The Brooklyn Vegan Syndrome?

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From Oh My Rockness: "Seriously, what's up with all the show shutterbugs recently? Lately, all we can hear is clicking instead of riffing and snapping instead of synth-ing. Don't get us wrong, we're down with digital and bros with the blogs, but the camera thing at concerts has gotten way out of control. We saw Serena Maneesh at Mercury Lounge last week... saw them through the viewfinder of some guy in front of us who thought he was Gursky, that is. And he wasn't the only one shooting away. Call us old-fashioned, but we can't help but wonder what the big deal is. Isn't it better to experience the show, instead of busying yourself with getting that precise pic? Sure, if you're lucky, your photographs will last forever. But so do the memories of when you were completely rocked. And, well, we'd just rather rely on remembrance than look through a book."

― Col Tom Blue, Thursday, 26 January 2006 17:46 (twenty years ago)

better than lance b4ngs and d4n d0nahue standing in the front with a vidcam surely

― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 26 January 2006 17:48 (twenty years ago)

what a weird thing to care about. join the peace corps already

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 26 January 2006 17:50 (twenty years ago)

like you can even hear cameras click over all the motherfuckers talking

― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 26 January 2006 17:52 (twenty years ago)

digital cameras make a lot of clicking and snapping, do they?

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 26 January 2006 17:54 (twenty years ago)

i agree that it's annoying. i like to take pics at shows sometimes, but i don't get all up in the artist's face; i try to be really inconspicuous about it.

― stockholm cindy (winter version) (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 26 January 2006 17:54 (twenty years ago)

digital cameras make a lot of clicking and snapping, do they?

mine does, but it's a "feature" i can turn off.

― stockholm cindy (winter version) (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 26 January 2006 17:54 (twenty years ago)

it definitely bugs me. it's not the clicking, it's all the people holding their phones up like frickin periscopes for the whole show.

― Renard (Renard), Thursday, 26 January 2006 17:58 (twenty years ago)

The more you talk about it, the more it's gonna happen

― Roscoe, Thursday, 26 January 2006 18:09 (twenty years ago)

It creeps me out on a psychological level, I guess -- mostly when I wind up doing it myself. There's a Calvino short story that kind of gets into the mania of documentation, the weird vicious-cycle aspect where documenting some things creates the burden of documenting others -- and yeah, sometimes it gets to similar levels, where it seems like there's now insufficient distinction between experiencing something and documenting it. Of course, I say this as a person who has like a dozen photographs of himself, tops.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 26 January 2006 18:14 (twenty years ago)

Cutty ADM!!

― Confounded (Confounded), Thursday, 26 January 2006 18:18 (twenty years ago)

It is weird, to me. I mean, it's not like film cameras were too expensive for people to buy, or like people didn't have 'em - they just didn't feel as motivated to bring 'em to shows. The idea of documenting all your experiences: this really is a defining characteristic of the age I think. Whether it's healthy or not: who can say, I personally don't feel it (I don't take pictures, even when I travel, usually), but it does seem worthy of some comment.

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Thursday, 26 January 2006 18:24 (twenty years ago)

of course, the tagline to brooklyn vegan is "music, photos & news from a vegan in brooklyn," and some of those are indeed live photos. i guess some people are exempt.

(also, gursky is a strictly large-format kinda guy, so unless the dude in front of him/her was using an 8x10, the namedrop falls kinda flat.)

― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Thursday, 26 January 2006 18:34 (twenty years ago)

Brooklyn Vegan's photos are fine, it's all the indie kid imitators that are the real scourge.

― Col Tom Blue, Thursday, 26 January 2006 18:36 (twenty years ago)

This is annoying, I agree. In a darkened theater or club, the glow of the LCD screen is rather distracting, especially when the person in front of you keeps moving it around to try and get the perfect shot.

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 26 January 2006 18:40 (twenty years ago)

if oh my rockness wants some quiet time at a show, watch bands in philly. hardly anyone tapes or takes photos at shows. i think the reason there's a dearth of documentation in philly is because no one gives a shit.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Thursday, 26 January 2006 18:44 (twenty years ago)

"i guess some people are exempt."

it was oh my rockness that made the complaint. BV + BV imitators is what they're complaining about.

