Tag: Elbow

STFU: Geezer Guide to Concert Etiquette

Unless that concert you are attending is in your living room or your back yard because you booked (and paid) the performer, will you please shut the hell up?

Although I will pick apart the Men at Work/Toad the Wet Sprocket concert Marilynn and I attended on Tuesday at the Cobb Energy Center, this post is based on concert experiences over the last few years.

The overarching rule is that concerts, plays, movies and the like occur in shared environments, which means you should be on your best behavior. If you wouldn’t do it during church, don’t do it here.

Etiquette Rule #1: STFU, Seriously

Talking during a concert — even a loud concert — is akin to heckling an actor while she is delivering the show-stopping monologue at the climax of a play. The young-ish people behind us talked incessantly during the show about absolutely nothing. Let the record show they were old enough to know better.

Marilynn knew I was getting annoyed, especially since I gave her the universal symbol (thumb and forefinger nearly touching) meaning I was at the end of my rope. She turned around and asked the people to please be quiet, but, of course, that didn’t work. Fortunately (for us, anyway), the concert wasn’t sold out, so we relocated. More about that later.

Etiquette Rule #2: Stay off Your Phone

I have no problem with people taking a few snaps during a concert, although we all know that from Row T they are going to look like grainy ants holding tiny, tiny guitars. It’s supposedly against the rules to take any photos, but grandma and grandpa volunteer ushers aren’t going to tackle miscreants, so just keep it to a minimum, OK? Recording entire songs is also a no-no, according to the Geezer Guide.

A woman in front of us and to our left was on her phone during the entire concert. At first (yes, I could kinda see her screen, which, incidentally, wasn’t set to “dark” mode, natch), she was accessing a setlist from a previous concert. In benefit-of-the-doubt mode, one could see the utility of that — but prior to the concert would have been better.

But she did it during every song, like she was willing the acts to toe the setlist line. Then she started checking social media — and sharing it with her seatmate. If you’re going to ignore the live act you paid to see, just stay at home.

Etiquette Rule Corollary #1: Read the Room

About half way during the Men at Work set, we moved to the end of our row to get away from the yakkers and the phone user. One song in, the woman directly in front of me (see photo) stood up during “Overkill.” Yes, it is a concert, but she was the only person in the vicinity standing up. At least the gesticulating woman who weaved off beat and waved her hands during Toad had the decency to do that in the aisle.

We moved a second time and had no further incidents, thankfully.

Performer Etiquette Rule #1: Read the Room

I have tried for nearly 15 years to see Men at Work front man Colin Hay live, but something always interfered. We were out of town. I didn’t know he was appearing and tickets were sold out, etc. The band’s popularity peaked during the 12 months I DJ’d at the local FM radio station as a senior in high school, and I always had a fondness for it.

During the concert, Hay made a couple of references to the fact that most people weren’t standing up, gesturing wildly or forming a mosh pit. Read the room, dude, It’s been 45 YEARS since your band became popular. It’s nearly my bedtime, it’s a school night and my back hurts when I stand up for too long.

I will thoroughly enjoy your performance from the comfort of my seat, thanks very much.

Performer Etiquette Rule #2: Know your Audience

Elbow is one of my all-time favorite bands, so much so that Marilynn and I, while she was giving talks in England in 2024, diverted overnight from Oxford to see the band in Birmingham. It was a great show, but I was glad to have a seat from which to enjoy their performance.

Fast forward a year, and Elbow announces a tour of America, mainly along the upper East Coast and Midwest. Each venue they booked was standing-room only, which is problematic for me. Although I take care of myself physically, standing for extended periods hurts my back. While still wondering how I was going to hold out, we bought tickets for their D.C. show so we could also visit friends.

About a week before the performance, I contacted the venue to see if there were seats anywhere, and I was granted the accommodation of a designated barstool next to the upper bar. OK, but there were WAY too many accommodated barstool denizens for the amount of countertop length each person was given. Marilynn had to squeeze in behind me, and the ubiquitous loudmouths who lord-knows-why attended this concert talked incessantly (and that time I couldn’t relocate).

Once during the performance, Elbow’s lead singer pointed to the barstool denizens and complained that not everyone was standing up. If your band wants to appeal to all ages, then you need to accommodate all ages.

A ‘Fine Mess’ of a Time at Elbow Concert

Rock concert or Laurel and Hardy convention? Across a two-week adventure, I only had one request of Marilynn: to see one of my favorite bands, Elbow, which released its 10th studio album in March and was touring the UK while we were in country.

If you haven’t heard of Elbow, I highly recommend a listen (or two, or three). The Manchester-based band has been together since the members were teenagers, and I became aware of them by listening to the totally free and eclectic Internet radio station Radio Paradise (more on that later). Elbow is, in a word, magnificent, something you will understand figuratively and literally after clicking the link in this sentence.

We traveled by train from Oxford to Birmingham, walked from the station to our hotel near the venue, entered the lobby—and saw a bunch of people in fezzes and brightly colored tropical apparel. We had unwittingly intruded on the England convention of Sons of the Desert, an appreciation society for the comedy duo of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, who made 107 film appearances from the late 1920s to the mid-1950s.

Although Laurel has the English connection from his birth in the Lake District, apparently it was the American Hardy who approved creating the society. He didn’t want it called a fan club, according to my new friend Bob, who was nursing a pint in the hotel lounge when I peppered him and his mates with questions about these odd-looking people.

“Sons of the Desert” is their 1933 film where they join a lodge (hence those fezzes), and each chapter of the society, named after one of their films, is called a “tent.” Hardy was born in Harlem, Georgia, where the Laurel and Hardy Museum of Georgia is located. Harlem, about 20 miles west of Augusta, also hosts an annual Oliver Hardy Festival. The next festival is on Oct. 5.

Elbow Not to Be Missed

Meanwhile, back in Birmingham, we relaxed at the aquatics facility attached to the hotel and had a quick dinner before heading to the venue, a short walk away along a footpath next to the motorway.

While the opening act wasn’t to our taste, Elbow delivered a hit-packed, audience-friendly two-hour set that left everyone fully sated and breathless after singing the refrain from their biggest hit, “One Day Like This.” Despite the limited tour, Elbow created a full rock ‘n’ roll experience for the 8,500 or so people in attendance.

Elbow is the third performer we have traveled to listen to as a direct result of listing to Radio Paradise, a listener-supported internet radio station. We also are great fans of Vienna Teng (we saw her in D.C. before she played at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur), and Mindy Smith (ditto Eddie’s Attic but also saw her at City Winery in Nashville). I’m still waiting for Dengue Fever or Zola Blood to play in Atlanta, though.

Radio Paradise is programmed by a former FM radio station disc jockey from a time when DJs played whatever the hell they wanted. He has great taste in music across a wide variety of genres, so you’ll hear Kings of Leon, then Billie Holiday, First Aid Kit, Mozart, and world music you likely won’t hear anywhere else. It all works beautifully, but if something isn’t to your liking, you hit a button and something else plays. The station has a mainstream rock mix, mellow mix, world mix, and a favorites mix if you register and rate at least 100 songs. It’s great, it’s free, and you should check it out.

As the RP T-shirt says: Eclectic as F**k.