NYC ilxors: I am calling you out

This thread has heartened me so much. I honestly thought I was alone/a weirdo for finding going to live gigs and having to stand thru 2 supports and then the main band painful and tiring.

I find this thread disheartening for the exact same reason. You'd think on a board titled "I Love Music" people would be slightly more reticent about preferring air conditioning/their S.O./etc. to live music performed by warm people, but I guess not. I get guilty if I miss one show and I go out 3 - 4 nights a week. Obviously spoiled for choice in NYC but there are very, very few concerts I've willingly/excitedly gone to and actually regretted. Are y'all really old, really jaded, or just have the terrible misfortune of seeing terrible live bands constantly?

No, just reluctant to construct false dichotomies.

I worked at a club for three years and saw (at least) 1,000 bands during that time. I'm all paid up.

feel like whiney is def on some tom sawyer "painting fences is sooooo fun!!! can't believe you gusy aren't into it" tip here

― dyao, Tuesday, August 3, 2010 9:43 AM (7 hours ago)

hahaha

Are y'all really old, really jaded, or just have the terrible misfortune of seeing terrible live bands constantly?

The first two

I find this thread disheartening for the exact same reason. You'd think on a board titled "I Love Music" people would be slightly more reticent about preferring air conditioning/their S.O./etc. to live music performed by warm people, but I guess not.

Actually if you must know, when I said painful, I meant it literally - I have a leg/foot probelm that means I am unable to stand (esp on concrete which many band venues seem made of) for more than about half an hour without being in excruciating pain. A lot of venues ive been to have NOWHERE in the band room to sit down. You want a seat, you gotta go out to the bar/out to the beer garden and hello, you're missing the fucking show you paid for.

On that note sarah: sure, ive been to gigs where Ive wandered around/sat outside drinking/talked but those are small pub venues with seating, local friends bands and often, no one ends up watching any of the acts anyway.

I was more referrig to midlevel venue shows that start at 8 and finish after midnight and there is no where to sit :( I could do it when I was 21, but I just cant anymore. Halfway thru a Black Cab gig recentlu I tried to sit on a step out of deperation in pain (I was distracted to the point of almost tears) and a bouncer told me to eff off and get off the floor.

Ugh typos all over sorry, kbd is a bit fuqued.

hahaha btw all the hardiest show-goers I'm good friends with (several of whom are on this board--most of whom I met through this board) are older than me (35)

three "has" - particularly damning

Wow, none of those examples (Flaming Lips, etc.) sound remotely appealing, unless they're doing Priest Driven Ambulance or something. Also, add $15/hour for the babysitter to the price of all this fun, and then get up at 6am the day after to make waffles shaped like Dora The Explorer.

i'm fine with not caring about indie rock.

I go to shows a lot, and a significant amount of my show-going is social - so I will watch one band, go to the bar/go outside and talk, check out part of another band's set, go back to the bar/outside if it's boring, etc.

― sarahel, Tuesday, August 3, 2010 7:46 PM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah this is kind of what it's all about. and probably has a lot to do with why whiney will have such a great time at atp. hanging out chatting with other atp bros. in the absence of this social element, i wouldn't go to half as many shows. i expect that a lot of people who have posted itt don't have this sort of experience and i sympathize. like, shows i've gone to with one friend, or shows i've dragged my girlfriend to where we didn't know anyone there, are pretty heavily dependent on a stream of constant good music and good seats, as well as your own mood & expectations. last saturday i showed up at a show my friend was promoting with 4 friends, saw a bunch more once i arrived, and just hung out for hours and had a total blast. the bands weren't even that great.

i could imagine myself having a lot of fun at a festival in similar circumstances. it takes a certain disassociation to not get hung up on bullshit and just appreciate music sometimes.

xp Trayce - ugh, that sucks about your foot! I've been there.

Most of the shows I go to are smallish club/bar shows or underground warehouse shows. I can't remember the last time I went to a show and didn't know anyone there, let alone know no one who was playing.

I wind up at a lot of shows alone, since my wife hates them even more than I do and my best friend, the one I went to literally hundreds of shows with between 1989 and 2005, died, which is why we don't go to shows together anymore.

you haven't made any new friends?

xp - a friend of mine showed me a trick how you can actually talk to someone at a normal volume while loud music is playing.

Yes don't just leave this hanging there!

it involves pressing down on part of the outer ear

With a brick.

no, just with a finger.

you haven't made any new friends?

People I have pleasant conversations with when I meet them in public? Sure. But people who could take the place of a guy I knew for almost two decades? Nope, and I'm not really looking to.

a stream of constant good music and good seats

I try only to go to shows with both of the above. That said ATP sounds like an awesome way to spend the weekend as long as you go with 3 or 4 friends. If you are there by yourself or to cover it then of course it's going to be a bit of a drag, but that's the case with any festival.

no, just with a finger.

The middle one, extended towards the band.

Related thread:

people who doesnt like to go to shows , although they love music, and live in a place where it's available - c/d?

Actually, part of the reason I still go to Pitchfork -- apart from there always being at least a few bands I'm somewhat interested in -- is that I know so many other people that go. This year, I found myself standing by myself behind a large tree, straining to see Neon Indian amidst a sea of strangers, before I just said fuck it and went in search of my friend Mark, who'd just texted me. I found him sitting on a blanket, away from the stages, with a beer and a one-hitter, and my mood instantly picked up.

