Freebird
I wanted to keep it out of my review but The Early November gig on Saturday featured some of the most egregious breaches of gig etiquette of recent memory. I've begrudgingly accepted the use of camera phones at shows, although I despise them to the point where I'd happily see them outlawed by legislation. As I mentioned, this show was downgraded to a smaller venue, which made their employment feel even more baffling to me. Everyone interested in seeing this is already in this room, or going to another show on this tour. If people wanted some sort of record for posterity, they may as well have just nominated the person with the highest quality recording equipment and procured the files from them later.
Yellowcard put it brilliantly in their recorded pre-show announcement on their December UK tour. "While we're not telling you how to live your lives, if you choose to watch a kick ass rock show through an LED rectangle, you are fucking blowing it". Cue people proceeding to do it anyway.
But if it had ended there, I could have lived with it. The band are from New Jersey and a loudmouthed American woman in the crowd felt compelled to say she also hailed from those parts. This was handled beautifully by Joe Marro: "You're from where? Point Pleasant? Never heard of it". But Jesus Christ, no-one gives a shit about your hometown. On and on it went, disrespectful act after disrespectful act, including shouting out song titles from different records when the band had made it clear they were going to play the first half of their set from The Mother, The Mechanic and The Path as advertised.
I audibly found myself saying "shut the fuck up" to everyone and no-one in particular. When Ace Enders mentioned that he used to play Blink 182 covers when he was starting out, one tosser repeatedly shouted at him to play some. I would have happily punched him in the side of the head, over and over. I was wearing a Blink 182 shirt at the time so presumably it would have confused bystanders, but I'm confident that an explanation would have found me on the side of the righteous.
I don't know what it is. The perils of Saturday drinking? St Patrick's Day weekend? Maybe there's an identical percentage at arseholes at every gig but their presence at a low capacity show is enough to tip the balance. It continues to dishearten me that there's a certain section of society who feel that once they've paid their money, they have carte blanche to behave however they like and show complete contempt for both the people around them and the band they've come to see. But perhaps twas ever thus.
Yellowcard put it brilliantly in their recorded pre-show announcement on their December UK tour. "While we're not telling you how to live your lives, if you choose to watch a kick ass rock show through an LED rectangle, you are fucking blowing it". Cue people proceeding to do it anyway.
But if it had ended there, I could have lived with it. The band are from New Jersey and a loudmouthed American woman in the crowd felt compelled to say she also hailed from those parts. This was handled beautifully by Joe Marro: "You're from where? Point Pleasant? Never heard of it". But Jesus Christ, no-one gives a shit about your hometown. On and on it went, disrespectful act after disrespectful act, including shouting out song titles from different records when the band had made it clear they were going to play the first half of their set from The Mother, The Mechanic and The Path as advertised.
I audibly found myself saying "shut the fuck up" to everyone and no-one in particular. When Ace Enders mentioned that he used to play Blink 182 covers when he was starting out, one tosser repeatedly shouted at him to play some. I would have happily punched him in the side of the head, over and over. I was wearing a Blink 182 shirt at the time so presumably it would have confused bystanders, but I'm confident that an explanation would have found me on the side of the righteous.
I don't know what it is. The perils of Saturday drinking? St Patrick's Day weekend? Maybe there's an identical percentage at arseholes at every gig but their presence at a low capacity show is enough to tip the balance. It continues to dishearten me that there's a certain section of society who feel that once they've paid their money, they have carte blanche to behave however they like and show complete contempt for both the people around them and the band they've come to see. But perhaps twas ever thus.
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