There’s no secret. I go to quite a lot of concerts and other performances.
Some are wonderful, some aren’t, but that’s to be expected. Acoustics in some venues can be a little iffy, you might not be feeling 100% or something could just go wrong. There’s a multitude of reasons why a concert experience might not be 100%.
Sadly, however, I’ve had a couple of horrible experiences over the last few months that were nothing to do with me, the artist, the weather or the venue. No. They were 100% down to the behaviour of other attendees.
Now I’ll be the first to say that we all enjoy things in different ways. My experience of something can be quite different to yours and what I’ll enjoy might not align perfectly with what you like.
But when I go to see Taylor Swift perform and I’ve paid good money for the experience, I want to be able to enjoy Taylor Swift. I do not want to have to put up with some idiot influencer who thinks she’s somehow entitled to not only live stream the entire concert from her seat beside me, but to also provide a running commentary for her “public”. I wish I’d taken photos of the setup! It was the oddest thing I’ve ever seen and how she managed to get it all past security at the venue is beyond me! She had a couple of tripods and multiple phones and mics and God knows what else. Her “assistant” (possibly boyfriend or husband) was helping her manage all this while she loudly narrated the concert. So so annoying!!
Fast forward to last weekend in London.
The The have a new album out. They’re touring at the moment and I’d been lucky enough to get tickets for both their London and Dublin concerts. Dublin was great – they performed some of the new material and a load of the classics. However for the rest of the tour, which started after the new album’s release, the set was in two halves. The first half was the new album, while the second were the classics.
Due to the way the venue was laid out I had to go in towards the back of the crowd.
To say it was loud would be an understatement. I literally could barely hear The The over the din of people talking. Loudly. I tried to move forward, thinking that if I got further from the area where people were coming in and going to the bars that it might be quieter.
But no. No change.
It became abundantly clear to me that a lot of people had zero intention of listening to the music. And they were being so loud about it that those of us who had made the trip to listen to the concert were going to be denied the chance.
My evening was ruined.
Sure, when the second half of the concert kicked off and they were doing all the hits etc., a lot of the people shut the hell up, but not all of them and at that stage I’d already missed half the concert.
Not impressed.
If you don’t want to listen to the music then go to the bar area, there’s no reason to ruin it for everyone else!
