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People Talking!!

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by marcofella
Why oh why do people insist on getting drunk, going to a gig and then prompty talking/laughing all the way through?

I went to see Malcolm Middleton last night. He was ace, really really good. I was stood right at the front of a half full venue and the offending couple were right next to me. The couple (guy and gal) were fine for the first half of his set. Anyway, during his encore i'd had enough and leant over and asked them to keep it down. The girl turned around to me and said -

"WHAT?? well get him to play some fucking Arab Strap, it's better than this stuff"

I was pretty gobsmacked at that but chose to ignore it. 5 Minutes later she said "cheers for spoiling OUR night mate"

Her partner looked pretty scared and decided to shut her up (i was with a rather HUGE mate).

I just don't understand people who do this at gigs. Middleton had noticed them laughing and commented on it a couple of times.

Anyone else had a similar experience?
marcofella | 15 Aug '05, 09:44 | Send note | Report this | Reply

Re: People Talking!!

Cockerney wankers at Brixton Academy singing* over and therefore ruining "God is in the house" by Nick Cave.


*shouting similar words to those in the song, half a second behind

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Didn't someone get thrown out of Mogwai for talking through an Arab Strap gig? Quite right too! I never understand why people pay money to come and talk all the way through - there were some horrible drunk bastards in front of me at Mercury Rev a couple of months ago.

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Mercury Rev are CUNTS. The guitarist knob was having a go at a pizza guy for something he couldnt help. The pizza guy was a cunt as well but thats a different story.

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er... wut?

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I was a little confused by this too James. Care to elaborate a little? It's a little early to be drinking methinks ;-)

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Who's james? Grr.

Someone mentioned Mercury Rev so i thought i'd say that they were cunts. They were shouting at some poor pizza guy at ATP, well the guitarist was anyway. Therefore, i think people should talk through Mercury Rev. Will even up the world a bit.


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haha, i got you guys (you and tre_cool) mixed up. Sorry man.

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*sighs*

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Funnily enough, I went to see Arab Strap while I was at Uni, in about 1997, in a really tiny venue, and there were people at the front actually leaning their backs on the barriers - i.e. with their backs to the band - talking away. It was actually quite embarrassing. Aidan Moffat kept asking them to shut up - they just ignored him.

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I ws at a Baby Bird gig - yes you read right - a BabyBird gig (at uni in 95 reveiwing it) and durign a quiet song Steven Jones stopped and poi nted to two people talking and suggested they come up on stage with their chairs and a table to talk behind him or just fuck off out of the venue and tlak somewhere else

At an early radiohead gig in 92 during the into to Prove Yourself Thom E Yorke (as he was known then) stopped and glared at the other two people in the audience (it was very sparsely attended) and jsut said 'I'm not bothering you am I?' in his best peevish voice

So the answer is - get the band/singer to interject and they won't say another word

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Agreed. I've seen Andy Falkous telling people to move to the back bar bit of Clwb Ifor Bach if they're gonna talk. The one that worked the best tho was whatsisface from Futureheads just shouting "SHUTUP!" like a teacher.

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At an early radiohead gig in 92 during the into to Prove Yourself Thom E Yorke (as he was known then) stopped and glared at the other two people in the audience (it was very sparsely attended) and jsut said 'I'm not bothering you am I?' in his best peevish voice

Surely the best comeback to Mr. Yorke would be "Are you looking at me?" Might get you killed, though.

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Last time Stephen Malkmus played Manchester there was this crazy drunk woman running around shouting 'CUT YOUR HAIR' at the top of her voice. He's not going to play it raaarfg

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When I saw Pavement for the first time there was some annoying fat man shouting 'trigger cut! TRIGGER CUT!!!' every 10 seconds. They didn't play it. I blame him.

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All the time, tis tres annoying. Why pay 15 quid to then talk about your trip to gahana where you, liek. totally found yourself, or tell stories about hjohn who was sooooo drunk last night. almost as bad is the " can i get by please" people who, once past, satnd directly in front of you. grrrrrrr, and , arggghghghghgh.

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there is one worst thing tho -

People who stand in the middle of the crowd at festivals geekily chattering away about the music whilst other people are trying to watch and enjoy the gig.

I mean ffs - stand at the back!!

Sorry, rant over - as you were.

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there is one worst thing tho -

People who stand in the middle of the crowd at festivals geekily chattering away about the music whilst other people are trying to watch and enjoy the gig.

I mean ffs - stand at the back!!

Sorry, rant over - as you were.

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actually peevish 'territory' people at gigs are worse than talkers - there was one at Malcolm Middleton funnily enough in London the other night - I suppose if I was as ugly as he was I'd have to retian some sort of reason for living by hogging the front of the stage like you'd just annexed Austria - prick

Also trying to get through people at gigs when everyone is stood still always reminds me of the final scene in the Birds - think if you get there late its best not to ever DARE to move through these people on pain of death or obvous tuts that are louder than Armageddon

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This has reminded me of another one - when I went to see Ben Kweller last year, there were two guys dressed (for some reason) as Axl Rose and Slash. At first they were quite funny, but then they started unnecessary heckling and pushing and making loads of noise. Ben got really annoyed with them, and after telling them off a couple of times, asked the security guard to remove them. It was great, everyone cheered.

