Anne and I took Ryan to see Elvis Costello and The Police at the Hollywood Bowl last night.
We bought our tickets months ago, and got the best seats we could afford. We took the shuttle from the Zoo to the Bowl, and were in our seats about ten minutes before Elvis and The Impostors took to the stage for an hour-long set that was just fantastic. He didn’t play Lipstick Vogue, which is my all-time favorite Elvis tune, but he nailed all the other songs you’d expect him to play. Sting even joined him for Alison, which was pretty cool.
Did you know that Elvis Costello is 53? He was rocking it out like it was 1988 instead of 2008, and was clearly having a good time. Also, his keyboardist plays a Theremin. A Theremin! How cool!
He only played for an hour, and by the time he was finished, the Bowl was filled to its 18,000 person capacity as night fell.
The Police took the stage, and opened with a wonderful version of Bring On the Night that just sounded great. It started out softly, built to a powerful crescendo, and created a wonderful sense of anticipation for the rest of the show: The Police had clearly come to rock us.
I forget what they played next, but I recall thinking, "Man, they just sound awesome!"
This was around the same time that the woman behind me got on her cell phone and started calling everyone she knew to tell them how awesome Sting sounded.
I was annoyed, but thought I’d just wait it out. Once she went through a few calls to share her excitement with people who couldn’t be there, she’d quiet down, I figured.
I was wrong.
The calls quickly turned from "I’m at the concert and they sound awesome!" to "So, what are you doing this weekend? Oh my god did you see [some stupid gossip thing.]?!"
I paid $60 for my ticket, before the Ticketbastard fees. Surely this woman had spent a similar amount of money. She really wanted to spend the show shouting into her phone?
Two songs later, I couldn’t take it any more. I turned around and said, "Would you please try to talk a little more quietly?"
This is when I saw that she was near the bottom of one of these 32 ounce sangrias they sell at the Bowl. Perfect.
"Hold on," she said into her phone. "What?"
"I said, would you please talk a little more quietly? You’re really loud."
She rolled her eyes at me. "Whatever, dude."
Something in me snapped. Before I knew it, I said, "Hey! I don’t want to listen to your fucking phone calls. I want to listen to the Police."
Her eyes widened, like she wasn’t used to people standing up to her.
Did I mention that she was probably in her mid-40s? Yeah, that’s important. She was absolutely old enough to know better.
"WHAT?" She said.
"I paid sixty dollars to listen to The Police, not to listen to you."
"Well I paid seventy," she said, petulantly.
"So that makes it okay for you to be an inconsiderate asshole?" I said.
"Oh my GOD!" She said. I seriously felt like I was dealing with a child.
"Just be quiet, please," I said, and turned back around.
For the next twenty minutes, this woman loudly complained about me to her equally drunk, equally idiotic friends. She kicked my chair. She clapped her hands next to my head. She screamed like a teenage girl in a Beatles concert film.
In other words, this stupid asshole made about a third of her concert experience — seeing The Police! — all about trying as hard as she could to ruin it for me, because I’d asked — politely — for her to just be considerate of the people around her.
I ignored her the way you’d ignore a child who was having a temper tantrum and she eventually got bored and stopped. Just in time for the stoners to show up in front of me.
I want to break from my complaining about this crap for a second to point out that The Police put on a tremendous show. They’ve been playing the same songs for thirty years, but like Elvis Costello before them didn’t show any obvious signs of "we’ve been playing this song for thirty years" fatigue. They sounded great, it was clear that they were having a lot of fun and enjoying each other’s performances, and their energy was great. They were most certainly not phoning it in, and if we hadn’t been surrounded by assholes, it could have been one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen.
So, the stoners. Yeah, that was awesome. I don’t go to a lot of concerts because the goddamn stoners drive me crazy, but these people — again, clearly in their 40s — were constantly sparking up like it was 1977 and we were at a Dead show. As they got more drunk and more high, they provided a nice balance to the asshole woman behind me. And by balance, I mean perfect equilibrium.
