show etiquette

My parents had a Lynyrd Skynyrd greatest hits CD when I was younger and on the live version of Freebird that closed out the album, they did in fact preface it by asking the crowd "what song is it you wanna hear?"

That's were the tradition started!

Xp there’s always “Danger Bird”

My parents had a Lynyrd Skynyrd greatest hits CD when I was younger and on the live version of Freebird that closed out the album, they did in fact preface it by asking the crowd "what song is it you wanna hear?"

Xp that's what I was saying!

every time someone yells out free bird a band should just immediately do a 20 minute version of marquee moon. the nerd free bird!

but wait back up on this thread what do classical audiences do that makes them the worst? i must know.

every time someone yells out free bird a band should just immediately do a 20 minute version of marquee moon. the nerd free bird!

xpost Security told me that for the outdoor shows, half the audience claims to know somebody high up - the mayor, the head of the orchestra, whatever - and they are all relentless and demanding and obnoxious trying to jockey for better seats. Imagine hundreds of entitled tipsy people saying "do you know who I am?" and then trying to sneak or push past you to get to the front.

The point isn't whether the song Free Bird is a good song, it's that shouting it at shows to be funny is stupid and way beyond expiry

How did this start? Does it go back to the call-and-response on the live album?

yes

Pretty sure Yes has never covered "Freebird," but I bet they would *not* do a good version. Well, actually, I think they could do OK with the first part, in the mode of the first part of "I've Seen All Good People," but not the soloing section (oddly enough).

I dunno. The "jamming" section of "Yours Is No Disgrace" leads me to believe they'd have at least a puncher's chance.

yeah but the accents would be all wrong

If oy stye here tomahrah

looool

at first I thought it was your parents posing the question, and after further thought, I will stick to this interpretation.
― assert (matttkkkk)

for what it's worth my dad would often jump the gun and ask me and my brothers "what song is it you wanna hear?" before the band got around to it

bands should get into it.

someone shouts Freebird.

The band announces "This next song is called Freebird"

Then they play whatever song was next on their set list

rinse and repeat etc

"play it pretty for Atlanta"

Steve Howe could totally do the gnarliest version of the Freebird solo you've ever heard, it's Jon who I don't think could pull it off

I don't think Steve is loose enough for the solo. Not that the "Freebird" solo is not tight as hell, but it's as much about feel as it is about precision.

that's why they don't do it, it would take him 2 months to compose the solo note for note but when it was done I bet it would rule

Starship Trooper is Yes's answer to Freebird, or maybe the other way around.

https://www.concertarchives.org/image_uploads/photo/image/672277/large_Chicago_Tribune_Sun__Aug_8__1976_.jpg

Same planet, different worlds

1976?? 77?

Starship Trooper is Yes's answer to Freebird, or maybe the other way around.

Very similar. The codas of both are guitar solos over three chord patterns: Yes is I - ♭VI - IV and Lynyrd Skynyrd is I - ♭III - IV.

Ooh someone knows some theory!

1976?? 77?

1976! Someone taped the Yes set:

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

They're both in G as well.

I saw KG&tLW headline a festival last week. In amongst the crowd there were a number of 'mosh circles' - there was one near me and I could see four or five others from the drone shots of the crowd shown on the screens. Just a circular area within the crowd with people moshing, or occasionally all running round in a furious circle, or in the slower parts keeping the circle open but entirely empty, until the rock kicked back in and it was mosh time again. Never seen anything like that before, is it common in festival shows?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshing#cite_ref-ABC_26-0

If you generally avoid metal or hardcore adjacent shows, not surprising it would look weird on a first view

A pig pile is a style moshing popular amongst the Boston hardcore scene in the 1980s. It involved one person being pushed to the ground and others beginning to pile on top of them.[14]

oh yeah sounds fun

some hilarious shit in this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehIXgbxX6vk

Isn't that mostly a bunch of blokes jogging round in a circle together?

so the thing about moshing is there seem to be two schools of thought, based on fellow moshers I've talked to, and me not being around when it developed, idk if one is more right than the other:

1) my lifer metalhead friend, who had his girlfriend stolen by Trey from Morbid Angel, claims contact with other moshers isn't the point, that it is supposed to be running in a circle only and collisions are accidental, and says if you wanna do the other thing, you just slam dance and fuck the circle.

