Is it me?!

Just been ruminating on the state of audiences lately at gigs and listening to a Leonard Cohen gig from last year (how come there's no Leonard on here? ED....."patience, patience, mon brave, there's loads to come" A.S.) Now after seeing Bob Dylan at The Roundhouse a couple of years back and being surprised to find drunken oafs and yobbos threatening us and generally taking the shine off things, I had been reflecting that people don't listen any more. The Cohen concert (Bowling Green Weisbaden Germany from 2010) is marred by being an audience tape which generally aren't worth the candle anymore because you can hear people inanely chattering throughout the concert.
WHAT IS THAT ALL ABOUT?
Now I can't afford to go to many concerts and save up my money to have a special evening in the presence of my musical heroes, the last thing on my mind is wanting to chat to my pals as I am listening to a music concert.
The examples are now legion.
From the people determined to prove they are the bigger fan by clapping at the point they realise which number is being played....which is kind of traditional and even 'back in the day' (what does that mean? and where did it come from? ED) it irritated the heck out of me.......so they clap for longer and quicker than the next person, to idiots shouting out the artists name (like we don't know who we've gone to see!) requesting songs ("Nobody ever said to Van Gogh, 'Paint a Starry Night again, man!'" Joni Mitchell) but lately I have found the recording gear is so sensitive we have examples of people discussing the last time they saw the artist, 'what cheese did you bring' and whether they should have 'brought another bottle of wine' and whether it's the 'Merlot' or the cheaper vinegar they keep for visitors - I kid you not!

"You didn't come here for music did you? You came for something more, didn't you? You didn't come to rock'n'roll, you came for something else didn't you? You came for something else --WHAT IS IT?" Jim Morrison

Can you imagine going to see a classical master and folk all talk throughout? Do people turn up to the opera and talk incessantly all the way through? Did Bach have the same problem? Chopin? Schubert? Even today, does anyone got to see a Gavin Bryars concert to talk to their mates?
Oh so I'm a snob am I?
Well, it's about wanting to 'experience' the performance and wanting to hear what is being expressed isn't it? As such that's why we clap at the end, isn't it? When we have heard what our troubadours have to tell us. The type of music is irrelevant tho' I admit we never went to see the Sex Pistols for the ambience (or did we? ED) and the louder style of music is fine by me...try chattering through a Led Zeppelin concert or even the loudest gig I ever went to XTC playing Oxford. You COULDN'T have talked through it! So when the music is less er, boisterous I want to listen to what the poets and troubadours have to say to me! Bobby too has been struck by the 'visceral' reaction in recent years and none the worse for that but if you can hear your neighbour wondering whether he has put the cat out, whether he has brought the Yarg or the Wensleydale maybe someone should turn it up.
"Play it fucking loud!" eh, Bobby?
The chattering classes and the hooligan element that earns so much they can afford to just turn up to any gig mindless of who or what is on and drunkenly holler and shout at anything that moves. No matter some folks have travelled distance to come and see a concert performance, it's just another entertainment, vaudeville routine by their court jesters to temporarily take their minds off whatever terrible vicissitudes have caused them to stagger out into the night air to disctract from their sorry condition for a brief moment. May as well stay home drink a bottle of White Frightening and dance to the radio!
For me it's about respect and showing some regard for the artist's work. Above all I have come here to listen! Hey ho!
Just saying.....................

The Ole Curmudgeon ;o)