If I hadn’t been there with my wife and son, I would have left, because it was so irritating. It’s a shame, because it really was a fantastic show, even if they didn’t play Synchronicity II, which is my favorite Police song ever.
I’ve noticed something in the last few years: the older the audience, the greater the number of assholes. It seems like younger people are more passionate about the music and more interested in enjoying the performance, while the older audiences (around my age, I guess) are more interested in getting fucked up and acting like idiots who are, for some reason I have yet to comprehend, are entitled to be as obnoxious, self-centered and inconsiderate as they want.
At least the idiots weren’t there for Elvis Costello, so the entire night wasn’t miserable. I just wish people would be more considerate of others, especially when we’re all together in what is supposed to be a pretty awesome shared experience.
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Wil, you got it backwards. I didn’t read all the comments so I don’t know if this has been covered but:
Usually, normal, 35 to 50 year old adults WANT to enjoy the show/movie and because of the kids and older people, they don’t.
I’ve all but stopped going to concerts and movies for the very reason you described, but it’s always kids. Or senior citizens who feel because they’re old, they can do whatever they want.
Case in point: I went to Indy 4 (it was awful) on Tuesday at at 12:40 show. There was about 30 people in the theater. About 5 rows in front of me was an older couple, maybe in their 60’s.
Everytime the “Indy” music played, the man CLAPPED along with the music. He CLAPPED. And not a light tapping, and full on rhythmic “DA da da daaaaa… da da daaaaaaa”
After the 5th or 6th time all I said was “Really?”
The woman turned around, knew what I was getting at, whispered to her husband, who then CLAPPED LOUDER!
Fact is people do not like being told when they’re being inconsiderate assholes and miss the irony of their behavior AFTER you tell them.
Wil, you got it backwards. I didn’t read all the comments so I don’t know if this has been covered but:
Usually, normal, 35 to 50 year old adults WANT to enjoy the show/movie and because of the kids and older people, they don’t.
I’ve all but stopped going to concerts and movies for the very reason you described, but it’s always kids. Or senior citizens who feel because they’re old, they can do whatever they want.
Case in point: I went to Indy 4 (it was awful) on Tuesday at at 12:40 show. There was about 30 people in the theater. About 5 rows in front of me was an older couple, maybe in their 60’s.
Everytime the “Indy” music played, the man CLAPPED along with the music. He CLAPPED. And not a light tapping, and full on rhythmic “DA da da daaaaa… da da daaaaaaa”
After the 5th or 6th time all I said was “Really?”
The woman turned around, knew what I was getting at, whispered to her husband, who then CLAPPED LOUDER!
Fact is people do not like being told when they’re being inconsiderate assholes and miss the irony of their behavior AFTER you tell them.
I just saw Sting in Bee Movie. It’s just a pranceabout stage name.
I’m glad you were able to enjoy a bit of the evening.
When did it become socially acceptable to be so obnoxious in public?
OMG, that sucks you had a bad time because of douchebags. I have never understood getting trashed at a concert. I want to remember the show, not how hard I partied.
Concert going isn’t like it used to be. When I was in University and part of the University Press Corps one of the biggest perks was getting the Entertainment beat for a weekend gig. I mean It was always two tickets one for the reporter and one for the photographer – but who says we couldn’t double duty? So I ended up with tickets all the time for two – which meant I could bring a date. Good times. Long story short – there was a time when concert going was for the music, not for the show. I miss that.
I saw the Pixies in Toronto during their reunion tour. The crowd, mainly idiots were rude and stupid. I went with my wife who is small and spent the whole time trying to protect her from the surge of the crowd and the inconsiderates who would crash into you because they were high/drunk/stupid. Good show – crappy audience. They were mostly there to get high/drunk/stupid and not there because the music meant anything to them other than a reason to get high/drunk/stupid.
