Boards
The problem with arena gigs
or, why I fucking hate 'casual fans' who probably like Dido and go to high-profile gigs by bands they don't know anything about except for the hits, don't want to move or sing along and don't want anyone else to do so either.
I was at REM's Birmingham NEC gig last night. The band was awesome (especially given their troubles of the last few days), the setlist was good, but 95% of the crowd was terrible. I was seated and most of the people there didn't even get up until Losing My Religion (the last song of the main set). Now I'm not expecting everyone to know every word to the more obscure stuff like I do, but at least show a little enthusiasm, you know, give some indication that you actually want to be there for fuck's sake! Even the standing area (where I wanted to be) was pretty much static except for the front couple of rows.
It improved in the last part of the gig but even then people looked annoyed if you moved at all. Most of the people at the gig were probably Radio 2 listeners who just go to see every high-profile band that comes there. People like that don't deserve tickets. And REM don't deserve such an energetic and hugely impressive show to go so criminally underappreciated. Michael Stipe was doing everything humanly possible to involve the crowd and they were just staring at him like fucking comatoses. They played World Leader Pretend and Undertow and people didn't know what they were. One guy next to me even confused Stipe with Peter Buck.
The solution - play smaller venues - only fans will attend and the atmosphere will be infinitely better. /rantover
But well done to the band for an awesome show; shame about the apathy. I'm guessing I'm probably not the only one to have a problem with arena crowds?
I was at REM's Birmingham NEC gig last night. The band was awesome (especially given their troubles of the last few days), the setlist was good, but 95% of the crowd was terrible. I was seated and most of the people there didn't even get up until Losing My Religion (the last song of the main set). Now I'm not expecting everyone to know every word to the more obscure stuff like I do, but at least show a little enthusiasm, you know, give some indication that you actually want to be there for fuck's sake! Even the standing area (where I wanted to be) was pretty much static except for the front couple of rows.
It improved in the last part of the gig but even then people looked annoyed if you moved at all. Most of the people at the gig were probably Radio 2 listeners who just go to see every high-profile band that comes there. People like that don't deserve tickets. And REM don't deserve such an energetic and hugely impressive show to go so criminally underappreciated. Michael Stipe was doing everything humanly possible to involve the crowd and they were just staring at him like fucking comatoses. They played World Leader Pretend and Undertow and people didn't know what they were. One guy next to me even confused Stipe with Peter Buck.
The solution - play smaller venues - only fans will attend and the atmosphere will be infinitely better. /rantover
But well done to the band for an awesome show; shame about the apathy. I'm guessing I'm probably not the only one to have a problem with arena crowds?