Today’s Guardian music blog questions whether concert guest-lists have grown out of control, using a recent Arcade Fire concert at Brixton Academy as an example:
…even Arcade Fire, bastions of creative integrity, have become victims of a success they cannot control. First off, it didn’t bode well that the queue for the complimentary tickets and guest list at the gig almost equalled that for standard tickets. A large number of complimentary tickets usually means a great deal of handouts from sponsors to, dare I say it, people who are only there for a free night out, as opposed to the thousands of people who tried desperately to pay for tickets only to be left disappointed when the band’s UK shows sold out in a matter of minutes. Sure enough, on entering the stalls, I realised I was surrounded by people who didn’t really care very much about being there, certainly not half as much as they cared about getting the next round in and fiddling constantly with their mobile phones.
There was almost constant chatter, embarrassingly obvious between songs and, even worse, after some of the band’s lesser-known album tracks (Haiti for example) many of the people around me didn’t even bother to clap. A couple in front of me, clearly not well acquainted with the band’s material, gave up on enjoying the music after the first song (which was, by the way, a particularly jubilant performance of Keep The Car Running) and nattered on uninterrupted throughout the show, only pausing for breath, curiously enough, when the band did.
There are a lot of assumptions at work here, so let’s pull back a bit: First off, a time-of-release show by a band with as much attention as the Arcade Fire is going to be a chattering, nattering zoo of assholes no matter what; that’s just the way concert-going works nowadays (we’re not condoning it, mind you, but just about any show you go to nowadays is going to be packed with fans who see concerts as less of a musical experience and more of a musical social experience). Secondly, considering how few gigs the band is playing in the U.K. this month, you can expect that a large portion of the guest-list crowd consisted of radio-station employees and–ahem–music journalists. And certainly, we can’t start taking away the press members’ plus-ones anytime soon, can we?
Finally, anyone who’s ever been comped for Brixton knows that the will-call line there is shite. It’s like one little old lady working out of a hut around the side of the building. No wonder everyone who survives it winds up drunk and screaming into a cell phone.
Freeloaders are killing live music [Guardian Unlimited Arts Blog]
Let’s not forget that the Guardian themselves play a part in this.
Not so long ago, bands had to incredibly successful or controversial to get the kind of coverage bands get these days.
Bands such as Arcade Fire would maybe get a short article and a brief review in the non-music press but since Britpop all that’s changed, now casual fans want in on the action earlier and who can blame them? The problem is that it becomes something to check off the list; journalists’ friends are now more interested in going (as opposed to the friend who always went/really likes the band). and don’t know how to behave.
That and mobile phones, especially camera phones. Maybe they should run a warning like at the cinema (they could also advertise the concesion stand/bar).
@pinder:
Beat me to it.
Interestingly, I’m hearing complaints in Toronto that there aren’t ENOUGH passes for press and industry.
Oh, the media, complaining about the pitfalls of living in a media capital. Try moving out of London, LA or New York, and this will probably be a hell of a lot less of a problem.
What’s the deal with the red-headed guy in Arcade Fire? In every band photo I’ve seen, he’s always got his mouth hanging open and other self-conscious tics. He seems to be going for a “hipster doofus with Asperger’s syndrome” look but he’s only managing “inbred halfwit.”
“He seems to be going for a “hipster doofus with Asperger’s syndrome” look but he’s only managing “inbred halfwit.”"
HEY!!
Hey, I hate non-attentive concert goers as much as anyone, but a guy who got in for free complaining about other people who got in for free will win so sympathy from me. Neither do bands who order the audience to “wake up” or “pay attention.” I don’t care how talented you are or how obnoxious they’re being … it’s your job to MAKE THEM pay attention.
But maybe the real problem is that Arcade Fire have outgrown these places and should really be playing bigger venues?
I think Yo La Tengo is one of the few bands left who practice, no matter what the venue, the “play quieter as everything else gets noisier” adage to gigs, which more bands (or at least the ones that want to get the attention of the waning spans of socialites, hangers-on & drunk-in-the-front people) should at least try to approach their shows. I think Jenny Toomey (Tsunami, herself, etc.) used to bait the crowd, but mostly the results were akin to the last time Lou Reed played a corporate event.
This is why I only leave the house to see comedians.
I don’t really go to be entertainted, though, so the odds are in my favor.
The argument being put forth here ignores the fact that the megafans being “cheated” out of tickets by those evil good-time-havers are arguably better off not actually seeing the show, given that real contact with favorite bands these days seems to inevitably inspire a bitter letdown among the faithful. Better they not have to face the disappointment of reality and enjoy the rapturous descriptions of others.
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed always has that damn Bluetooth headseat in his ear during “Crown of Love”
WWKSMD ? ? ?