Rule from this: Be like my best buddy. He has concerts coming out of his ears on DVD and that’s where he’ll stay. I mean he missed Bob Dylan recently here in town and he is a huge fan because he couldn’t deal with the “bullshit quotient” of concert going. Sad but true.
Too bad about the concert. I had a non-quite-as-bad concert experience recently. I saw Springsteen at the ACC in Toronto.
I don’t really go to concerts anymore either, because of the expense, the pot smoke, and the douchebags. But because I am a lifelong Springsteen fan, as a present my wife paid about $300 (after taxes and tickebastards’ pound of flesh) for 2 tickets. Using the “best tickets available” feature (at which you usually only get one shot for popular shows), she got us a couple of seats in the stands.
It turned out we were sitting BEHIND the band. Staring at their backs. That was annoying enough, but we were sitting beside an old biker and and his cougar. They sparked up throughout, spilled beer on the coat of the poor guy in front of them (and complained loudly about how much they’d paid for the beer), and he tried to have a conversation with Bruce throughout.
On the upside, the show as amazing, but still, I just don’t do concerts anymore because the world is filled with inconsiderate pricks.
I work at a college, and this is how every reunion weekend goes. It doesn’t seem to be generational – 5th reunion or 50th, everybody pretends they’re 18 for a weekend. I think it’s the same thing at concerts – “I’m still cool! Look how cool I am!”
Time slips away
and leaves you with nothing mister
but
boring stories of…
My “favorite” concert ruination is drunk (or stoned) assholes who proceed to sing with the performer that you paid 60 bones to see. When I say “with” I mean a little bit behind, often using “alternate” lyrics and “alternate” melody.
Wil, if you can muster the bucks, try to sit in the boxes. Make sure you have four people. Then you only need to worry about the people in the neighboring boxes. I refuse to sit in the bleachers or the super seats at the bowl because too many people are drunk or drugged assholes. One time a woman emptied a large portion of a beer on my back. I assume it was accidental, but it pretty much ruined the experience because A) I hate beer and B) I was cold and wet. No more “cheap” seats.
Damn. I missed Elvis. I would have loved to have seen that.
Two bad experiences;
1. Lawn seats at a Barry Manilow concert, drunk middle-aged women screaming “PLAY F***ING COPACABANA! WOO HOO!”
2. Duran Duran concert in the mid-90s at a smallish venue, with a drunk frat guy behind us slam-dancing into everyone and everything.
…and Elvis is totally awesome. Saw him in INdianapolis about 10 years ago and was in heaven. To end on a positive note, two concerts I really enjoyed were by Matthew Sweet and TMBG, both with fans who really wanted to be there and enjoy the music.
I once went to see Bela Fleck and the Flecktones in Manchester, New Hampshire. For the most part it was great but there was this one really drunk guy up front who was so bad that he actually made Vic Wooten stop playing in mid-bass solo. Bela asked the guy directly to be quiet so Vic could play. I was absolutely mortified. After the show I went up to shake hands with them and apologized for that guy, even though I had no idea who he was.
On the other hand, I went to see The Fixx at the Pacific Amphitheater last year and the year before, and both times the crowd was really good. I had an issue once with one talky woman in the row in front of me but that only lasted for a couple minutes.
I can only assume that because it was The Fixx, the crowd was really there to see The Fixx, not because it was trendy. The Fixx were awesome by the way – just incredible. One of the tightest bands I’ve ever seen live.
You just described any trip to a sporting event, movie, play, etc., etc., etc. We as a culture have simply lost our sense of acceptable behavior in a public place.
It was a string of similar experiences that drove me out of movie theaters. Thank [your deity here] for netflix… Unfortunately, although some movies are truly meant for the big screen, I can live with a smaller showing; but there is no substitute for live music.
