show etiquette

I remember some girl pushing up to the front of the stage, pointing at Paul Westerberg who was six inches away and asking me "So who's that?"

For Curren$y's set at Pitchfork Fest last weekend, I staked out a spot close to the stage, despite being uncomfortably surrounded by sweaty strangers. I overheard a couple of kids next to me while waiting for him to go on.

Her: So who's this band?
Him: It's not a band, it's a rapper.
Her: Oh. Is he any good?
Him: Not really.

All I could think was "You're taking up my elbow room."

Festival audiences are a thing unto themselves, though.

Shit, that would have made me cry

They had roaming keg dispensers at Lovebox last Sunday. GODSEND.

There was another good solution at Splendour yesterday: drinks could only be bought with pre-paid tokens, bought from a separate desk. This meant that you only had to join one queue all day, which you could schedule to suit. And as there was no cash to faff around with at the bars themselves, service was instantaneous.

oh god the tokens thing has never worked anywhere i've encountered it - i get why it'd be effective in theory but in practice it just leads to TWO huge queues.

roaming drink-sellers are a great solution wherever there's actually room for them to roam, which sadly excludes the vast majority of sold-out shows.

I was once dragged by hair and feet to some Texas Motor Speedway to see the goddam HORDE Festival in full effect. The Republic of Texas had some sort of system where you had to get an I-card, some sort of state verification that your driver's license was real, before you could get alcohol from another vendor. Lines for both booths were hundreds of yards long in the July sun, so I didn't drink, sitting through Dave Fucking Matthews sober as a statue. I hate Texas.

Anyway, that sounds like what would happen if they tried the token thing. Seems like a scam like those festivals where all the vendors take "River Bucks" or something like that, and it's non-returnable.

Lines for both booths were hundreds of yards long in the July sun, so I didn't drink, sitting through Dave Fucking Matthews sober as a statue. I hate Texas.

I don't know if you have other reasons for hating Texas, but this seems like plenty to me.

It's not like Texas itself killed JFK, but I'd understand why Jackie never wended to go back.

wended? wanted

Here's something interesting and semi-related; Alternative Press interviewing bands about what fans should and shouldn't do when meeting their favorite band.

Phew, now I know what not to ask the douches in Pierce the Veil next time I encoutner them.

Don’t ask me to tweet you happy birthday for two reasons: 1. No one should have to ask for someone else to wish them happy birthday and 2. If I do say happy birthday to you, the floodgates open and everyone and their mother wants a birthday tweet.

kinda-sorta not related in any way, but i interviewed fountains of wayne for my zine back around the time of their first album, and asked chris to dedicate a song to my gf from the stage later on that night. he did, but the song he chose to dedicate to her was 'she's got a problem'.

what fans should and shouldn't do when meeting their favorite band.

fans shouldn't meet their favourite band imo

always leads to disappointment

speaking of disappointment, i've practically given up on going to see my favorite bands, let alone meet them.

i just gestured at the stage and threw my hands up in exasperation like are you even AWARE of where we ARE right now

― night of the living based gods (flopson), Thursday, July 21, 2011 8:52 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark

<333333333333333

Meeting your favorite artists can be awkward, but you have to remember there's no social rules for when a stranger and an intimate meet. You think you KNOW these people but you don't, at all, you're a complete stranger to them. Personally, I like to shake their hands and say "Thanks" and be on my way. Length social interaction and unrealistic expectations is what leads to disappointment.

Having said that I've had almost all positive experiences meeting musicians.

Personally, I like to shake their hands and say "Thanks" and be on my way.

yep!

every once in a while if its someone I've been listening to for 20 years, I'll hit them with a quick question about the making of a song—rap legend Milk D hit me off with a pretty detailed story about the making of the "Top Billin" beat fairly recently and I was psyched. But if it's someone newer, I usually just give a pound and dash. I passed Yelawolf in a hotel lobby, and I had been listening to his record non-stop that month, but I didn't really have much more to say than "Love your record to death, keep it up, man" and then I bounced.

basically, i think the rule with famous ppl is you get one question, so make it not stupid.