― Renard (Renard), Thursday, 26 January 2006 18:48 (twenty years ago)

i guess i shouldnt hate on people photographing shows but... man, with the advent of digital cameras, concert photography has gotten WORSE. any douchebag with a digicam, blog/flickr acct thinks they're hot shit.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Thursday, 26 January 2006 19:09 (twenty years ago)

nabisco, i have a pic of you rocking a sweet pink visor (heply crook't, of course)!

― Beta (abeta), Thursday, 26 January 2006 20:03 (twenty years ago)

I like how on blogs there will be 12 pics of the lead singer with the variation being 1/8 of a quarter turn of his body or face.

― ShawShank Rambo Connection (Carey), Thursday, 26 January 2006 20:05 (twenty years ago)

oops, i had it all backwards.

― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Thursday, 26 January 2006 20:19 (twenty years ago)

i'm not sure if the story i'm thinking about is the same one Nabisco talks about (probably is), but i remember reading a short story in an italian film class about a guy that has to document every aspect of his life or it didn't happen. by the end of the story, he's taking pictures of his pictures.

also, the thing that bugs me the most with these people are the ones taking pix with their phones from however far back. those things don't even take good pictures from 5 feet away. what's the point of taking a blury, low lit blob from 30 feet away.

― team jaxon (jaxon), Thursday, 26 January 2006 20:34 (twenty years ago)

people who block my view to get a better shot can go fuck themselves.
if it's dark enough, i will kick them rather hard. or elbow.
i have no shame.

― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Thursday, 26 January 2006 20:38 (twenty years ago)

From "Do not take your bitch to a Squarepusher concert", posted on kuro5hin.org in 2004, voted off the site, but saved by me for posterity.

'Reason 3: Your bitch has a digital camera, and she brought it

I paid to see a concert, you jackass, not your girlfriend's stupid fucking blinking toy. She does not need pictures of white smoke and crazy lights. That is all that her little camera can capture. But she will hold it up in front of everybody -- she, and 50 other white geek bitches just like her -- and take pictures of that smoke and those lights all goddamned night long.

I want to tell you something about your bitch's camera: I don't care if it cost her rich white parents $10 million to buy that thing for her. I don't care if she promised her friends she'd take pictures. I will break your bitch's digital camera if I see it at the concert. It will not be the first time.'

(Reason 1 was "Your bitch doesn't like Squarepusher" and reason 2 was "Your bitch is in the way".)

― Mike W (caek), Thursday, 26 January 2006 20:48 (twenty years ago)

people need to learn to shoot through the viewfinders on digicams, then review on the lcd screen.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Thursday, 26 January 2006 20:54 (twenty years ago)

That would be nice, and less obtrusive, but shooting through the viewfinder on most digicams is like shooting through a backwards telescope full of Marmite.

DSLRs are better for viewfinder use, but come with their own concert problem: the slap of the mirror being dropped into place. I was at a Magnetic Fields gig where the audience were shouting at Merritt to get rid of the photographers because they were so fucking loud. He did.

― Mike W (caek), Thursday, 26 January 2006 21:11 (twenty years ago)

What about when you go to an outdoor music festival and the next day stumble across a picture of yourself on Flickr looking fat and sending a text message, and you have no idea who took it?

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 26 January 2006 21:17 (twenty years ago)

she took it, dude:
http://static.flickr.com/31/61486836_39f2e91478_m.jpg

― senseiDancer (sexyDancer), Thursday, 26 January 2006 21:19 (twenty years ago)

haha, fatty. nice flip flops. also, smoking kills

― team jaxon (jaxon), Thursday, 26 January 2006 21:21 (twenty years ago)

Oh right, the random pink visor! You'll have to send me that, Beta, so that one day I can be all like "no, children, you don't understand, I wasn't a total douchebag, we just happened to find it in the park, so ..."

xpost J Ms Kittensmew looks like she's getting vacuumed out of frame there. Also: what do you think that fest did to the total number of photographs ever taken of Thax?

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 26 January 2006 21:22 (twenty years ago)

nice flip flops.

Don't you mean flaps?

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 26 January 2006 21:23 (twenty years ago)

The camera adds 20 pounds, jay.

Yeah, shows should be ephemeral events. Save the effin' cameras for weddings and homemade porn.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 26 January 2006 21:39 (twenty years ago)

http://static.flickr.com/33/91113378_5a7da5af8e.jpg

is that matos??

― cancer prone fat guy (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 26 January 2006 21:41 (twenty years ago)

Haha!