It was a string of similar experiences that drove me out of movie theaters. Thank [your deity here] for netflix… Unfortunately, although some movies are truly meant for the big screen, I can live with a smaller showing; but there is no substitute for live music.
I hear ya! I had a bad experience at The Police concert in Dallas. Bored kids in a skybox with BBs. I finally got the cops involved. Hated to fell like a narc but I didnt want my Police experience ruined.
It’s really a gamble. I’ve been to a lot of shows that were awesome. Last year my wife convinced me to see Interpol, and it was really good. The venue wasn’t too big. The coolest part was that there’s a train track that runs near the ampitheater, and a train actually slowed down, and stopped so that the conductor could watch the show. The only use of cell phones that night was to snap pictures of the band while they played. Overall, very cool.
Of course, there have been numerous occasions of drunks, asshats, and general idiocy that far outnumber the good ones. As ticket prices have gone up, and my disposable income has gone down, I’ve become less inclined to gamble $70 a pop on a show that has about a 75% chance of just pissing me off.
Sorry that your experience sucked, but next time, go chat with a security guard or cop if there’s one in the venue. Generally, they’ll side with people who are having their evening ruined and either move you to a better spot, or throw the dink out.
I saw the Police here in Toronto last November, and the show was awesome. And they did play “Synchronicity II”.
However, at the Rush concert I saw the September before that, I was in much the same scenario, with a bunch of irritating assholes in the row behind me. I spent most of the concert grinding my teeth in irritation, until eventually security asked them to behave. That helped, for a bit. But at least I’d already seen Rush once before, where my seating was asshole-free.
Try seeing a concert in Ottawa. Everyone is so nice and polite. I’ve never had any problems, even at two Iron Maiden concerts. |_|
Sorry to hear the evening was kind of spoiled by these asshats…. I think it’s happened to most of us, I’d have all phones banned from venues because if they’re not bleating into them, they’re wacking you round the back of the head trying to suck up poor-quality images – instead of, y’know, WATCHING THE SHOW.
Maybe it’s just the L.A. fans, Wil. As Tempter Of Fate mentions, Denver fans don’t seem to have this problem.
This is also in line with my experience at the Nightwish concert at the Ogden Theatre on Monday night…the fans were so enthusiastic, cheering, singing, chanting, and throwing the goat, that any cellphone call made from the theater would have been a waste of battery power and minutes. (Anette, in fact, during one of the breaks, said something to the effect of “you guys are so loud, we’re missing some of our cues, we love it!”)
Just how loud are live shows in the US? I’m in the UK and I’m struggling to imagine how on earth anyone could have any sort of conversation while the band’s on, let alone be able to follow a conversation in another row.
That was a heartening account for a Brit though – I thought we led the world in inconsiderate and obnoxious behaviour in public.
ive had pretty good experiences at every concert except one. last year went to see the free concert at chevy court at the NY state fair. I went to see Foghat and Blue Oyster Cult, two bands i thought id never get a chance to see. foghat was first and were great but really wanted to see BOC. everything was fine unitl godzilla, burning for you and other songs came on , then the six 20-somethings in front of me started doing their Dave Matthews hippie dance, totally blocking my view. insult to injury was the fact that when they stood up. the metal bech they were on pivoted into the shin bones of me and everyone else on my bench. they could’nt get the concept that they were blocking our view and one girl bitched that she didnt appreciate “old people” yelling at her to sit down. me ,the the 39 yearold “old fart”, got up and moved to another bench. assholes!
Yeah, I used to look forward to baseball games, concerts, etc. I kind of still do but when I get to the venue my heart sort of takes a blips and then I begin to wonder who is gonna mess up my fun this time?
Will it be the young socialites in the row right behind me who only go to concerts to have a reunion? A LOUD reunion.
Will it be the people 3 rows down who have to stand up to pass the baby during the ballgames? over and over and over.
Maybe the chick who has to get on her cell RIGHT BEHIND me and talk to her girlfriends about who is cheating on who? While my kid listens in too.