In my experience you should always start off with "Can I show you my tattoo of you?" and start undoing your pants.

SHANE TOLD of SILVERSTEIN
What is the one question fans should not ask you?
“Will you sign my boobs?” “Do you get a lot of groupies?” “Can I be your groupie?” Those questions are all pretty awkward.

all signs point to: you wish this was a problem for you, Shane.

Ran into Jason Spaceman in a record shop once, couldn't even bring myself to say "I love your music" and then I regretted it.
I was hungover and just too intimidated. He's not really an extrovert, nor am I.
I've had nothing but positive experiences with meeting artists whose music I enjoy, though.

xp: ffm, it's because these bands are basically traveling emo theater troupes that come around to middle schools. the awkwardness of the groupie question for shane probably has to do with broaching the topic of a govt-issued i.d.

Ah, good point! Had not considered that.

the one time i had a non-interview social interaction w/one of my musical faves was when we both happened to be in the audience at a show at a dive bar. i bought him a drink, thanked him for getting me into the replacements, and left him alone.

you shouldn't shy away. i met Fredrik of Datarock and Hiro of Polysics and both of them were really awesome people. Freddy's one of the quickest guys I've ever met and he invited us to the afterparty; was really really fun to drink with

The other one was better, one of my all-time favorite anecdotes. I went to see Kathleen Edwards at a smallish club. I was standing in the back. This dude and his friends were talking near me.

Girl: So, did you bring your harmonica?
Dude: Nah, not tonight.
Other dude: What harmonica?
Girl: Oh, you don't know? Dude's jammed with Dylan, Dave Matthews, Blues Traveler...

I started eyeing this alleged all-star harmonica jammer when it the gist of their conversation suddenly struck me: this asshat brings his harmonica to shows and plays along in the crowd! I can't imagine anything more hellish, and that includes seeing Blues Traveler and DMB.

fucking lol

I'm sure the point has been made before upthread, but it still amazes me that there really are people, it seems, that just go along to a gig (having bought tickets!!!) to catch up with each other and don't pay attention to what's going on on stage. It's bad enough in a loud gig - I've had to move away from constant chatterers in some quite noisy places - but it's unforgivable when the music is quiet and gentle. Go somewhere else, please.

I mention this today because Marissa Nadler posted this earlier this morning on Facebook:

"toronto- another talking crowd. thank god for amelia being here! :-) nothing more humiliating than singing songs in front of a room full of people mostly not listening. to be fair, there were a good number of people that were listening. it makes me want to go back to school to become a dental assistant or something...so thank you to those that were... listening."

I saw that too. I love Marissa but in this case she was the support act so only a minority of people would have been there to see her. Sure the talkers are f*cking rude but tbh I think it comes with the territory when you are the support act and your music is as quiet and still as hers is. Maybe she could have tried calling them out and telling them to be quiet but she doesn't come across as that kind of person. In cases like this I actually think the venue is culpable, they should have staff going round telling people to be quiet.

That wouldn't sell drinks very well. I think if you play quiet music, you need to amplify the fuck out of that shit to run with the big dogs. That's one of the big reasons why people go to shows right - to be able to listen to music at a volume that you can't reasonably achieve at home? Why not crank it, Marissa?

That wouldn't sell drinks very well

Yeah cos putting on shows is just a way of increasing bar takings after all, f*ck the people who've come to hear the music.

Well, I mean, I'm just trying to think from a bar owner's perspective!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNRNCk3YwqE

I mean, I honestly don't know from a bar owner's perspective. Never owned a bar. But I would think that the only time they'd want staff to tell somebody not to do something would be if they were doing something that makes the bar owner liable.