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 26 January 2006 21:44 (twenty years ago)

actually matos' earlobes are no way that big. what's wrong with that dude?

― cancer prone fat guy (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 26 January 2006 21:45 (twenty years ago)

Look at Matos, the dirty fucker

― phantasy bear (nordicskilla), Thursday, 26 January 2006 21:49 (twenty years ago)

I think it's somewhat easy to understand why people would want to take pictures at shows especially with digital technology being what it is, even if the photos almost always suck. The thing that kinda confuses me is how the audience for such photos became so large on the internet.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Thursday, 26 January 2006 22:29 (twenty years ago)

"like you can even hear cameras click over all the motherfuckers talking
-- j blount (jamesbloun...), January 26th, 2006."

J blount OTM

― Mugged Outside the Jabberjaw, 1993 (Bent Over at the Arclight), Thursday, 26 January 2006 22:35 (twenty years ago)

MegaDevoLobius, king of the Gigantolobes: we meet again!

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 26 January 2006 22:38 (twenty years ago)

eah, shows should be ephemeral events.

all events are epemeral; the impulse to capture that on film is enduring appeal of photography.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Thursday, 26 January 2006 22:57 (twenty years ago)

There's a Calvino short story that kind of gets into the mania of documentation, the weird vicious-cycle aspect where documenting some things creates the burden of documenting others -- and yeah, sometimes it gets to similar levels, where it seems like there's now insufficient distinction between experiencing something and documenting it.

At a Shellac show I was at, Steve Albini went off in typical Albini fashion against someone filming the show. The same logic was used - that they were here to experience a show and not document it. I would have countered that if I document it, I can experience it now and many more times down the line but then Steve would have found some other way to make me feel like shit, propbably...

― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Thursday, 26 January 2006 23:05 (twenty years ago)

Yay Albini, telling others what to do again. Fuck him and his crap production.

― senseiDancer (sexyDancer), Thursday, 26 January 2006 23:10 (twenty years ago)

Daerest Brooklyn Vegan,

Everyone has a camera now. You are not special. You should take better pictures and stop whining.

Welcome to New York, bitch,

--Art School Niggaz

P.S. Veganisim is a fad you will grow out of, no matter what you think to the contrary.

― Jimmy Mod (I myself am lethal at 100 -110dB) (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Thursday, 26 January 2006 23:17 (twenty years ago)

Ha, no, Brian, even in that post you're ceasing to differentiate between documenting and experiencing -- you're not just saying that filming is the same as experiencing a show, but that watching the film is somehow the same as experiencing the show again! Which is part of why I brought up the Calvino. I'd be the last person to try and pull some metaphysical distinction between those two things, but I do think there's a practical difference, and in terms of things like shows, it makes a difference in mood and feeling and all those intangibles. When a huge portion of the crowd is focused on photographing the performance, I start to feel like I'm in the press section, like I'm in a group of disinterested observers who are blandly "experiencing" mostly just for the purpose of mediating the moment, for someone else (presumably their blog readers). Which is fine, and all, but it changes the atmosphere for me. (And it's kind of worse when it feeds into the sense I already get from a lot of NYC shows anyway, the sense that people are there out of some kind of routine or even as "work." I'd probably feel better if I saw a lot of the opposite, the way I did more in Chicago -- like cute teenagers who'd drive all the way from Iowa and be like omigod so excited to see a show.) (They never photographed the shows, weirdly -- just spent hours hanging by the back door to get the with-my-hero shot!)

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 26 January 2006 23:25 (twenty years ago)

The Brooklyn Vegan is a really nice guy!

I just feel like that needs to be said.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Thursday, 26 January 2006 23:25 (twenty years ago)

He sounds like a whiney bitch on a bike to me...

― Jimmy Mod (I myself am lethal at 100 -110dB) (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Thursday, 26 January 2006 23:26 (twenty years ago)

you're not just saying that filming is the same as experiencing a show, but that watching the film is somehow the same as experiencing the show again!

Not "the same," but a new experience. I watch bootlegs of shows I've been to and notice new things I didn't at the venue. Who is Albini to say that I need to limit my experience to the then-and-there?

And what if my role in the "experience" is to be seen documenting it by Albini and everyone else who is looking?

― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Thursday, 26 January 2006 23:31 (twenty years ago)

The same logic was used - that they were here to experience a show and not document it.

the actual reason is so the "documentor" won't bootleg the show, duh.

