s_k

I more than once asked people to be quiet at concerts.
I'm there for the music. I don't even mind when the audience sings along out of tune, I just don't mind as long as they enjoy the music, whatever way they like.
But I'm there for the band and so should they.

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ThePhanastasio

Ugh, I can imagine that would be horrible! I'm glad the concert was good, though, definitely! I was extremely annoyed at one Phish concert I went to - I was right in front of Mike's bass rig, and the girls to my right were SCREAMING to hear each other over the thing. During the second set, Phish started playing "Carini", which they'd not played since 2004, and I looked over at my friend and he was still trying to figure out what it was. I leaned in to his ear and was really excited and said, "Dude, it's Carini!" and those girls who'd been talking all night told ME to shut up. When I was actually referencing the show itself and having fun.

Oh, the problem isn't necessarily the volume of the music. I get stuck next to the people who are screaming over the music to be heard, and as I'm right beside them, I can hear too. It gets really distracting when I'm trying to listen to really complex instrumental sections of songs. Again, at a Phish concert, everytime I've seen them play "Time Turns Elastic" which is a very complex newer song, people take that time to chat amongst themselves when there are still a lot of people in the audience who really want to hear it.

I don't understand how people can even do it, really. If they've paid all of that money for a concert ticket, it would make sense if they enjoyed the concert and listened to it. I personally wouldn't pay $30 or more to stand around and talk, when I can do that pretty much anywhere for free.

See, I have a problem asking people to be quiet. Most of the people I've encountered at concerts seem to be the type who would get really confrontational if I asked them to stop talking, maybe even misconstruing me as being a confrontational sort of person. I'm really not - I'm super chilled out and hate confrontation. I just find them horribly distracting - it's like, I spent all of this money to see this band live, not hear about those peoples' boring lives the entire concert.

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Janszoon

Same here mostly. I guess I've been to a few concerts that were quiet enough but luckily no one around me was chit chatting.

This conversation reminds me though of a bootleg a friend of mine had of an early Primus concert, I think from back before they had any albums out. There's this guy, who was apparently really close to the recording device because you can hear him talking to his friend loud and clear, saying something along the lines of, "Meh. I mean I appreciate that these guys are trying to do something different but they just don't do it for me."

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ThePhanastasio

Ugh, that's awful. That's actually kind of what made me start this thread, to an extent - one of the Trey shows I downloaded features these girls talking obnoxiously the entire show. When they finally acknowledge that they're at a Trey Anastasio concert, one of them says, (during a really quiet instrumental section in the acoustic set) "Adam thinks he's probably a good guitarist," or something to that effect, then the guy taping says, "What? Who are you talking about?" and they say, "My friend Adam thinks he's a good guitarist." The guy taping is obviously irritated and says kind of annoyed, "Yes, he's a very good guitarist." This is after they talked nonstop the whole beginning of the show, and then they continued talking to each other.

I just remembered how much I detest those people at concerts, and realized that with my luck, I'd have probably been standing right next to them at that show. I always get stuck with the talkers.

Like, at a Gov't Mule show, during the second set, I got stuck next to this girl who talked to her friend nonstop. I was trying to listen to Warren Haynes absolutely killing it onstage, and ignoring her, then she turned to me. She saw I was wearing a Phish shirt, and proceeded to tell me all sorts of stuff about how she loved Phish - and kept saying the wrong names for songs, called the band members by the wrong names, etc. I would have been a little less annoyed if it was someone who really loved the band or something, and was just excited to talk about it, but would have wished they'd save the conversation for a setbreak or after the show. That one girl was just talking to me because her friend went to the bathroom or something and she was incapable of shutting up.

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s_k

Maybe that's a cultural thing? People at concerts here (and I mean concerts of proper bands, obviously ) are usually the intelligent type.
And then I have a beard and broad shoulders, people tend to be slightly afraid of me and keep their mouths shut. I ask politely though because, like you, I hate confrontation and I'd rather leave the concert than cause any trouble.

Overhere there's three groups of people at concerts.
You have the actual music lovers, who shut up.
You have youngsters who are just having a good time out.
And you have old people at old men concerts (Dylan, Eagles) who drink a lot and shout all the ****ing time.

Luckily I go to concerts where the average age lies between 25 and 45 and most of the people are genuinly interested in the music (e.g. The Bees, Calexico). So usually people don't talk that much and if they do, I will go and stand somewhere else.

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Janszoon

I actually find it pretty funny, especially considering how successful Primus went on to be. But at the same time, yeah, those kind of wet blankets are annoying as fuck.

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DoctorSoft

I've only ever been to one real concert, Broken Social Scene, who I'm not really a fan of, but were pretty cool live. But these next to me just about ruined it for me. The whole concert all I heard behind me was:

"Band sucks bro... wish we snuck some beer in bro. **** look at these wimps."

Why would you waste like $30 on a band you don't even like?

s_k

That's what Dylan said to the reporters who went 'booo' when he went electric.
"If you want to pay 30 bucks for a ticket and shout booo all the time, be my guest"

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Janszoon

I don't know bro.

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Mojo

I've wasted money on gigs. I've been to several gigs without knowing anything about the band, and even several for bands I didn't like but hadn't seen live, just to give them a chance.

As far as I'm aware I've never ruined the gig for other people though.

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