2) everyone else I know feels yes, you run in a circle, but you are intentionally supposed to push/bang into other people gently as part of the running, but organically, not like, abandoning the circle to beeline for some person across from you

quite frankly I'm usually tuckered out after running in a circle once though

frankly most pits I've been in have people following both rules so I just throw on some Lidocaine and pray for the best

I was there for the evolution of "pile of limbs" thrash pits into the circle thing, I distinctly remember the first circle pit I saw (Husker Du & Zero Boys, summer 1986) and I was like wtf. generally I see behavior #1 these days.

My experience in the late 80s and early 90s was that the bulk of the audience at shows would be tightly packed together and pushing and shoving each other in time with the music, but it wasn't violent, it was just sort of swaying as one. Then there would be circles that would open up, sort of the way kids gather and form a circle around a fight in the schoolyard, and within that circle people would run out and do little dances, kicking and punching at the air. Sometimes two of them would run into each other and shove each other away, or grab each other's wrists and swing around in a circle, eventually breaking free and flying backward into the ring of people surrounding the open area.

The only time I saw the "everybody run in a circle" thing was at specific moments in a show when the band would call for it; Fishbone had one particular song, "Subliminal Fascism," where they wanted everybody to do that.

When shows allowed stage diving, the open circles would close up so people could catch divers. Nobody wants to see someone come flying out and splat on the floor.

unless it's the Nuge

of course, there are also circle punchers, who are little cowardly shits who sit at the edge of the pit and punch people in the stomach opportunistically, as they run by...only to scamper away giggling afterward.

i thought it was just one asshole shithead troll at a festival I was at, when it happened to me again in another state by a completely different person within the same year. fortunately they usually hit the one guy who makes them regret it afterward.

Well this is all weird and fascinating.

Isn't that mostly a bunch of blokes jogging round in a circle together?

otm. I can imagine it being fun once or twice but strange that apparently it's now a thing everyone does.

My experience in the late 80s and early 90s was that the bulk of the audience at shows would be tightly packed together and pushing and shoving each other in time with the music, but it wasn't violent, it was just sort of swaying as one. Then there would be circles that would open up, sort of the way kids gather and form a circle around a fight in the schoolyard, and within that circle people would run out and do little dances, kicking and punching at the air. Sometimes two of them would run into each other and shove each other away, or grab each other's wrists and swing around in a circle, eventually breaking free and flying backward into the ring of people surrounding the open area.

same except i was a girl and would have always preferred not to be nonconsensually pressed against a stranger, pushed, groped, etc. when i finally started going to shows with a little more space, it was SO much better. nowadays i feel empowered to ask people to back off/not touch me.

moshing is no joke but stage diving/crowd surfing is kind of a goofy corny thing to juxtapose with heavy music, it adds a sort of ska punk flavor to the proceedings

very clearly remember having a much-anticipated Sugar show almost ruined for me by the guy standing behind me

it's all goofy and corny til someone violates your bodily autonomy
those days were terrible (note: i have never crowd surfed nor would i have considered it bc i knew what might happen and dnw to b lifted by groping strangers' hands)

Dutch band De Staat made this video a few years ago, and the idea bled into their live shows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ttGgIQpAUc

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

xp yeah, as I reflect now my goofy/corny impression is almost completely due to seeing aerial shots of the idiots on MTV. The few times I’ve experienced it irl were not goofy at all

the “jogging in a circle” thing seemed to be a uniquely American phenomenon, my limited experience of Australian 90’s mosh pits was more just chaotic jumping up and down

and yeah LL otm re being a girl - in general being anywhere close to any of “the action” in those packed spaces almost inevitably ended up as a deeply unpleasant experience, lots of weird grabby hands in places you don’t want ugh

just here to say crowd surfing is cringe. no exceptions.