Who is Albini to say that I need to limit my experience to the then-and-there?

he's certainly within his rights as an artist to ask that his audience not unduly profit off his work. some people don't give a shit, some do.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 26 January 2006 23:33 (twenty years ago)

And you know that the person video taping it had motives to profit from this recording... How? I mean, I have tons of audio & video recordings of shows that I attended that I manage to view/listen to without reproducing them and putting them up on eBay...

― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Thursday, 26 January 2006 23:41 (twenty years ago)

I will agree that an artist can tell anyone recording them while in concert to knock it off. It's the asumption of profit as a motive that I take issue.

― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Thursday, 26 January 2006 23:43 (twenty years ago)

And you know that the person video taping it had motives to profit from this recording... How?

that's not the point.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 26 January 2006 23:45 (twenty years ago)

The Brooklyn Vegan is a really nice guy!

is he cute?

― phil-two (phil-two), Thursday, 26 January 2006 23:47 (twenty years ago)

xpost

When you mention "profit" it is.

― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Thursday, 26 January 2006 23:53 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, dude, it can be your role-in-the-experience to videotape as much as it can be the next guy's role-in-the-experience to beat someone up -- this is exactly my point. I don't even mean this in the physics sense: documenting changes the experience. Not in some plain out-and-out awful way, but once you achieve some level of documentation going on, the whole tenor of the thing shifts. In a way that ... well, not that I really really care, but I'm not sure I like it. It feels strained and jaded, like some sort of effort is being made to create evidence of fun more so than actual fun. It distracts a bit.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 26 January 2006 23:54 (twenty years ago)

Cameras are ruining everything: a manifesto:

'Arctic Monkeys: "Wow, lots of cameras...put your cameras down and enjoy the show!"

Guess how many people did? That's right: zero! 'Cause god forbid they just snap a few and then rock out like a normal person. Noooooo, they must get every angle in order to prove to their readers and friends that they were there, that they were at the cool show on the cool night with their cool camera. So cool.'

― Mike W (caek), Thursday, 26 January 2006 23:55 (twenty years ago)

But see the other reason I was talking about that Calvino story = her rule of "take a few and then put the camera away" is philosophically difficult! Once you have the camera there, and you're taking photos, you'll naturally want the best possible photos you can score, not just for the inherent goodness of good photos but also because it's fun to play photographer. You can take a few shots at the start, but you're not done -- what if someone strikes a really awesome pose, or starts dancing? What if there's a guest appearance, or some lighting that would look awesome from the foot of the stage? Now everything demands that you keep documenting, or else your documents will be random and ineffective and untrue.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 27 January 2006 00:07 (twenty years ago)

"I have a shot of the Arctic Monkeys going like THIS, then clearly I need a shot of the Arctic Monkeys going like THAT, ya see?"

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 27 January 2006 00:09 (twenty years ago)

the unnecessary swipe at veganism from Jimmy the Mod is really asinine - I promise not to spend any more time than this post on the subject, but millions of people who become vegan stay that way for the rest of their lives. Condescending toward others for no good reason, however, is a fad you will grow out of, no matter what you think to the contrary.

nb I am not a vegan, but I have a chip on my shoulder about that sort of "oh nobody actually holds those beliefs dearly" posturing

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Friday, 27 January 2006 00:22 (twenty years ago)

Is that the DEVO costume from Target?

― tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Friday, 27 January 2006 00:26 (twenty years ago)

it's fun to play photographer.

This is the problem

― Jimmy Mod (I myself am lethal at 100 -110dB) (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Friday, 27 January 2006 00:29 (twenty years ago)

Vegan IS a nice guy, but I fuckin' hate people cellphotoing. That shit has GOT to stop.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Friday, 27 January 2006 03:19 (twenty years ago)

I think we should start a "USE YOUR FUCKING VIEWFINDER" campaign at concerts. All the photogs at the front bug me at the super-hip concerts, but at every concert there's some idjut in the darkness using his LCD screen.

― Eppy (Eppy), Friday, 27 January 2006 03:36 (twenty years ago)

xpost nabisco

the sense I already get from a lot of NYC shows anyway, the sense that people are there out of some kind of routine or even as "work."

i detest that OTM business, but this is frightfully true and needs to be highlighted. interesting that there are cameras aplenty but no one would ever deign to whip out a notepad, for fear of indies rolling their eyes.

