I admit – if this is nominally a seated venue, sit the f*ck down. I’m challeneged enough being a short arse. Dipshits waving their arms around just aggravate me,
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/30/1196546225/adele-fan-sit-or-stand-debate-concerts
Concert Etiquette
by 44 Comments
Thanks, Si!
I liked the article and my sympathy is certainly with the members of the audience who told this Juan Lasta character to sit down.
It’s definitely not a black and white question and there are certainly artists who will encourage the audience to get up and dance. But there’s a great difference between that and one selfish, insensitive egomaniac, spoiling the show for everyone around him.
I would have encouraged him that it was in his best interests to sit down.
Time was a pint of cider to the back of the head would work wonders.
Not with the prices of booze in concert venues now. It was bad enough back then.
I use the term ‘cider’ loosely. Any straw coloured liquid will suffice.
I think it depends on the show as to whether to sit or stand. I saw Rumours of Fleetwood Mac last year at Symphony Hall and everyone stood start to finish.
At the same venue we saw Celtic Connections and towards the finale my wife and I stood and danced and were the only ones in our section
Bonnie Raitt at Black Deer remarked that at Birminghan Symohony Hall 2 days earlier (I was there) it was like the audience was asleep as no one was dancing.
Definitely don’t agree with the selfie and the singing throughout the concert shtick though
@SteveT
Do you know anyone who might need a ticket for Wilco at Moseley on Sun, Steve?
Seeing them in Dublin on the Friday so no longer need it. While happy to give it away if necessary, would be great if the recipient could donate £30 (half the cover price) to charity
@Jaygee can’t help you with that.I really wanted to go and see Wilco there but the Proclaimers are on the same bill and I saw them earlier this year. They were so bad I wont go anywhere near where they are playing.
No worries, S. if you change your mind tomorrow am, let me know and I’ll send it over gratis
If not, ticket still going spare if anyone is near Brum tomorrow night and fanvies going
You missed the news, one of the Proclaimers, the one with glasses, has a sore ear and thus they scrapped all their appearances across the last month or so. (Your curse worked, if with a slow burn.) Billy Bragg replacing, but whether he and Wilco will reprise any of the Guthrie songs is currently unknown, given their reputed bad blood.
Eric Proclaimer’s injury was apparently the result of some kind of contretemps with Mike Scott
Did the Waterboy give him A Bang On The Ear?
“Charlie was my fella, He walked five hundred miles
I gave him some voice coaching, He said “I’m nae Harry Styles”,
He started off in Leith, And strove to persevere
Then went back to his bruv,
And his jamming career”.
Dancing is OK. Standing up and not dancing isn’t, but if the person in front of you is standing you don’t have much choice.
I was at the Barbican one time when the people in front of me were dancing and the person behind asked me to ask them to sit down. I would not. If you don’t like people dancing to music that is meant for dancing, you really shouldn’t be there.
Surely the clue is in the seat. If you paid for a seat you can reasonably expect to enjoy the concert whilst sitting in it and people cavorting about in front of you is not on. They should go in the aisles or down the front or go to a standing only concert.
Something I read recently (possibly on this blog somewhere) mentioned a “mixed standing/seated” concert where the seated patrons were unable to see the performance properly, due to being behind standing people. That is just stupid.
I’m of the view that, if the gig is seated you should stay in your seat unless invited to dance by the artist(s). In such a case it can be unfortunate for people who don’t/can’t dance, because in some venues it’s not practical for all the dancers to move to the aisles to “bust their moves”.
Really, the crux of the problem is music for dancing being performed in seated venues.
I think Springsteen indoor shows have a standing pit at the front with a seated area behind it. So you are forced to stand up, like it or not if you are on the floor
Brooce doesn’t really do Sitting Down Music though. Does he.
If an act says :”come on, everybody, up on your feet!”, you can hardly complain if
you keep your seat while all around you are leaving theirs.
If, on the other hand, you’re the only person for miles who stands up halfway through
a gig and your enjoyment is ruining someone else’s night to the point where they
ask you to siddown, you should siddown.