Re: People Talking!!

there is one worst thing tho -

People who stand in the middle of the crowd at festivals geekily chattering away about the music whilst other people are trying to watch and enjoy the gig.

I mean ffs - stand at the back!!

Sorry, rant over - as you were.

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elliott smith used to get hassled so much during his sets to play peoples' favourite songs.
i have this one bootleg from new year's eve at the knitting factory, and inbetween EVERY SINGLE SONG there's a woman's voice shouting out "NOOOO NAAAAMEEE NUMBER FIIIIVE".
i like to think he didn't play it just to spite her. the rude cunt.
i had a very short-lived zine called No Talking At Gigs, inspired by the utter fucking CUNTS who talked the whole way through joanna newsom's set in april.
they made me sad :(

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What about 'Singers'? People at gigs who know ALL the words to ALL the songs and promptly sing them all the way through the gig. aaaaAARGHHHHH!!

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especially when they're singing right in your ear.
guh.

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Christ stop moaning. Just move away if they bother you that much. I've been guilty of both singing and talking/laughing at gigs many a time and if its a festival, forget about it.

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if your gig experience has already been ruined by these people irredeemably then why not try to ruin their night too... I find "accidental" beer spillage, tripping them and their friends up whenever they move and just generally standing inappropraitely closely to them at all times usually does the trick... they often move away too...

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there's nothing illegal about people talking you jsut wish people had consideration as they are basically wasting their own money anyway if they're not interested in watching the artist - am not going to be precious about it like the 'act' have put on their show only for catatonic emotionally challenged indie saddoes - it works both ways


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i understand your point, but when you've got a live show as quiet as miss newsom's and a good 20% of the middle of the crowd is talking throughout, it makes their applauding and cheering utterly irrelevant. how could they have appreciated it whilst being engaged in a conversation at the same time?
also, i paid the last of my money that month to see her and i honestly love her music with all my heart. so to only half hear it when i'd waited for so long to see her was such a bitch.

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Well I sympathise with that. Actually the times I've been told off for talking haven't even been that quiet at all. Blonde Redhead was one! I actually find it more annoying when people just stand there lifeless with huge fucking rucksacks (Rucksacks at gigs, now THAT is irritating) whilst your trying to dance and then get all annoyed when you bump into them. If they want to stand still go to the back is what I say.

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well perhaps she just wasn't that engaging to watch for some people - we're all a bit guilty of doing this if someone doesn't enthral us - espscially if you go
en spec to gigs - you can't like everyone and its a shame that this happens -

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I had a really bad experience at Devendra Banhart's gig the other day at Koko - I was near the front and 5 huge tall Aussies, drunk as fuck, pushed their way in front of me so I couldn't see, and then proceeded to talk the entire way through Espers and through a chunk of Devendra, looking utterly bored - while ruining the sound for me. Even worse was that behind me were two beefy cockerney lads who wouldn't shut up talking about beating the shit out of each other at nu-metal gigs... Honestly!

Luckily, Devendra was so fantastic that my night wasn't ruined, other than that it was amazing.

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You all sound like old men. They're gigs for christ's sake. People are actively encouraged to get drunk at gigs.

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There's getting drunk (good!) and there's managing to wreck other peoples' nights (bad!)...

I like to think I do the former.

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You all sound like old men.

Ahem, i am remember? :-P

I have nothing against people getting drunk, far from it.

Malcolm Middleton did an accoustic section during his gig. During the quiet bits this woman was literally drowning out MM. I don't care how drunk you are, that is just WRONG! I couldn't have moved somewhere else as it was a tiny venue. Some people can't afford many gigs, some people might never get to see these acts again.

That crap shouldn't happen really.

*sorry, i just feel strongly about this!

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Fair enough!

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Just as well Marco doesn't mind people getting drunk at gigs. I was with him at M M, completely shit faced.

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It is fucking annoying. One i remember was when i saw Ryan Adams a year or so ago.
The first half-hour or so was a solo acoustic set, loads of stuff from heartbreaker etc etc.
A group of pissed aussie girls (why is it always the aussies?) were cackling behind me, saying things like 'i love this song' and 'i love you ryan' over and OVER AGAIN.
I told them to shut the fuck up. They told me to fuck off. as if I was the one in the wrong?¬! !1?>! !! GDHIAGEIOAGEA!! ! !
FUCK OFF PSISEHADSAIFVGHEILWq

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YEAH, you fucking heckler*


*But in a good way!

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This annoys the piss out of me.

Especially when they say something like "Well, the gigs shit anyway. He should play _________".

If you don't like it, then leave. I didn't pay £XX to listen to YOU. I hate the fact they need to broadcast their disapproval to prove their boring muso elitism too.


Plus, they're normally really old and have fat ugly birds.



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normally i'm really well-behaved at gigs and hate all the stuff that's been described here but recently i got really drunk at a dave house gig and started inanely heckling him about jacket potatoes and such like.

i felt really bad the next day and apologised to him but he insisted that he liked being heckled if it wasn't too confrontational/personal, especially when it was just him on stage.