I once saw Lisa Germano opening for eels to a very talkative crowd. During a delicate intro on guitar she deliberately hit a wrong chord and apologized saying "Woops, sorry, couldn't hear myself" and then continued with the song. People laughed, went quiet but were buzzing again within two songs.
That's the most realistic way to deal with it imo, try to make the people notice you, either by making a joke/funny comment or "cranking it" a bit more at times.

p sure you guys would be doing the same if it was some oasis tribute act performing, y'know

like if it's a bar, people will talk, it's a bar, they probably don't care about the music

if it's a gig, people will talk, they might just be there to hang out, check out bands they haven't heard before

i mean if it's that bad, and everyone is talking while you're playing, you're probably not that good, or you're playing the wrong show...

If it was an Oasis tribute act, this would be irrelevant because they wouldn't be performing quietly.

It helps if the support has been well matched to the headliner. I saw Rachel Sermanni - a solo acoustic performer - supporting Ron Sexsmith last week, in a standing venue, and there was no chat whatsoever, even though barely anyone in attendance would have heard of her before. Or perhaps that just reflects well on Ron Sexsmith's audience.

I mean there are any number of reasons why a person might talk during a show and on some nights you might not get those people with those reasons but some nights, you will.

loved it when robyn hitchcock turned up at a bar a couple of months ago for a surprise show and stunned everyone to near silence (this bar never shuts up when ppl are playing)

If the act isn't any good, they probably deserve what's coming to them. That's a bit over the top... what I mean is that a band has to take some share of the responsibility if the audience isn't responding to them. On the other side of that coin, you have a situation like the one Crackle Box describes above.

On a different (but not unrelated) note, a friend of mine yelled at the end of a Yacht gig recently, when the band were taking their final applause, "YOU WERE REALLY NOT THAT BAD!"

I mean there are any number of reasons why a person might talk during a show

the main one being that they are rude ignoramuses

Yes, absolutely, but I was responding to mike t-diva's idea that "perhaps that just reflects well on Ron Sexsmith's audience" that there was no chat during the quiet opening act. I doubt that it reflects any individual artists' audience composition. Rather I think it's probably just a matter of luck that Kaleigh didn't bring her bitchy roommate who needed to blow off steam and have a few drinks after getting in a fight with her boyfriend to the Ron Sexsmith show tonight.

if it's a gig, people will talk, they might just be there to hang out

hang out somewhere fucking else if you want to talk. there are plenty of places to go if you want to do that!

the oasis tribute act point is moot because i obviously wouldn't acquire a ticket to that gig.

can we go back up to the harmonica story for a second, because that is unbelievable

also I tend to harmonize during shows, sorry everyone around me

(esp. shows where the band's singer overdubbed the harmonies on record so they never get performed live)

There's really no excuse. If it's a gig with a cover/ticket price I don't know why you would pay for the privilege of ruining someone else's night. Bars/clubs that have live music generally have more expensive, worse drinks and less attentive bartenders. If you just wanna drink and chat, you know, there are a lot of places for that. I just don't think people should see a gig as, primarily, a social experience. Of course you're gonna see your show buddies and shoot the shit, etc., but the reason to pay money to see music is to see music and not be annoyed by the people around you. The absolute worst, to my mind, is not people who talk throughout the entire gig (such a common and reprehensible type they are beneath comment) but people who talk loudly through songs they don't know/like/get and then become super enthusiastic when the performer plays a recognizable tune. One of the reasons I've turned more and more away from "song-based" sets over the years.

I saw Pete Townshend solo in 1997 at a smallish venue (Chicago House of Blues), and there was constant chatter from most of the audience for most of the show. I was down front, and people were carrying on loud conversations about shit like what they did that day at work. The tickets were pricey for the time ($95), and all I could think was, "You paid $95 to talk about how Julie from accounting didn't get her reports in yesterday?" At one point, Pete was saying to his soundman that he couldn't hear his in-ear monitors, and added, "Of course, it's probably because of this fucking audience."

The odd thing was, people quieted down for probably the least-well-known tune of the night (a cover of the Flying Burrito Brothers' "Christine's Tune").