Only way I’d stand up at an Adele gig is to walk out after I came to having came round from the drugged stupor required to get me there in the first place
Yeah was pretty amazed that anyone stands at an Adele gig – she is hardly uptempo.
Getting seats too close to the stage always leaves you at risk of getting blocked out by people rushing to the front then creating a ripple effect.
I’m 6 foot tall and bigger boned, so I feel guilty occluding viewers behind me, and try to show some consideration. My youngest is 5 foot tall. If folk stand up, she can’t see the gig. What’s she supposed to do: stand on her chair?
I sometimes ask really tall people if i can stand in front of them esp with my also short wife. They rarely say no.
I have been waiting for @thechesirecat to contribute to this thread. He must be 6’5 or even more and is broad with it. If you’re behind him at a standing gig, you’re seeing nothing all night. But it’s hardly reasonable to expect him to go and stand at the back.
True story: the first time we met was at Cambridge 2015. He said he was the tall bald fella in an ASLEF polo shirt. I didn’t need the secondary details, as I found myself behind a giant. Tapped him on the shoulder. Yup. T’was he.
I am 6’2″ and almost as wide. At the Ottawa Bluesfest recently a charming woman tapped me on the shoulder and asked me not to block her view. I obliged.
It’s a tough one. I have been at concerts where people needlessly just stand up throughout. If the front row stands up then everybody has to. At some of the concerts I go to these days some people would certainly have trouble standing for the full duration or even a few songs, so it is unfair on them. They have paid the same price for a ticket as anybody else. Basically I think that if there are seats then people should sit in them, maybe until the encore then anything goes. If you want to dance throughout go to a standing concert or stand in the GA area at a mostly seated venue. And unless encouraged from the stage no singing along. I have paid a large amount to hear the artist singing not somebody next to me singing out of tune throughout.
Somewhere in taping hell there is a dumpster full of Grateful Dead recordings that are comprehensively ruined by some over refreshed moron in dungarees who sings along to what sounds like the previously played song, like Ronnie Corbett answering his Mastermind questions.
I hate sitting at a gig. I’m not a dancer either. It just seems unnatural to sit down. The problem with saying ‘go to a standing concert’ is that means you won’t see the artists you want to see! That’s the only polite option though.
I’ve missed lots of tours by favourite artists through the years because I really don’t want to sit throughout.
I’ve missed lots of gigs because it’s standing only!
Depending on the artist I sometimes have to buy tickets at the back so my wife can get up and dance. She’s loves dancing at gigs and if she can’t there’s a distinct possibility she’ll nod off, usually through no fault of the artist.
Our first gig after arriving in Sydney was David Lee Roth at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. The lights went down, we stood up, someone immediately yelled “oi, sidown I can’t see”. We turned around and were gobsmacked to find we were the only ones standing. That never happened at the Hammy Odeon.
These days it depends on the artist. I like a good raucous stand-up gig, but for anything remotely proggy or jazzy a chair is a must.
I’ve got two sit down gigs coming up (Nick Mason, Beth Orton), a combo sit/stand (Macca Thumbs aloft) and a most likely sit down (Kraftwerk). I feel I need to slip in a standing gig just for balance.
As it happens Nick Mason is all standing in Melbourne and I’m not going for that reason.
Birchmere -= seated, dinner venue. No-one stands up.
930 Club – no seats. Everyone stands. No issue.
MCG – seated. Except when it’s just after half time and people are still standing up yakking, after the restart kick has happened. A quick “oi. Sit the f*ck down’ solves the problem.
I don’t understand why this is so hard for some people
In Shakespeare’s day, they had to perform while people roamed around chatting, drinking and playing games. I haven’t seen all of Upstart Crow but I’m sure a crowd of fuckwits heckling To Be or Not To Be would be funny.
I like a good view, irrespective. So, standing has to be near the front. Sometimes impossible, thinking of certain outdoor shows, so, no, ta. A seat in the roof in an arena/hall? Too far away and vertiginous. Which is why I prefer smaller shows. Standing is fine, within 10 feet of the barrier, but I like most to lean on it. Or have a pillar to lean against. Seated, it has to be the stalls or the first few rows of the first layer of balconies.
Got told to sit down at a festival last week, FFS!! OK. It was in a tent, but even so.
