Cellphones at Concerts, Cool or a Curse?

Mr.Wizard

Mr.Wizard

1,000+ Posts
Interesting article.

I noticed this big time at Wilco, it was kind of annoying, but it gave me a chance to move up into the crowd as people were distracted with taking their video or pics.
The Link

What if you gave a concert and the crowd refused to watch?

It's not as far-fetched as it seems. As more and more concertgoers fiddle with cellphone cameras and fidget with BlackBerries, some people say mobile technology is ruining the concert experience.

"It's extraordinarily irritating," says Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame. "All these people holding up these horrid little squares of bright light."

"It's like they're not even there," says jazz guitarist Bill Frisell. "It's like, 'Why don't you put that away and listen to the music?' "

"It drives me crazy," says singer Steve Earle. "They have their use, but there's definitely a price to pay."

It's not just a case of cranky baby boomers griping about the young and the restless. Plenty of younger artists and fans are also getting fed up with the tech intrusion.

"As a performer, it's frustrating to look out and see a sea of cellphones instead of faces," says Sleater-Kinney guitarist Carrie Brownstein.

"There's definitely a problem where people are so busy documenting the moment that they forget to just live in the moment."
 
wahh, all these people paid to see me and they're not even looking at me.

what do they care how people enjoy the show? it seems to me like younger people are pretty adept at multitasking with the cell phone. who says they're not enjoying the music?
 
Why pay to go to a concert or movie and spend the time on the phone talking to someone you could talk to at anytime?
 
The stuff I see on YouTube usually looks and sounds like complete ****.

If it was a nice pro style digital video camera, cool, but the iPhone footage is very poor.

When I went to Dylan last year @ Stubb's, all cellphones were required to be turned off. Security was actually going into the crowd if they saw one being used as a camera.
 
Interesting enough, I went to a Keith Urban concert (ugh, the GF dragged me) and he actually embraced the cell phones. He had the crowd do a "Wave" but with everyone flashing open their cell phone. It was pretty cool.
 
I like the cell phones a lot better than the tools that paid their money to stand and chit chat through the performance. Those ************* always end up standing next to me. I think the only shows I've seen in the last couple years that didn't have these douchebags was Los Amigos Invisibles, but otherwise, those ******** are everywhere. If they are distracted by their phones I can tune that out a lot easier.
 
It's simple. If some tool next to you is a cellphone type, just make lots of annoying noise to where they move or turn the phone off.
 
Seems to me the cellphones are the new lighters. Radiohead plays a slow song and up come the phones.....
 
I was at a show seeing Bruce and Charlie Robison and Jack Ingram. During one slow song, this table of assclowns were carrying on a full blown, loud conversation. After the song, Charlie asked them if his singing was disrupting their conversation.
 
i use my cellphone at shows to text friends where i'm at or where they're at because i can't hear them. i don't take videos.

i also use it to get numbers and take pictures up skirts
 
I was at a show at Stubb's about a month ago and these two ******* whores next to me were texting and talking really loud and laughing and after about 10 minutes of this ******** I was like, "Really? Really?! Are you really going to talk through the entire show?! We can hardly hear the band!" and one of the GDWs said, "You know if you moved up closer, you could hear everything." I said back, "We've been here since 6:30, and we're not going anywhere. So if you're gonna keep talking, do it somewhere else. I mean why come to a concert if you're not gonna even listen to the band? Who does that?!" and this GDW replies, "We're from out of town." I said, "Well that explains a lot."

That shut the GDWs the **** up. At first they didn't move, but after about 5 minutes, they walked off. Good riddance.
 
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