I feel like I’m carrying my lawn everywhere I go.
Wil, et al:
A lot of us who are in our 40s or 50s actually go to concerts and behave ourselves, so don’t generalize about us all… or I’ll start talking about the 20 and 30-somethings who make movie experiences so bad…
on second thought, what the hey…
CRAP like this is why we don’t go to movies anymore. The last time we did, there were kids (I’m talking 20s, 30s and younger) sitting all around us, talking on the phone, getting up and down to change seats, yell at each other, etc. throughout the movie.
So, assholiness is not limited to older folks, Wil… all it takes is a little booze or something, and a sense of self-entitlement and it’s pretty easy to fuck up a concert or movie for somebody else.
It would be cool to go to a concert or movie and not have it ruined by others… maybe if more of us stood up to assholes, and if stadium police would do their jobs, we could make a difference… eh?
CC/spacewriter
I run into the same kind of jackasses in most major theaters. Which to be honest brings to me a level of rage that I rarely ever experience.
Cellphones suck!…i HATE ’em…They make it possible for people who are assholes to expand their assholiness exponentially…From driving…to shopping…to going to a concert…Some people can’t shut up for even one moment…It’s not like these people are working on a cure for cancer…or trying to make the world a better place…They are making inane conversation with someone who isn’t there to the detriment of whoever is cursed to be where they are…
Rant over…I feel better now…bye.
Wow – I almost went to see Iron Man tonight but this post reminded me of why I stopped watching movies in the theatre. Which is sad because I love experience of going to see a movie but I hate the people who talk on cell phones or ask dumb questions, or guess what will happen next.
At least Boston Legal is out on DVD. *rubs hands happily, waiting for Friday night episode of BSG*
Hi Wil,
My husband and I are older (50+) and had a similar experience at Madison Square Garden this spring when we went to see Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton. Paid an exorbitant amount of money because my husband is such a Steve Winwood fan (almost $400) and the entire concert was ruined by a woman (in her 50s) seated directly in front of my husband. She stood and danced to every song, waved her arms over her head, and yelled every so often as she tried to get Clapton’s attention. My husband was so angry by the time the concert ended that he walked all the way back to our apartment on the lower east side, and he was still furious by the time he got home. (I was angry too but took a cab home because I can’t walk as quickly as he does.)
We attended concerts at the Garden all the time in the 1970s and nothing like this happened then. Hadn’t been to a concert there in some years, so weren’t expecting anything like this.
Thanks for posting about your experience–I thought this sort of rudeness was endemic to NYC, didn’t realize this happens everywhere.
Synchronicity II is my favorite Police tune, too!
The youth disconnect might be that they’re more passionate about music, or it might just be that on average they earn less and have more a sense of investment. That moron behind you probably can throw around $70 more easily than a 19 year old.
I’m glad I’ve had better luck scolding the people behind me. I told a woman behind me at Wolf Trap when seeing Lyle Lovett “I can hear you and I don’t want to.” Thankfully for all of us she didn’t react like the woman behind you.
Quote:”If only ‘Wil Says… Don’t be a dick’ came on rolls of gaffers tape, to be used to shut people’s mouths… damn, that’d be useful.
Posted by: VT”
Get to work on this Wil. I’d buy a roll for sure. Maybe 2 if they were buy 2 get 1 free 😉
Though I hesitate to share this, I was at a Rolling Stones concert 2 years ago when the guy sitting on the grass in front of us smoked up, swore, screamed, and almost ruined the experience for us all, until (as it got darker) when everyone was standing as Mick and the boys rocked the place, this guy decided to get up and dance and scream, as my brother in law kicked the guy in the small of his back, as he flew about 10 feet away. You think we were mad at the arsehole, imagine how angry the people he landed on were…
These people bring out the worst in us 🙂
If someone is pissing you off in a public venue, then the odds are they are pissing someone else off as well. Generally addressing a public crowd works wonders. No one feels personally attacked and anyone who is not being a jackass jumps on the “Shut the hell up!” bandwagon with you. Then you pretty much ostracize the jackass who is causing the problem by creating a unified mob against douchebaggery. It works wonders. You also should have banded together with the stoners because they could have blown some pot smoke in her face and chilled her right out. Stoners don’t like people who talk through concerts either.