I only go to small venues these days (not that I go a lot anymore – last time was over a year ago!) Standing only, or if it’s a mix of standing-room in front of the stage and seated (amphi-theatre style) in the back, I’ll buy a ticket for the floor and try to get as far up front as possible, without having to bend my neck backwards to see the act.
I hate sitting at the back of gigs, with seated people barely tapping a toe. I might as well stay home than do that. I understand that some people need to sit, no slur on them, just saying that I can’t enjoy the gig if I have to sit among them!
But yes, I’m short, and often very tall people will try to stand in front of me just to get slightly nearer the stage, no regards to others. But hey, I can move too.
The ones I truly despise are the ones (always men, always taller than me) who pretends to want to come through on their way towards some further location, but when you let them pass, they stop right in front of you and won’t budge. I’ve been sorely tempted to kick their shins and pretend that I’m just a bad dancer! 😀
But I’ve stopped letting anyone pass, I’ll block anyone trying to get in front from behind me – I force them to veer to the sides to get ahead – I’ve been fooled too many times, and I’ve finally learned to be less gullible.
I saw Peter Gabriel at O2 a few weeks ago. I had a good seat on the arena floor near the front of the second block of seats from the stage. A man near the back of the block in front sat on the back of his seat from the moment PG came on stage – effectively he was as tall as if he was standing up. He seemed not to be particularly tall so maybe he couldn’t see very well sitting on the seat like everyone else. But doing what he did meant that a swathe of people behind him, including me, couldn’t see the show properly. No-one else stood up. The arena staff appeared to ask him to sit down and he appeared to refuse. They then left him alone. I could have stood up myself but I’m 6’2″ and that would have spoiled the view for another huge swathe of people behind me so I just sat there fuming at his inconsiderate behaviour. If you know the man in question, please tell him from me he is a selfish prick.
Also, during Solsbury Hill (when everyone stood up), a huge number of people capered around the gap between the front block and me like lunatics waving their arms and shouting gibberish. Most of them appeared to be very over-refreshed indeed. I don’t have a problem with people standing up and dancing up to a point but, in my already angry state, I felt that they weren’t there to enjoy the show, they were there to indulge their desire to behave like idiots and were happy to ruin my enjoyment of the show by distracting me.
L’enfer, c’est les autres.
I don’t get it when security ask someone to not be a dick, the person refuses and security then just give up.
All it takes is a firm ultimatum. Comply with their instruction or else leave with a full refund.
Give them a minute or two to think it over and escort them out if they won’t behave.
Simple.
I assume that the security staff at places like the O2 are paid a pittance and are not motivated to do anything other than prevent major disorder. I don’t generally like big venues anyway. The solution seems to be not to go to them. Pity but there it is.
Security staff at the really big venues are probably under instructions to only intervene in emergencies and if violence occurs.
And venues like the O2 are dickhead-magnets. Some of the people who’ve spent £80 and upwards to get into a place think that having paid a large wad of money, it entitles them to behave how the fuck they like.
Duke Ellington explains what used to happen with audience members at the Cotton Club who refused to stop talking during a show…
(starting from about 1:24 of this clip):
Disappeared just that once, or disappeared forever?
Floor seats are the worst. We ‘saw’ (not really) Pet Shop Boys at Newcastle Arena, which even for such venues is a horrible, soul-sucking shed to begin with. And literally everyone – EVERYONE- stood up from the first note for the duration. I have spine problems and can’t stand for any great length of time; my wife is only 5ft and also has mobility problems…so the whole thing was pretty miserable, definitely our worst PSB experience.
If y’all think this is bad, there’s a row erupting between different factions of the Swiftie army in America regarding etiquette at the forthcoming *CINEMA* showings of the Eras Tour, a very heated debate between those who are treating it as a legitimate concert experience and are planning to stand/dance/sing/scream/generally lose their shit, and the more sane element who regard it as a cinema experience which should be accorded a more modest and courteous reception for everyone’s better viewing and listening pleasure, and also that of people in other parts of the cinema. Taylor hasn’t really helped the situation by saying “singing and dancing encouraged”. 🤔