― brokeback titty sanskrit (sanskrit), Friday, 27 January 2006 03:40 (twenty years ago)

I am Brooklyn Vegan

― JT Leroy, Friday, 27 January 2006 03:50 (twenty years ago)

interesting that there are cameras aplenty but no one would ever deign to whip out a notepad, for fear of indies rolling their eyes.

it's hard to write on a notepad in the dark when you don't have anything to lean the pad on!

― stockholm cindy (winter version) (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 27 January 2006 03:53 (twenty years ago)

(not that i've tried or anything, cough cough)

― stockholm cindy (winter version) (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 27 January 2006 03:54 (twenty years ago)

if there's more than 15 people or 5 camera in the audience, it doesn't matter anyway, because all those other people's photos will be posted on the web before you've even woken up with a hangover. if you're not close enough to touch the microphone, or if you really should be dancing instead, the camera ought to stay in yr pocket. seriously, folks, you're not merlin bronques, and those 5 blurry shots of sufjan are not gonna get you a book deal or a gallery show.

― davelus (davelus), Friday, 27 January 2006 05:50 (twenty years ago)

i live in brooklyn and i just had a guy move in who's a vegan. he eats cold "tofurkey" out of the fridge with his hands. today he played "dark side of the moon," "wish you were here," and "the final cut" back to back and then jammed with his guitar on blues scales on his gorilla amp to a metronome for two hours.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 27 January 2006 06:34 (twenty years ago)

yuck. im going to come over and we're going to make BLT's for dinner, ok?

― phil-two (phil-two), Friday, 27 January 2006 06:39 (twenty years ago)

I don't know, I usually have a piece of paper that I use for jotting down the setlist and various notes/quotes for whatever review that I'm planning on writing. The writing is usually pretty sloppy though, but it works out. I do sometimes get "are you an alien?" looks from people, but I'm not very apologetic about this kind of thing.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Friday, 27 January 2006 12:02 (twenty years ago)

I go to shows to "be seen". I say hi to all my friends so everyone remembers what a true scenemaker I am. Sometimes I get a free drink or two. When the music starts, I stand in the back with my arms crossed, nodding my head, and sometime in the middle of the second song, when I get the sense that I understand the entire sound and quality of the band, I go home and watch TV while eating some sort of sandwhich. I only bring my camera out to my own parties, but I never take pictures.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 27 January 2006 14:12 (twenty years ago)

vegans don't kill people, people do

― Nick Sylvester, Friday, 27 January 2006 14:26 (twenty years ago)

i write shit in my little pocket notebook at raves/parties all the time. i usually get a few crazy looks, but that's the cool thing about raves (especially in other countries, where i am clearly a guiri/gringo and people don't have any hesitation about coming up and asking me why i am so strange) - usually once i explain that i'm a writer and i'm simply taking notes, they just nod and say "cool!" sometimes they even leave a note. then again, most of the shows i go to, everyone is on E, so that might explain the more accepting nature of the exchange.

moral of the story (if you didn't know it already): indie rockers need to take more E.

― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Friday, 27 January 2006 14:27 (twenty years ago)

Vegans don't kill vegetables, they hire vegetarians to do it for them.

― Eppy (Eppy), Friday, 27 January 2006 14:27 (twenty years ago)

like i said, i hate slagging photographers, mainly because thats how i got my own start in all of this stuff. because of my educational background, ill always consider myself a photographer first, everything else second. ive been doing this for a long time, ive made a ton of mistakes, learned the hard way, etc etc. sometimes i want to print up a little pamphlet to hand out at concerts and get evangelical on people's asses.

general rule of thumb among photographers, regarding live performance: if you cant nail the image during the first three songs, you're certainly not going to get it the rest of the show. put the camera away after the third song, enjoy the band. you'll make the band and surrounding audience happier. this rule should also be followed if you're at a show where there's a press/VIP section at the foot of the stage. if guests are brought on stage, if they switch instruments [but not if they're changing them between every song] or if they do something "crazy" on stage, then can you take the camera out for a couple more snaps.

but the truth of the matter is, the majority of bands are boring to watch [seeing, not listening, is the operative action here]. this is why you should be able to get it within a few shots. and if you cant photograph a band thats standing there, you are less likely to capture one that moves like crazy all over the stage.

as for the truth of the document: i dont believe photography is truthful, for a variety of reasons. i have way too much cold medicine in me to properly argue that point. however, i believe it is a photographer's responsibility to construct a plausible fascimile of the experience.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Friday, 27 January 2006 14:28 (twenty years ago)

nitsuh jeez you romanticize everything dont you

if you want to see rock music like that fyi i think fountains of wayne are playing lincoln center soon

― Nick Sylvester, Friday, 27 January 2006 14:29 (twenty years ago)

xpost sherbert

taking notes is good peacocking

― Nick Sylvester, Friday, 27 January 2006 14:31 (twenty years ago)

moral of the story (if you didn't know it already): indie rockers need to take more E.

