Have audiences gotten rude?

[agauchede]

I saw Iron & Wine at the State Theatre, Portland, ME on Monday. Great show with the Low Anthem opening. More than half of the audience was engaged in loud conversation the entire time. It was especially noticeable during the Low Anthem as they are a mostly acoustic, quiet sort of band. Sam Beam brought 10 musicians to accompany him and they were pretty loud. Still, at the back of the room you couldn't hear what he was saying between songs because of the audience noise.

It seems to me that you can have a conversation anywhere for free, but when I pay for a ticket I want to see a show, not talk to my friends. Unfortunately, what would have been a great show was just "meh" for me.

Chris

[dwlb]

"gotten?" I had this problem at a Jeff Beck concert 15 years ago! And McCartney five years ago, and the Wall last year...

You're right though, it's really quite bad. In movie theaters as well. People just think they're still in their living room; it's monumentally annoying.
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[cgarges]

Are you sure you didn't attend this show in Charlotte, NC? Sounds like audiences around here.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC
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[cgarges]

Are you sure you didn't attend this show in Charlotte, NC? Sounds like audiences around here.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC
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[Bro Shark]

I know very few people who are able to experience something without flapping their gums through it.

[nobody, really]

I thought I was the only one who noticed, and was really really bothered. At a june of 44 show in SF about 6-7 years ago, during the quiet parts all you could hear was scenester chatter.

but.... at the three mile pilot show in SF recently, during the quiet parts it was quiet. because it was fucking awesome, that's why. not to say that june of 44 wasn't awesome, but TMP was fucking awesome.

[ott0bot]

I think people have always been rude....especially when they serve booze at the show. There are expections, but it's rare to have a crowd that won't shut the heck up and listen.

The worst was a Modest Mouse at an outdoor show here in Phoenix like 11 years ago. People were just yelling "Play Doin' the Cockroach!!" at them the whole show...even while they were playing the song. Califone opened and you couldn't even hear them...it totally stank.

Similar experience at the same venue, but indoors when I saw Sea & Cake. This guy kept yelling "Window Lights" in a drunken chant throughout the show, and finally Prekop was just like..."Excuse me...we just aren't going to play that song, please stop yelling." He didn't....ugh.

Also...saw Grizzly Bear in Tuscon a few years back, and some wisenheimer was yelling at all his friends how great the show was, during the middle of the show. It's like...yeah....we are trying to watch it. I talked to the drummer afterwords and he was totally annoyed by that guy, but laughed when I told him he was praising them the whole time.

If you want to see a good show go to an all ages venues where they don't serve drinks, and people are there for the music. So many great shows at The Modified in Phoenix (RIP...sorta). Akron/Family, Mice Parade, Isotope 217, Fruit Bats, 31 Knots, Deerhunter, Wierd War...so many more. All with a crowd that was completely respectful of the band, and just had a blast.
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[kslight]

Not just you. This is one reason I don't often see movies in theaters or go to shows. I think the solution is for the sound system to be turned DOWN enough to where talkers don't hear the band.

[T-rex]

Man, big +1 on the movie theater thing. I hadn't gone to movies for a while and I went to several in the last two years and in almost everyone, people were just talking along or answering their cells. WTF? It was not like that back in the day.

Shows are bad too, its not even the drunks; usually its totally sober people who just refuse to shut the fck up and listen to music.

[alex matson]

I was once playing a quiet piano solo with my old band in a small club with a foot-tall stage.
Everyone was seemingly into it and were listening politely except this one dude about three heads away. He kept drunkenly yelling "WHOOO!", " FUCK YEAH!" and other encouragements at me. I put up with it for over a minute until I just exploded at him, "F'IN SHUT UP!!!!"
Well, it worked, but also served to throw a rather effective wet blanket over the moment. I'd like to think I'd be a little more laid back now. Like this guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew3AOlbJXos
Anyway...yeah. Some people suck.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

that tweedy clip was amazing.
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[bradfromtampa]

At show I was playing, a guy thought it'd be a good idea to bring maracas with him. All a sudden I heard them going, and it drove me nuts. I looked up and had to tell a mutual friend to get him to stop.