Don't leave us hanging, for god's sake. What happened next???

Related thread:

That thread is far more depressing than this one. I read the whole thing and its just a catalogue of pussifyed whining.

"I'm short!" "It's too loud!" "I need my beauty sleep!" "It smells" "There are people there" "I have to wait 20 minutes between bands!"

...and then everyone agrees with everyone else that this is valid. Truly disheartening.

best slash fiction ever, jaymc

sorry to let u down mfb

keep on goin to shows so u stay harder than us

Keef is probably a pussy because he doesn't shoot up and drink like he used to in the seventies.

the NY ATP lineup looks quite good to me. i don't mind the idea of festivals in and of themselves, and a whole day of drinking and watching bands really appeals to me. what would make it unappealing is the crowds and the toilet queues

...and then everyone agrees with everyone else that this is valid.

maybe this is your indication that your position is kinda infantile y/n/maybe just sayin'?

Anticipating these big festivals is always more fun than actually going.

I went to the first three Big Day Outs in the early 90s. Then the price for a one day fest climbed from $45 to $70 to well over a hundred and now fuck knows how much it costs. I stopped going.

Wow, none of those examples (Flaming Lips, etc.) sound remotely appealing, unless they're doing Priest Driven Ambulance or something. Also, add $15/hour for the babysitter to the price of all this fun, and then get up at 6am the day after to make waffles shaped like Dora The Explorer.

totally down with the last part at least

I haven't gone becasuse:

a) I, like many others, work jobs that aren't MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC. Sometimes we'd like to be given several days off in a row--to go see music--but our employers do not like the idea of this very much.

b) I earn minimum wage; I cannot afford to not only spend the money on tickets (which are not inexpensive), but NOT work the days I'll be missing.

c) Really?

i would go if they got cody chestnuTT to do the whole 'headphone masterpiece'

I go to shows a lot, and a significant amount of my show-going is social - so I will watch one band, go to the bar/go outside and talk, check out part of another band's set, go back to the bar/outside if it's boring, etc.

― sarahel, Tuesday, August 3, 2010 7:46 PM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah this is kind of what it's all about. and probably has a lot to do with why whiney will have such a great time at atp. hanging out chatting with other atp bros.

― samosa gibreel, Tuesday, August 3, 2010 8:39 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I mean, yeah. Plus you can do all that in the swimming pool, or while eating a delicious asiadog, or chilling by a v. pretty lake

sarahel, how come i never see you at shows?

Well there's this continent separating you and all.

I might see Ned at On Land in September, though not the first night because I'm gonna see Arab on Radar. Like a lot of festival line ups, there are one or two bands I want to see, five or six that I like but that I see regularly at smaller shows, plus some that I'm not familiar with, and others I'm too familiar with to want to endure.

i don't go to big shows or festivals, but i would maybe if the right situation came along. thought about going to the wilco thing at massmoca, but all i really wanted to see there was richard bishop and i saw him last year at a tiny bar in turners falls which is the next town over. i like small shows. or random music. next week lucas abela and keith fullerton whitman are playing up the road. might go see that, but the idea of seeing lucas makes me feel a bit squeamish. last week was a good example of the kind of live music experience i like. after work we - maria and rufus and cyrus and me - went to see a free thrash metal show at the skatepark. about a block from the store. lich king was headlining and they are really good. we caught them and then we walked into a new club about two doors down from my store where a sierra leone afro-pop band was jamming for free. we hung out for a bit and then headed home. it was nice. no fuss and no muss.

plus, i have my store which is nice. i just got back from there. there was an outjazz improv horn + percussion group playing tonight, and noise nomads did his awesome thing, and rufus and cyrus sat in with surreal performance freaks cave bears for their set. a lovely time. free to one and all. lots of places to sit and plenty of room on the couch!

half of sonic youth came to the last show at the store and it was a humdinger! you can get really loud in that basement of mine!

there was an outjazz improv horn + percussion group playing tonight,

who were they?

xpost

scott, your store sounds like an incredible place

"who were they?"

they were all western mass people. they play in different groups and solo, but tonight they all got together for some improv. Jack Callahan put the show together. he does really cool experimental percussion/drum stuff. he and his friend are on a bike tour. they started tonight in greenfield and they are going by bike to boston and worchester and other places to play.

if you search *John Doe Jr. Greenfield* on youtube you will find past insanity at the store. some good stuff on there! and all i have to do is keep the place open. i feel lucky. cuz i'm as lazy as anyone else and traveling to gigs far away has never been a favorite thing of mine.

western mass is so amazingly full of out-there music types in my experience

PS the ATP we had here was up in the mountains at a SKI RESORT - beat that

OK I will... The last ATP I went to was on the Queen Mary ocean liner.

the last festival chuck was at was on the titanic

Ha actually I can point exactly to when I really stopped going to shows; it was when I started doing more classical music. Singing in a church choir = early night in on Saturday so you don't feel like death the next day, plus symphony choirs and opera ensembles will pull you into a ton of rehearsal.

I will say, though, that touring with the BSO was A++++ and I recommend everyone who can swing it do it at least once.

I don't have a problem with festivals in general, I go to one or two every year but I wouldn't cross the street to see this line-up.