PHILLIP OTM

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Friday, 27 January 2006 14:39 (twenty years ago)

you romanticize everything dont you

was there a resolution passed that offering explanations is tantamount to romanticization?

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Friday, 27 January 2006 14:45 (twenty years ago)

oh boy

― Nick Sylvester, Friday, 27 January 2006 15:07 (twenty years ago)

When a huge portion of the crowd is focused on photographing the performance, I start to feel like I'm in the press section, like I'm in a group of disinterested observers who are blandly "experiencing" mostly just for the purpose of mediating the moment, for someone else (presumably their blog readers).

I get this feeling too. It's distracting when people around you seem to be doing something only tangentially related to the music. It's like they're only partially there listening and another part of them is already running on ahead to the next day, thinking about which snaps to put up on their blogs, how to format them, etc. It seems so clinical - like watching a show with a bunch of Martian fashion critics. I'm not going to deny that what a band looks like is part of the show, but snapshots of musicians performing are so rarely interesting, they really seem beside the point.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 27 January 2006 15:50 (twenty years ago)

Wow, you are all really whiny.

― Dan (Shut Up And Enjoy The Show) Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 27 January 2006 16:01 (twenty years ago)

Well it's hard to enjoy the show when someone's holding a bright LCD screen in front of your face.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 27 January 2006 16:04 (twenty years ago)

quit the shit, start the pit

― senseiDancer (sexyDancer), Friday, 27 January 2006 16:12 (twenty years ago)

I've never had a show ruined for me by photographers, but I certainly have been to a few where a handful of people decide to start a pit in the midst of a whole bunch of people who most certainly do NOT want to start one, and that's really ugly.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Friday, 27 January 2006 16:14 (twenty years ago)

y'all and indie rock desrvere each other

― senseiDancer (sexyDancer), Friday, 27 January 2006 16:17 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, mindless violence is pretty awesome, lest we all forget.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Friday, 27 January 2006 16:21 (twenty years ago)

"it's hard to write on a notepad in the dark when you don't have anything to lean the pad on!"

no, its not...

i quickly gave up on taking pictures. partially because im terible at it, mostly because i felt like an ass, and partly because it prevented me from being able to take notes.

people are going to. as with any other mobile technology, its a question of how much other people there establish and defend a sense of manners. you can quite politley tell someone to fuck off. you can quite politely take pictures.

read what you'd like in..this, as always is a question of responsibility.

what will the indie kids do if they can't fight each other?

― bb (bbrz), Friday, 27 January 2006 16:27 (twenty years ago)

Give each other vd?

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Friday, 27 January 2006 16:30 (twenty years ago)

sorry Nick I just thought, y'know, n*tsuh's comment wasn't really that egregious a romanticization!

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Friday, 27 January 2006 16:36 (twenty years ago)

only if they stop reading questionable content and follow Phillip's suggestion

― bb (bbrz), Friday, 27 January 2006 16:41 (twenty years ago)

I've been to a couple shows where there was a glut of people with cameras near the stage. I'd say it was a mood killer, but one of the shows was Prefuse 73 and I have no clue what they were supposed to be doing otherwise. I'm still not sure which was worse, the camera people or the guy who thought it'd be cool to imitate the vocal samples.

nabisco's right about the Iowa kids who go to out-of-state concerts. Well, maybe less so now but if you drive all the way to Minneapolis, Chicago, or Omaha you're sure as hell there for the music.

The all-time best amateur photographer had to be this giant girl with long hair dyed black who was behind me at an insanely crowded Atmosphere show. She had a pitcher of Amber Bock in one hand (with two straws in it!) and a tiny digital camera in the other. I think she spent 2/3 of the show yelling "WHOOO" and occasionally snapping pictures while sipping beer and bouncing around.

