to the whole world whilst artists perform. | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 647 Registered: 01-2006 |
Don't mind a little talking as long as it doesn't interfere with the gig. I rarely ask anyone to stop yapping but I did at a Spiritualized gig last year, bunch of women with freebies I reckon as they had no interest in the gig. What I find more annoying are people who get their knickers in a twist over anything at a gig, like a lot of the contributors to this forum... http://forums.viachicago.org/topic/41481 -concert-etiquette/page__hl__etiquette__ fromsearch__1 | ||
| Jonathan Evans Member Username: Jon Post Number: 352 Registered: 04-2005 |
I had the same thing at Yo La Tengo on Saturday in Manchester. Really annoys the hell out of me. I don't mind the odd word, or all the chat you can fit in between songs but get a grip people. Cheers Jon | ||
| cosmo vitelli Member Username: Cosmo Post Number: 165 Registered: 05-2005 |
Sorry to hear you had the same problem Jon, I have had several gigs ruined in the past, it's when its a quiet band that it becomes unbearable. Lambchop played a gig around Nixon or Is a Woman time in Portsmouth which was seated and very low amplification, could have been a beautiful experience but was completely spolied by a bloke sitting behind me talking loudly for the whole show despite being asked to be quiet by various audience members and even a steward (who the bloke told to f*** off). Yo La Tengo have always had a great dynamic between loud/quiet hard/soft songs so it was a real shame that one of their strengths was diluted in it's effect. I ended up just wishing for a wave of sound to drown the ignorant bastards. | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 648 Registered: 01-2006 |
The opposite of this was a Magnetic Fields gig when they were touring 69 Love Songs years ago in Dublin. They started by saying their songs were very quiet (which they were on this tour) so they'd appreciate if people were too. The audience went along with this to such an extent that they waited about five seconds after the final note of each song to applaud. It was a little over the top. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1784 Registered: 10-2004 |
For the record, I would probably talk at a Yo La Tengo gig, but that's just because I don't like them! No, in all seriousness, it's not something I've ever really encountered at most gigs I've been to. I've encountered drunken louts stepping on a girlfriend's feet and rudely blurting out requests between songs, as well as fist fights (all at Go-Betweens shows!), but don't recall having a gig spoiled by incessant chatter (at least not a gig that I cared about). As for the High Llamas - I've seen them three times, and yes, High Llamas audiences always seem to be really respectful and make not a peep during the performances (but are always uproarious with applause between songs). Maybe the chatter at Yo La Tengo shows says something about the maturity level of the average Yo La Tengo fan? ;) | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1439 Registered: 08-2006 |
I think older audiences are far worse than younger ones in the chatter regard. I saw Richard Thompson at a club (as opposed to a theater, with seating) back in 2000, and the place was filled with 40- and 50-somethings out for their one concert a year, and they were atrocious - talking, yelling, yammering. I'm sure a lot of them have kids and don't get out much, and treated the show as background music for a night at the bar. Conversely, I've rarely been to an indie show with young kids and heard anything but respectful, almost reverential silence when the band's playing. I think for younger folks a concert is a musical experience; for (certain) older people, it's a social one. The crowd at the Yo La show probably skews older, so Cosmo's report kinda fits the bill. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1785 Registered: 10-2004 |
Sure, but Yo La Tengo's crowd certainly wouldn't be any older than that of the High Llamas. I'm currently 34, and I've always been the youngest person in the room at High Llamas shows! | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2172 Registered: 03-2005 |
My face is red with shame. I don't yack through concerts, but I have been known to rudely blurt out requests between songs, comment on Robert's [great] falsetto and make silly requests at Go Betweens shows. I always thought it was part of the atmosphere but I'm now wondering. I think if I were a stage performer, super respectful reverential audiences like Jeff and cosmo report for the High Llamas would freak me out. But see the above paragraph; my viewpoint is suspect. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1786 Registered: 10-2004 |
Randy, I'm certain that nothing you've done at shows comes even remotely close to the shenanigans of the drunken lout who tried her best to ruin the Go-Betweens concert that I saw in SF back in 2005. (If you do a search, you can probably find my post describing the situation - and her public apology a few posts down!). This woman shouted "Lavender" in this loud drunken slur between *every* freakin' song (sometimes interrupting or drowning out Robert or Grant's song introductions), and repeatedly stepped on my then-girlfriend's feet with her heels. This wasn't merely like some enthusiastic fanboy's friendly shout out for "Man 'O Sand," or witty between-song banter or whatever, but something completely different. | ||
| Jonathan Evans Member Username: Jon Post Number: 353 Registered: 04-2005 |
Randy I'm fairly sure, though having never been to the same gig I can't be 100% sure, that your conduct would be perfect for me. I (personally) have no problem with people requesting songs, maybe the same song for the entire show would be a little annoying, but banter with the band makes it for me - makes it a unique event and makes a connection between band and audience. My annoyance comes with people talking ALL the way through songs - 2 people talked through 2 or 3 songs in a row at YLT - I think I'm a fairly well balanced person, but I promise I nearly took a swing for them. Cheers Jon | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1440 Registered: 08-2006 |
I'm with Jon. Randy, I don't think you're anywhere in the ballpark of what I'm talking about - continuous chatter through an entire performance. That's entirely different than exuberant requests between songs (within reason, of course). Like Jon says, one adds color to a show, the other makes me wish I had a needle and thread for some mouth-sewing. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2173 Registered: 03-2005 |
