MENTAL!
September 29, 2008 by Aidan Hanratty
Filed under Anablog
As in let’s go f*cking… I went to see Jape and Friendly Fires tonight in 53 Degrees, “the North West’s premier live music, club and comedy venue.” It was my first gig there, and while I was very impressed by both acts, I spent much of the gig thinking about what bugs me when I go to gigs. The following gripes came to mind during and after the show.
When people barge to the front and don’t apologise - we’re all here for the same thing, so be nice.
When people spend the soundcheck bellowing football chants (as above).
When people spend the whole gig chatting to their mate(s) (although I can be guilty of that sometimes).
When people thrust one hand in the air and sing along to throwaway lyrics like “come oooon” as if they’re the most meaningful lyrics since Sam Cooke wrote A Change Is Gonna Come.
When people scream for the band’s biggest song, which will probably be their encore anyway.
When people scream for songs during quiet parts of a song.
When people think it’s appropriate to mosh to upbeat indie-dance-pop.
When people scream during breakdowns
When crowds sing so loud you can’t hear the band.
Crowd surfing (I’m sorry, I really think this is utterly pointless).
When band-members get into the crowd and adoring fan-girls start stroking said band-members hair.
I realise while writing this that I may come across like Otto in the U2 episode of The Simpsons - “Sit down, you’re ruining it for everyone!” - but I’m 90% certain these, among others, are gripes shared by others. Feel free to add your own…
I agree with you about many of these issues - from drunk fucks shouting over the music to football chants (I’ve been lucky enough never to experience this, I’m guessing it’s a factor of the Jape demographic). But in fairness, if you’ve an issue with moshing and or crowd surfing, you’re part of the problem.
The security theatre which has grown up around concerts in the last decade in Ireland (primarily since the death of a teenager at a smashing pumpkins gig in the point a few years ago), has trained a generation that the proper reaction to rock music is a gentle head bob. Similarly, in mainstream clubs, the ‘white man’s shimmy’ or the ’slutty shuffle’ are considered (both by bouncers and over zealous patrons) the only acceptable dance moves. This is in a word, bullshit. Upbeat music is meant to make you go crazy. More power to the moshing, stage diving, crowd surfing retinue.
depends on the venue, the air conditioning in tripod that seems to be only turned on during quiet songs, people at the bar chatting loudly during songs. Irish people seemingly have a love for crushing/pushing people near the front of concerts, One of my best friends refuses to go to concerts in ireland because of that.
Jape gigs are funny for the crowd they attract. You get the stand-still head-nod indie gig crowd. And then you get pill-heads, dancing like pill-heads even to the non-dancy ones.
“And then you get pill-heads, dancing like pill-heads even to the non-dancy ones”
And that’s just Richie, never mind the rest of the band.
I was at that Smashing Pumpkins gig where that girl died all those years ago. I just remember the security was badly managed (I was at the very front of The Point that night and there was serious problems from the start) and crowd-surfing/moshing took the blame. I don’t want to get serious but that girl was crushed/trampled to death as far as I remember and crowd-surfing used to be used as a method of escaping a crush, no? As for moshing - I sincerely doubt people have died from it. I also remember not knowing what was going on when the gig stopped (indefinitely) and D’Arcy berating the crowd for laughing about something we didn’t know had happened. I still fancied her though. Anyway, I used to like crowd-surfing and moshing; that was my point.
We had a similar conversation in the past about this stuff here - http://www.analoguemagazine.com/the_blog/pig-pen/
Not sure if talking about it can change anything, but I am certain that the ’security’ atmosphere around gigs and festivals makes me less and less interested in attending live music. It breaks that whole illusion of living in a free society.
I agree with you to an extent Gareth about moshing etc but at rock gigs. If you go to a proper rock gig then you do have to expect that sort of thing and if you don’t you’re in the wrong place but I wouldn’t personally put Jape in that box.
Futhermore there is a huge difference between the gentle head nod and doing someone a minor (or major if you’re big enough) injury even if it was unintentional. I’ve come away from gigs with plenty a bruise to show for it.
I can’t staaaaaaaand people who feel the need to experience a gig through the miniature camera on their camera phone. Or record it on their friend’s voicemail. It Drives Me Up The Wall.
a major annoyance at smaller gigs like those in whelans is the amount of people using professional cameras, last time holy fuck played there i saw 8 people with professional cameras in the front two rows it meant that people weren’t going to enjoy the gig as the threat of being smacked in the face by a camera was too much of a risk,atmosphere was dead as a result
What annoys me about going to a gig is when the singer decides to cycle around the stage on a little bike while filming himself on a hand-held camera. Or when he insists on singing some irrelevant nonsense from inside a giant transparent “zorb” (i.e. as my friend describes it, a sort of outdoor adult leisure accessory which is popular withthe sort of middle aged businessmen who enjoy going on adventure holidays in New Zealand). Or when he announces that he is about to play a song he wrote in collaboration with some bonobo monkeys.
Wondering what I’m blethering on about? See Peter Gabriel’s “Growing Up Live” DVD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66gOWQ6Q0Sg
I’ve been that person at small gigs with a professional camera…for Analogue…. and I don’t enjoy getting in peoples way. Generally I try to take most of my shots in the first 10 mins and then put the camera away. There’s nothing I want less than some idiot wrecking my lovely (and expensive) camera.
Photographers: if you’re planning on taking pictures at somewhere like Whelans where you would have to part people and elbow them out of the way to get to the front…
Queue early! Like everyone else! Then take your pictures, and if you want to see the band, drop the camera until something spectacular and noteworthy happens, or if not, drop back! It’s not fair on people who do queue. Like Animal Collective at that impromptu thing in Whelans, we were waiting literally a couple of hours, only for someone to shove their way in front of us halfway through to take pictures.
A friend of a friend was taking pictures of Why? in Andrew’s Lane last April. He politely asked someone if he could get past for a few pictures, and he was let through with a genial nod. When he had taken his photos, he went to move back into the crowd only to be shoved by the same person who had let him past in the first place, who said “you’re ruining the vibe man!” But I guess that’s the one time that someone will actually act on their anti-photographer instincts.
There were about 300 psycho semi-scene Anticon zealots at that gig, I’m surprised your friend of a friend wasn’t passive-aggressived to death.