Your Ideal Music Listening Experience - Club, Gig or Bedroom?

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Rockists. All of ya. ;-)

no surprises

shut-ins, more like ;)

Headphones while commuting is my favorite.

I'd just like to say that I HATE HATE HATE seated gigs.

The few seated gigs I've been at have been in rows of uncomfortable school assembly chairs, which I don't like, especially when you have to fold your knees up and be jerked out of the ~zone~ every 10 minutes when someone wants to get out, and when there's only one appointed time for getting a drink and so you all have to queue for the entire interval for a lukewarm can of coke and worry about whether the next band's started yet.

But my favourite thing ever about standing up gigs is when the venue is only half full and you can find a chair at the back away from the mad crush and just bliss out and listen to the music. Because I am lazy and short and being somewhere where I can see and moving whenever someone a foot taller stands in front of me etc is physically tiring and, again, distracting from the music.

Obviously the promoter's least favourite thing about running gigs is when the gig is empty enough that I get my cosy bliss-out seat, though, so I felt a bit bad about that when I went to gigs. Now I mainly don't go to gigs, because although gigs can seem really transcendent in ways I don't get from at-home listening, the faff and alienation of the rest of the evening compared to that 20 minutes of possible ecstasy is just too much, too jarring.

PS tl;dr rundown of faff and alienation:

• transport
• worrying that I'll be too late to get in
• actually finding that I'm early and it's running late
• waiting and waiting and intermittently losing my waiting spot by going to check the doors again
• still being vain enough to worry about feeling uncool when surrounded by hip young punx half my age
• shouting myself hoarse at the barman just to get a drink
• paying £2.50 for a cracked plastic thimble of sodastream Pepsi
• losing my spot every time I want a drink or the toilet
• getting walked into every 30 seconds because short people look like gaps in the crowd
• spending the last band's set checking my watch and worrying about when to run for the last bus home instead of being able to enjoy it
• etc

feeling those

plus standing up with no bar to lean on is tiresome plus if i really want to watch somebody play music why must it be a battle royale to get an eye-line plus that was just like your record but worse/more boring/more surrounded by nobs

I think live gigs = classic if <6'.

Although, I can name a bunch of acts who I'd happily watch live again, but not listen to on CD. Someone like Gideon Conn - his live act is so wonderful, charming, witty, interactive, but very little of this shines through on record.

the only answer i can give is that it depends. the live experience of loud, viscerally intense, physically produced music can't be completely captured in a recording, and for some artists it's the entire point. this is especially true when the primary appeal of the music is physical and even brutal, as with metal and punk, spazzy weirdo stuff, noise rock, etc. studio recordings of certain artists or styles can be quite tiresome to listen to, even when the live show is thrilling. context is everything.

if i'm listening in a private space, my choice of album vs mixtape will depend, again, on context. if i want "background music" while my attention is on something else, then a mixtape, radio show, varied playlist or randomizer might be preferable. if i'm listening closely as my primary activity, then i'm slightly more likely to prefer an album or single-artist collection.

i don't go to dance clubs, so i can't really comment on that.

So many options that could be included:

Headphones while working out
Headphones while commuting
Carrying boombox on shoulder
Portable speakers on backpack/bike/motorcycle
Headphones at work
Speakers at work
Headphones at home
Live outdoor concert/festival
Live at small club (< 500 capacity)
Live medium club (> 500 to 1,000 capacity)
Live at large club (> 1,000 capacity)
Live at super large venue/stadium/arena (> 10,000 capacity)

Carrying boombox on shoulder

^only way i listen to music

*boombox option can include walking, rollerblading, rollerblading wearing nothing but thong. Yes, I have seen it. I cannot unsee it.

Ned, were you hanging out with yr box on Chicago's lakefront last summer? ;)

Railway station buskers
Through the wall from the next apartment
Supermarket PA system
In my head
Personally singing and/or playing an instrument
In church
In the style of the Romans

I'm not Ned but I do go rollerblading in my thong sometimes, yes.

Missed this. Car--not even close.