One of the most amazing things I saw was at a crooked fingers show. They were going to play a bar were the bands play outside. It was like 30 degrees that night. So one band plays outside, everyone is packed inside. The band then announces from a corner that they are going to start playing. Everyone was dead silent, pinball machines were unplugged to accommodate. The band then proceeded to play a few songs, move to another corner, then get up on the bar and play. Amazing.

Yes people have been rude for a long time. Can't stand show talkers.

[dave watkins]

you pretty much have to reset the standard for how to act at shows. between live music just being thought of as a "thing that happens to be going on at bars while we drink" and all of the future phone mentality of "let's document everything we do with digital devices instead of our brains", the folks that are obnoxious at shows are pretty oblivious to the fact that they are ruining a good time for other folks, and it blows my mind that same shit happens at show where people are paying $20+ a ticket for a national act just the same as it happens at a free show at a bar/venue with an unknown local act.

what we've been doing in Richmond to counteract that is set up our own once a month concert series called the Listening Room where everyone knows from the outset that there is no talking allowed during the performance.

It mainly started within our indie folk scene and grew out of the desire to do shows in a setting that would lend itself to having a good experience with quiet music, but has grown to encompass a broad range of genres, quiet and loud. we've been doing it for the last year and a half and we've never even had an incident where we've had to question what we would do if people do start talking loudly, and that's with audiences of 150+ people. it's quite amazing really. what has really worked is that we've set up this convention and everyone knows that if they are trying to go out and get rowdy and drunk the Listening Room is not the place to go. we stated off in a basement social hall and have now expanded and moved to a theatre with fixed seating and a proper stage and whatnot, and you can get beer and wine at the theatre as well, and luckily the addition of alcohol to the mix hasn't changed our audience's manners.

the other benefit is that the audience etiquette set at the Listening Room seems to carry over to shows we do elsewhere now a bit more, and shows with quieter folks acts have been ending up with more attentive audiences in my view, even in some of the more bar oriented spaces.

there are certain things that won't change, there's always gonna be some asshole out there when you go to see one of your favorite bands, i definitely notice the talkers more since i'm spoiled by the awesomeness of the listening room. but if you get the movement going and there's only a couple folks that are loud at shows while everyone else is quiet and listening and enjoying themselves. they may take notice.

more details and photos and stuff here if you like:
http://www.therichmondscene.com/profile/TheListeningRoom
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[Dpower]

Well, to be honest, isn't being quiet listening to music a relatively new phenomenon?

Back in Mozart's day, playing for the public was all about trying to make yourself louder than the rabble. Even recently (relatively) the Beatles stopped touring because they couldn't even hear themselves on stage...

Maybe things are just coming full circle. Or maybe the unwashed masses have no place in listening to music.

Anyhow, David Byrne talks about it briefly in his Ted talk for those that missed it:

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_byrne_how_architecture_helped_music_evolve.html

[Snarl 12/8]

I find this need for silence pretentious. It would be nice to find some sort of balance though, perhaps.

I once played a gig in an old theater, on a huge stage (opening for a big national act - one of the few times). I had my eyes closed for the first song, trying to get my bearings musically, to understand what I was hearing in that context. When I opened my eyes during the second tune and saw everyone sitting in cushy seats staring up at me I freaked out and lost the beat. It was unnerving and seemed unnatural to have no one talking or dancing or booing or encouraging or clapping or anything. We might as well have been a stereo for them to look at.
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Carl Keil

[-3db]

I've been at both extremes. Last year, at one end, Concert/mosh/spilled beer and drunken idiots, in Brooklyn of course, ha ha, then the other end of the extreme, I was given free tix to the Met.

Now, opera at the Met is all the stuffiness you could have ever imagined it's cracked up to be. You literally cannot make a sound during the performance or you will get shushed by a dozen different people. Holy crapola, I was afraid to move as I was in a squeaky seat, and the people ahead of me were giving me annoyed backward glances. Sheesh. The music was great, but I couldn't wait to get out of there.

Now I was also at Amanda Palmer and Jason Webly's 'Evelyn Evelyn' concert last year. At the end of their concert, she asked everyone to hold up their phones. And send her a text to the number Jason was holding on a cardboard sign. He then flipped over the board and Amanda said "Now everyone send me and e-mail."

So they just embrace the phone/text thing.
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