― mike h. (mike h.), Friday, 27 January 2006 16:45 (twenty years ago)

Dude, people should not follow Phillip's suggestion. Indie rockers are not personal hygene kinda people and the last thing I want after I've been waiting 3 hours at NorthSix for a show to start is the dude whose hair smells like the top of my ass crack to start hugging me.

― Eppy (Eppy), Friday, 27 January 2006 16:51 (twenty years ago)

Well it's hard to enjoy the show when someone's holding a bright LCD screen in front of your face.

No it isn't! Well, it isn't for me.

― Dan (Self-Involvement Is Key) Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 27 January 2006 16:53 (twenty years ago)

I get so distracted. Every few seconds I can help but look over at it. It's a shiny thing! In the middle of the dark!

Shiny thing, man!

― Eppy (Eppy), Friday, 27 January 2006 17:01 (twenty years ago)

I've been waiting 3 hours at NorthSix for a show to start is the dude whose hair smells like the top of my ass crack to start hugging me.

hahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ... but isnt why they're all there?

― bb (bbrz), Friday, 27 January 2006 17:02 (twenty years ago)

Wait, what am I romanticizing -- the Iowa kids? The reassuring lack of Official Business? Calvino? Megadevolobius?

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 27 January 2006 17:37 (twenty years ago)

haha

maybe i'm singling you out, probably should be oh my crockness, but i didn't like this Ideal Concert Scenario you seemed to be fashioning here

― Nick Sylvester, Friday, 27 January 2006 17:42 (twenty years ago)

I don't have an Ideal Concert Scenario! I just get bummed when I go to see something and wind up feeling like I'm at a press conference or a fundraiser or something. The mood becomes a bit dry.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 27 January 2006 17:45 (twenty years ago)

o. nate is otm about the distress that i feel over a seeming inability to enjoy the moment on the part of a lot of these people -- the seeming thought process is 'i can't wait til this is over so i can tell people about it.' i was stuck behind these two bloggerchix at the dave chapelle block party who basically jabbered on like this THE WHOLE TIME and i was seriously going to go bazonkers on them.

(nabisco can you e-mail me?)

― maura (maura), Friday, 27 January 2006 17:50 (twenty years ago)

And actually for the record I do have weird fears about how attention -- from the internet and bloggers as much as from trad media -- can stunt the development of music. Not that I feel like explaining in depth, but really: it winds up introducing a level of self-consciousness into the whole exercise, which I think can be ever so slightly debilitating.

xpost Maura I can and will.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 27 January 2006 17:52 (twenty years ago)

Re: the notebooks upthread, my music critic husband has been known to balance his notebook on my back to take notes during a show. I guess it's one reason you might bring your uh ... bitch ... to a concert.

― belle haleine, Friday, 27 January 2006 17:54 (twenty years ago)

Thank you all for your comments on our comments about cameras. It's great to help inspire discussion of any kind. One thing we wanted to make clear was that in no way our intent to talk trash about Brooklyn Vegan. He is one of the few people who does it right at shows.

Second, to the Gursky fan. Using that famous photographer's name was more of a creative choice to combine the irresistable alliteration ("guy" and "gursky") We are quite aware what Gursky's format of choice was, and we are certainly impressed that you are aware as well. I hope everyone else on here is equally impressed with you.

But we gotta run. The Peace Corp bus is leaving in 5.

Thanks again for your comments!

-The Oh My Rockness Crew-

― Oh My Rockness, Friday, 27 January 2006 18:59 (twenty years ago)

thank you for acknowledging my peace corps remark

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 27 January 2006 19:09 (twenty years ago)

stop excelsior syndroming slocki

― cancer prone fat guy (dubplatestyle), Friday, 27 January 2006 19:12 (twenty years ago)

you have no idea how bored i am

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 27 January 2006 19:13 (twenty years ago)

And now the thread comes neatly to a close. Full circle!

Right?

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Friday, 27 January 2006 19:13 (twenty years ago)

ihttp://images.windowsmedia.com/img/prov_ap/200_80/pic200/drp100/p108/p10848u7a8s.jpg

― bb (bbrz), Friday, 27 January 2006 19:55 (twenty years ago)

ihttp://images.music.com/images/dmc/group/aztec_camera/1/images/bio.jpg

― bb (bbrz), Friday, 27 January 2006 19:58 (twenty years ago)

ahhh, skip it

― bb (bbrz), Friday, 27 January 2006 20:05 (twenty years ago)

the vegan guy is playing "wish you were here" again.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 27 January 2006 22:51 (twenty years ago)

Welllcommmmmmmmmmmme tooo the machiiiinnnne...