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when i saw owen & city on film at the head of steam everyone was fine during bob nanna(city on film)s set but during owen (mike kinsella) there was a lot of people talking and for the last three songs the constant sound of a mobile setting off the speakers ... at times the noise was as loud as he was when he was trying to play.
if they were jus gonna talk and text why not go to the other bar upstairs!

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The was a guy at the Redjetson gig the othre night who insisted on dancing like he was at a night club all through Redjetson's set, drunken moron.

And thats why I hate alchohol, it serves no purpose what so ever, idiots...

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Standing down the front and talking = bad

Dancing = good

I don't think you'll find too many bands who object to people dancing at their shows.

I know some people are always going to talk at shows but surely they can stand at the back? If I go to show and I'm not sure I'm going to be massively impressed I'll stand at the back in case I'm bored, its not hard. ANd I'm short so this pretty much means I see fuck all.

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Anything attached to a club night is bad for people talking.

Architecture In Helsinki were largely ignored by the crowd at one of these club nights I went to. They chatted incessantly and only a few people were watching them. I don't care if people chat between bands but when the bands are on you could just dance or watch. The worst are girls in a couple who ask questions throughtout each band even the headliners while the boyfriend pets them.

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I went to see The Killers where some fat fucker decided to stand in front of me, dance badly and spray me and everyone in a 5 metre radius with fag ash. It made a shit night even shitter.

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Apart from a couple of exceptions above do any of you have the balls to actually tell the offending people that they are annoying you so much.

Don't mind talking, normally a glare or two gets them to shut up but I can't stand spindly little indie teenagers dancing ironically and constantly bumping into me.

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Too fucking right, I run a live tape distro and there's nothing that ruins a tape (and a night) more than two drunk or just stupid twats shouting inanely over a band they have (presumably) paid to see. Cunts.

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I did once JTB but it wasn't for talking. There was this group of students headed by an 'indie' teen girl, she was blatantly trying to shove me out of the way and me being small and her being large, I think she thought I was a pushover. So when she pushed into me I got angry and told her not to push me(reasonably enough not screaming) she then said she was just going to some pals at the front so I accused her of pushing and she started to protest innocence so I finally said 'look push all you want but don't push me' she then went off and found another way to push in. She was drunk too but almost everyone around me was.

Usually I'd say it could get you into an unecessary fight challenging people but when they directly shove you, you have to stick up for yourself.

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Too right.

I've been at gigs where similar groups of indie girls come in late and then just push through everyone as if they have a divine right to get to the front. I never go to the front as that's not my thing but the cheek of some people is very annoying.

And as mentioned above there does seem to be a few wannabe cockney wideboy fellas at gigs lately but they are normally about 17 and pretending to be drunk on 4 cans of stella.



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i've just remembered - the worst ever gig for loud braying throughout was secret machines last july at the ICA. it was full of 'industry', and they all just stood there barking at each other, like they actually weren't aware that there was a band onstage. it was horrible. nasty, nasty worms. obviously secret machines haven't set the world alight, but you can bet if they were now as big as interpol the industry slime wouldn't shut up about how they saw them first, despite the fact that there's no way that any of them even heard any of their songs.

that was one more nail in the coffin of my naive idea that people in the industry actually care about music.

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At the Arcade Fire gig at the Astoria earlier this year there were loads of sectioned off seats for those industry bods.

Had some spotty little twat in one section near me along with a couple of dozy bints. He spent the whole gig rolling up some scary looking jibs and talking in one of the girls ears, I don't think they looked at the stage once.

Another anoying gig-goer is the sad twats who go to a certain gig just to be seen and say they were there despite not having a clue about the music. I had this at the Raveonettes when halfway through their set some 6ft plus bloke with his mate and a model looking girlfriend waltzed in, pushed people out of the way and stood at the bar right in front of me and my mate. He was wearing a cowboy hat as well. He just stood there posturing and pouting. Had a kind word in his ear to move the fuck out of the way and go pose somewhere else. Which he did.

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Eugene Kelly gig last year. Bunch of scenesters right at the front, facing away from the stage and gibbering. He stopped in mid song and pointed out that their converastion about The Office was very interesting but it was an overated show. Still didn't stop them.

Have asked people to be quiet and this nearly went on to fisticuffs at a Lambchop show in Edinburgh.

Well said Thom Fa. I'm sure the majority of people on this board would gladly pay good money to go to a gig and listen to you talking drunken bollocks rather than hear the band they came to see.

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I once saw Low became quite angry because some people just keep shouting "play words" or "play lullaby" between each song ( and sometimes during a song ). And you have to be really stupid to anger a band like Low !

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When I saw this year people were dong that between each song, but playfully really, I think they're used to it now, during the songs you could hear a pin dropped by a mouse if need be, I think most people were in awe, me included. Somebody did shout RIP John Peel at one point, that was cool.

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I think they became angry because this people keep asking for the same songs even after they explained they didn't want to play this song at the moment.
And they shouted during the songs !
And people were smoking even if they asked kindly not to !