What a relief! I really did think "OMG am I one of those obnoxious persons?" I suppose I read too much into Jeff's citation of rudely blurting out requests. I'm not sure that I've run into the type of audience Cosmo, Jon and Rob are talking about and that's probably only because I don't see all that many shows any longer. Jeff and I were at the front of Robert's crowd in SF last year so anything might have been going on behind and we wouldn't have known. When I saw them The Drones were vastly too loud for anybody to have that effect. There were a couple of talkers next to me at the Steely Dan show I went to a few months back but, to be honest, I didn't really care. And that show wasn't particularly quiet either so I don't think it would have mattered if I WERE a Steely Dan fan. I can't remember the last time I saw somebody play a quiet set. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 3224 Registered: 05-2005 |
XYZ: I was at that Magnetic Fields show and had forgotten how quiet it was! Great gig though. Jeff: I thought for sure you liked Yo La Tengo. I remember your hilarious story from that Go-Betweens show. At a Yo La Tengo concert in Dublin in about 2000 I was right near the front when a fight broke out. Ira stopped the show and said something like "Wow. A fight broke out in Manchester last night during that song too. Maybe it can be our Sympathy For The Devil. Like every time we play it, something bad happens." It was hilarious and completely defused the situation. Randy: I was beside you at the Robert Forster shows when you were shouting out various things! I was a little surprised, but it wasn't disrespectful (I'll PM anyone who wants the real dirt... Kidding!) The worst concert I've ever experienced for talking was Tindersticks playing a midnight show in Dublin in about 1994. It was before the pub licensing laws changed in Ireland, so a huge number of the people came to the show purely so they could keep drinking in the theatre. | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 583 Registered: 05-2005 |
I saw Marty Wilson-Piper and the Mood Maidens (including Amanda Brown!) at Bulli a couple of years back and her BERATED the crowd for talking, making it even worse by sneering that it was "an Australian" thing to do as if only convicts and their feeble offspring do that! Talk about "How to win friends and influence people"! Mind you, I was the drunken lout that called for "Delray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", much to the embarrassment of all my friends at the last Go Betweens concert there. Robert though, it must be conceded, thanked me from the stage at the end of the song!!!! I tried to string sentences together when speaking to him after the show but I probably made little sense after 2 bottles of Wynns Coonawarra Shiraz! | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 585 Registered: 05-2005 |
...erm...that should be "he" ie Marty not "her" as in Amanda | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 3390 Registered: 05-2005 |
Pad I saw the Sticks around the time at the irish centre in brum, they were magnificent, but you wouldn;t want to hear anyone talking during their set, it would be like talking at a John Cage gig!!! | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 499 Registered: 04-2005 |
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. In Paris at the Café de la danse for the G-Bs, I got really fed up with someone next to me who wouldn’t stop talking so told him (in my crap French) to go outside if he wanted to talk. He started arguing, but did eventually shut up. Seeing my (French) partner having a sly smile to herself I asked her what was so funny.”The fact that both of you are English speakers and were having a dispute in bad French” she replied. Hey Randy you were at that gig weren’t you? I have never understood people who pay to see a group and then talk all the time. Or who bellow out lyrics at the top of their voices. I remember having some buffoon standing next to me for an Aztec Camera; I wanted to say to him “I came to hear Roddy Frame sing ‘the Birth of the True’, not you”. But he was bigger than me. Or people with absolutely no sense of rhythm clapping along. And don’t get me started on people talking in the cinema; “it must be OK to continuing jabbering away ‘cos no-one has actually spoken on the screen yet…” Maybe I just shouldn’t go out anymore. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2174 Registered: 03-2005 |
Andrew I was at that gig! But that was my absolute first Go Betweens show and my first time in Paris. I was totally in awe and quiet as a church mouse. I was afraid Padraig would report on me . . . . | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1662 Registered: 01-2005 |
I almost got tossed from a Novemeber 1999 Departure Lounge/Robyn Hitchcock concert when I tried to get a waitress to hush two yackers who were talking too loud during the opening Departure Lounge acoustic set. The guy next to me said out loud to the yackers "Shut the F**K-Up!". A bouncer though I shouted it and tried to toss me before folks came to my aid. Austin McLean (who posts here once in a while) was one of those from nearby table who came to my defense. Good thing that over a half dozen folks came to my rescue as it was my first Robyn show that I had been to in over 7 1/2 years and didn't want to miss it!! My buddy Brian Nupp (who knows Bid from the Monochrome Set) was sitting next to me and recorded the show. | ||
| skulldisco Member Username: Skulldisco Post Number: 472 Registered: 10-2008 |
rem at an outdoor gig at murrayfield stadium in edinburgh, 1995. it was the monster tour i think. this was the period where my previously undisputed love of rem was now at breaking point. my friend and i were both drunk as skunks and were hollering insults at the band about how they had sold out and were trying to be the new rolling stones. after about half an hour of this no doubt tedious barracking of the band i felt a tap on my shoulder and turned round to see this mountain of a guy with a tshirt bearing the big red lips and tongue of the rolling stones logo. his face was like thunder and even in my drunken stupor i managed to figure that this bear of a guy who loved the stones AND rem was not after some friendly banter. we moved sharpish!! | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2176 Registered: 03-2005 |
That is a very funny story Kevin. It also kind of validated your point, didn't it? |