Hey all.
Last night, Sarah and I went to the Tori Amos concert at The Patriot Center. Not the best place in the world to see a concert, since the floor seats aren't staggered in any way, so it's hard to see over anyone taller than you, but it was still a pretty good place. The sound system got a little wonky sometimes, but it held together.
The opening act, Howie Day, was a little bizarre. He was actually rather good, but most of what he was doing was pre-recorded and he spent an awful lot of time playing effects pedals with his feet. It sounded great, but it felt weird to watch a guy up there just bobbin' his head, mouthing the words nowhere near the microphone, and jabbing at pedals with his foot half the time. What made it really amusing, though, was when a complicated guitar part would come on the pre-recorded bit and people would cheer. Crazy.
Tori was excellent, playing a good mix of old and new. She was accompanied by a drummer and a bass player, who were both good but I didn't really dig the bass too much. The player seemed talented, but I don't often dig the kind of bass that seems really low and muddy and just sort of thrums. I can't really describe it well, I guess. It seems to just exist to vibrate people and not make music. But anyhow... the show itself was great. But I had a hard time getting into it. Partly because I was really tired but partly because I was pissed.
And why was I pissed? Well... soon after the first song started, a bunch of people pretty much rushed the stage. Maybe rush isn't the right word, since they did it kinda slowly, but you know what I mean. The staff people just stood there and watched them do it.
Now, at every other show I've been to, the staff stops that kind of thing and says it's a fire hazard and all that. And, seriously, it's rude. I don't think I'm saying that just because I'm older now or anything. It's rude and it's unfair to the people who either paid a lot of money, stood in line, or just did whatever to get the front row seats. You can enjoy the show just as well from a little bit further back where the seats you paid for are. It really doesn't matter whether it's a free show or one like this that cost $40 a ticket. They ended up getting in a lot of people's way.
And what really disappointed me was, when the staff FINALLY got around to making the people sit again, Tori noticed (and it was actually nice of her to ask what was going on, showing concern for her fans) and launched into a subversive little song about it. People around me were actually cheering and yelling "Sit down!" to the people that were being forced to sit down, which made it even more absurd that she sang about it like that. I'm sure a lot of artists feel powerful up there and maybe they feel like they have to stick it to "the man" for not letting people do what they want to do. Really, I'm all for people doing what they want to enjoy a show, just as long as it doesn't ruin anyone else's time. It's disappointing for an artist to choose one set of fans over another.
I don't know for sure if this has just started happening in the past few years or if I just never noticed it before, but this plague of rudeness is horrible. Too many people seem to think that they're the most important person in the universe. I've seen it at movies, at plays, at concerts... everywhere. We were at a really small show a couple weeks back. It was almost over and these two people came and sat down near us and proceeded to have a loud conversation (they had to talk loud enough to hear each other over the music, see...) and they really didn't care when I made it pretty clear they were being annoying. What is WRONG with people?
Anyhow... enough ranting. It was a good show. But it made me even further behind with my novel. Ah well. I'll catch up somehow.