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Friday, 27 January 2006 23:10 (twenty years ago)

there needs to be more people at shows sketching pencil portraits of the band on small pads of paper

― no bones, Friday, 27 January 2006 23:16 (twenty years ago)

http://towleroad.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/madonnacellphones.jpg

― Mike W (caek), Friday, 27 January 2006 23:18 (twenty years ago)

does anyone get drunk at shows anymore? pick up girls? snort coke, ~~chainsmoke~~

― no bones, Friday, 27 January 2006 23:26 (twenty years ago)

what is often a fun solution is to take the camera/video device away from th user and take inappropriate pictures and hand them back..noone likes having their crappy concert slideshow interrupted by an old mans testicles in th middle of th presentation....http://static.flickr.com/40/82301439_113d6c6493.jpg

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Saturday, 28 January 2006 01:56 (twenty years ago)

But what if they were sweet young balls instead?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 28 January 2006 01:58 (twenty years ago)

he went away, and came back like an hour and a half later with a frying pan from his storage space because he didn't like thinking about the meat we cooked in our frying pans! later he told me that "there's a lot of sluts up at columbia [university]."

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 28 January 2006 02:05 (twenty years ago)

Vegans listen to Crass on THIS coast, maaaaaaan

― Dom iNut (donut), Saturday, 28 January 2006 03:17 (twenty years ago)

But what if they were sweet young balls instead?

forget a nut, if you steal someones camera go immediately for red eye.

― brokeback titty sanskrit (sanskrit), Saturday, 28 January 2006 03:48 (twenty years ago)

Even if Oh My Rockness wasn't directly taking on Brooklyn Vegan, they would have to admit that his "doing it right at shows" (to paraphrase) has inspired a lot of poor imitators, who do care or don't know how to do it right.

At least that's how it can be at New York gigs. That's the syndrome.

― Col Tom Blue, Saturday, 28 January 2006 16:06 (twenty years ago)

it winds up introducing a level of self-consciousness into the whole exercise

yeah, that. that's what i don't like about it.

― sleeve (sleeve), Sunday, 29 January 2006 04:33 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

what an innocent time this was

― maura, Thursday, 8 January 2009 02:35 (seventeen years ago)

i was hoping this bump would be about dude a. getting arrested for leaking animal collective b. getting a perez hilton type deal w/ a major label

― jordan s (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 8 January 2009 02:39 (seventeen years ago)

best day ever for him

― s1ocki, Thursday, 8 January 2009 02:48 (seventeen years ago)

still can't believe there's something called "oh my rockness"

― some dude, Thursday, 8 January 2009 03:06 (seventeen years ago)

Don't get us wrong, we're down with digital and bros with the blogs

― some dude, Thursday, 8 January 2009 03:06 (seventeen years ago)

taking notes is good peacocking

― Nick Sylvester

― velko, Thursday, 8 January 2009 03:14 (seventeen years ago)

we're all just lost souls swimming in a fishbowl

year after year

― Mark, Thursday, 8 January 2009 03:19 (seventeen years ago)

'guy who thought he was gursky' is a worse offence than actually taking pictures

― schlump, Thursday, 8 January 2009 07:03 (seventeen years ago)

it's true though, there are a lot of sluts up at columbia.

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 8 January 2009 11:03 (seventeen years ago)

quit the shit, start the pit

― senseiDancer (sexyDancer), Friday, January 27, 2006 11:12 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

― it's all about the benjamin buttons (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 8 January 2009 15:07 (seventeen years ago)

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/POLITICS/01/20/obama.inauguration/t1wide.obamas.dancing.03.cnn.jpg

― 8. Opeth - Watershed (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 21 January 2009 06:27 (seventeen years ago)

it's becoming more important to prove to people that "you were there" than to actually be there and be paying attention.

― Pantheism F. Mohair (res), Wednesday, 21 January 2009 19:35 (seventeen years ago)

five years pass...

what an innocent time this was

― maura, Thursday, January 8, 2009 2:35 AM (5 years ago)

― Steve 'n' Seagulls and Flock of Van Dammes (forksclovetofu), Monday, 20 October 2014 03:59 (eleven years ago)

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