Haha
I’m so glad it isn’t me who gets more and more frustrated with the inbred knuckle dragging morons who’s middle name is consideration and first name is ‘total lack of anything resembling’
What bothers me more is I’d like to think I need to set an example for the younger generation as well as my peers as to what is acceptable. If I’m a dick then I can’t really be annoyed when the next generation of adults are.
But I’m not, it’s not hard to be thoughtful (is it?)
The Police/Elvis were here a few days ago. I would have loved to go see them but was broke when tickets went on sale. I’m going to see Eddie Izzard in August and hope the experience is good. To the people in other countries wondering about the volume of the music, you are trying to apply logic to the obnoxious cell phone people. The loud music just makes them scream even louder whereas normal people would not answer the phone.
I went to last night’s show at The Bowl and thankfully avoided people with poor behavior. But yes, I have witnessed these losers many times and think it’s a function of the venue size. When they’re with 80,000 other people, they seem to think it’s okay to do stupid stuff. I rarely see this at smaller LA venues (The Wiltern, Troub, etc.).
…and now it’s time for nature to pollinate your face! (:
Will…Did you not know that in today’s society everyone is the most important person in the world and no one is responsible for their own actions? How dare you have ears that are bothered by the sound waves emitted by her mouth?!It is all your fault. After all, she sounds like a very special person and has probably been told so her whole life. Everyone is special in his or her own way (Barney).
I just suddenly flashed on this following scene…
Loud Bitch: Well I paid seventy dollars!
Wil: I don’t give a fuck! Do you know who the hell I am! I AM WIL MUTHAFUCKIN’ WHEATON! DO YOU KNOW WHAT WIL MUTHAFUCKIN’ WHEATON SEZ!?! DO YOU?!?!? WIL SEZ SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!
Wil (to Ryan): Pretend I didn’t say that.
Next time you should bring the family out to Houston. The show here at the Woodlands Pavilion was great. I used to spring for the expensive seats, too. But now we buy the cheaper seats on the lawn because I think it helps decrease the asshole quotient. (Either that are they are just farther apart.) Cheers, Carrie
Same thing happened to me at the last big Nine Inch Nails show I went to. I was surrounded by frat boys screaming “play that fuck like an animal song!!!” during Trent’s quiet piano solo of “Hurt.”
Fail.
Sorry you had a bad experience. I saw The Police twice and both times the people around me were pretty good (although the first time in Vegas was in the summer – I swear they didn’t have the air on and I felt awful). I think I had a semi-drunk 40ish lady next to me when we saw them in Atlanta…but she was a happy, sweet drunk who wasn’t obnoxious but just enjoying a night out with her husband…kinda sweet actually.
The funny part was that in the section we were in, the seats we had were obviously add-on metal bleacher types which swayed with the slightest movements…and that was BEFORE the crowd starting getting into the songs! Although we were assured by security they were safe, I had a brief moment of “This is how I’m going to die…a bleacher collapse during ‘Can’t Stand Losing You’.”
The worst “concert” experience we had was actually during a Stars On Ice show when the woman behind us wouldn’t stop yakking to her friend during a Kristi Yamaguchi number.
(And I’m going to a Stevie Nicks concert in about a week and now the poster a few pages back has made me nervous;-)
(small voice) and i kinda liked Fiction Plane…and Indy 4 (but after Phantom Menace my standards have been lowered to “just please don’t totally suck”
You know, being a Narc sucks. But if you ask (NICELY) and the asshole in question doesn’t respond, alert security. At least in my local arena they’ll do something. I’ve rarely had your experience at concerts, but at movies ALL the time. I hate mobile phones and fully support execution of any person using them during any movie or concert.
