Marlee

My best friend Marlee posted a really great post on her blog about crowd show etiquette. I wanted to share this with all of you because I'm sure some of us can share this annoyance.

Now, I understand that going to concerts (especially small ones at dingy bars featuring local bands) isn't something that everyone does on a regular occasion.

I also understand that not everyone spent 4 years of their adolescence at said concerts.

However, I believe that the proper "show etiquette" or "concert etiquette" is not so specific to concerts but rather holds to the same general manners that decent human beings display.

1)Personal Bubbles:
Most human beings have a bubble of space that they like to keep around them. A safety zone between you and people you don't know. I suspect that most people do not walk into a crowded Subway restaurant look around and decide that that sliver of space between two people is precisely where they ought to stand. Most people do not maneuver and jostle the other customers of Subway around to, in the end, stand 4 inches in front of a complete stranger letting the rat's nest they call a hairdo swing disconcertingly close to that stranger's face. So then what, pray tell, makes you think that it is OK to do that in a dark, mostly empty, bar while people are trying to enjoy a rock and roll band? ....... If you any chance of being a human being a decent human you should realize that that sort of behavior is not OK. It's obnoxious and weird.

2)Talking:
Now this right here is most people's biggest folly. It is a generally accepted rule that when you go into a movie theater you shut the fuck up because the people around you are trying to hear and pay attention to the movie that they payed to see. When you go to a speaking or a reading, it is a generally accepted rule that you keep your stupid whore mouth shut because other people are trying to listen and learn and appreciate what they have most likely paid to hear spoken about. So following this trend: when you are in a public place, where people have gathered to enjoy some form of auditory/visual spectacle it is NOT OKAY to jostle your way to the front of the crowd and proceed to have full conversations with your ditsy little friends by screaming at each other. The music, movie, speaker, whatever is loud so you yell in order for your friend to hear you over it. However the problem with this is that then I can hear you. And I don't want to hear you. I want to hear the band that I paid to come see and that I enjoy quite a bit. I didn't pay to hear your migraine inducing screeches to the other fucking banshees you know. I get that you more than likely are only at the show because some friend of yours is boning one of the dudes in the band. That's great. Shut up. A good rule is: if the band is playing, don't talk. If they're between songs, there's your chance to make a quick comment but otherwise fucking zip it. If you absolutely have to a single sentence, maybe 2 here or there is allowable otherwise move to the fucking back of the club to continue spouting your mindless dribble because the tiny girl that you just stepped in front of and seem to be trying to smother with your gross, knotted, 'ponytail' would like to be able to hear the band that is playing and your continual chittering and chattering could very likely drive her to punching a bitch in the face....and it's hard to talk when your jaw's swollen.
Originally posted on Marlee's livejournal