About a year and a half ago, my wife, mother-in-law, sister-and-law, and myself got the weird idea that it’d be neat to take the train from Tampa to NYC – well, we picked up some more passengers in Savannah, GA around 2:30 in the AM, and as I tried to go back to sleep, the older couple (had to be mid to late 70s) that had taken seats behind us took turns talking – at regular volume – on their cell phone, to various family members…about general BS…it wasn’t a case where someone in the family had gotten sick or died or whatever and they were getting there ASAP, they just wanted to BS…of all the times for a septuagenarian to figure out how to operate a piece of 21st century technology. I tried to block it out, but about 45 minutes later, my sister-in-law rectified the situation. It’s always handy to have someone in your group willing to snap at a senior citizen.
My kid (18 yo) works at the Bowl and when I picked him up lat night, he sighed and said “old people just don’t know how to enjoy a good concert”. Ain’t that the truth!
He smelled like a mixture of beer and weed, from picking up so many drunk idiots who were falling all over the place. ANd he was working the “expensive” seats, the boxes. REM tonight should be just as bad, and he is dreading The Cure this weekend.
As a 43 year old I can say I agree with you. I have been at concerts where the young kids are assholes, but it is mostly the older people and I have a theory. They think they are “supposed” to be going to concerts, but really they are not into it and are bored. They are trying to prove they are still “doing things” or whatever.
It hasn’t changed. 15 years ago I saw Elvis at the Shoreline in Mountain View and some dumb drunk 30-ish year old chick behind me sang through every song! Why would you come to a concert and then sing with each song. Idiots, all of them. I don’t like people enough to go to those kind of concerts anymore.
$60? Lawn seats in Houston were more than that! I just couldn’t work up any enthusiasm to pay that much given my recent concert going experiences (which wouldn’t be any revelation to anybody reading this.)
Of course, I couldn’t resist Tom Waits…I’m hoping that the flakes won’t know to come out for that.
And also Lipstick Vogue is my fav EC song. Check out Claudia Brucken and Andrew Poppy’s cover of it on Another Language. Completely different, but equally powerful.
I’ve had two very similar experiences. Oddly enough they both involve my favorite singer/songwriter Peter Hammill.
The first occured in 1991 at the (now-deceased) Bayou in Washington, DC. I’d had the pleasure of speaking to Mr Hammill beforehand and was looking forward to an excellent show.
The opening band was all right but not quite right as an opener for Hammill. Fine. But then, as Hammill started his set, the band–who had taken up residence at the bar–started a loud conversation. I went over and asked them politely to be quiet. “Oh sorry dude, no problem.” Thirty seconds later they were at it again. I spoke to them again. Same (lack of) response. I gave up and moved away.
The 2nd time was in 1999, this time at the (late lamented) Phantasmagoria in Wheaton, MD. Loudmouth wouldn’t shut it. Finally leaned over and said, “Excuse me, but I didn’t pay $17 to hear you run your mouth.” Guy responded with physical threats. Fortunately he was cooled out by his more sober companion.
Mind you, this was *before* cell phones. The problem is obviously now much worse.
In the interest of total honesty I should add that I have been guilty of this behavior too. When I went to see Peter Gabriel in 2001, I started singing along to “Here Comes The Flood.” The lady in front of me asked me very nicely to stop. Which I did. My face was red for the rest of the show.
Finally, in defense of stoners (of which I are one), I offer this quote from my main man Bill Hicks: “You’re…at a concert and someone’s really violent and aggressive and obnoxious. Are they *drunk*? Or are they smoking pot?…They’re drunk.”
I append this quote because I heard people complaining about stoners, while observing that they were drunk and stoned. Therein lies the problem.