The (enduring) cult of yelling "Freebird"

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I would like to imagine that people in New York—especially people at a Boredoms show—would be erudite enough to know that yelling “Freebird!” isn’t funny. Not ironically, not-post-ironically, not as an anthropological field research study, not ever. Honestly, two months after the Beavis And Butthead episode that aired over a decade ago, it stopped being funny. Forever. In perpetuity. Amen.

“Freebird!” isn’t an ironic joke to me, it’s a tragic reminder of the swampy cultural abyss that is the “Sunshine” State. In Florida, the ghost of Ronnie VanZant still sags limply, like a confederate flag on a humid, windless day. The song’s 14 minutes are a bloated as an alligator’s rotting corpse on the emergency lane of I-75. It makes “Stairway To Heaven” look as swift, lean and lively as a Bad Brains song. Just hearing it makes me itch a row of imaginary mosquito bites until I’m scabby and raw.

So for whatever reason, someone yelled “Freebird!” at the poor, hapless Boredoms. And someone yelled “Rock And Roll McDonalds” at Fantômas. And someone yelled “Slayer!” at every single show I’ve gone to in the last three years.

Here’s a handy guide to the “clever” things that you yell at shows...
(And some succinct reasons why you’re an asshole)

1. Yelling the song you want to hear
What you’re saying: I sure would like to hear [insert song]. What’s the most obnoxious way I could express this?
What we hear: Look, band. I know you went through the trouble of making a set list because I can clearly see it taped to the monitor. I know you’ve been diligently practicing your set for weeks and weeks. I know you take great pride in the show you've worked so hard on delivering us. But could you tailor it to my specific tastes, like, immediately?

2. Yelling someone else’s song
What you’re saying: Oh, man. This delicious non sequitur will really get a rise out of all those uptight squares at the Clutch show.
What we hear: I was in gifted class so I have an inflated sense of self-worth. Everyone please revel in how weird and irreverent I am.

3. Yelling “Slayer!”
What you’re saying: What a brilliant juxtaposition between the sensitive mewing of Mirah and the thrash metal of Slayer!
What we hear: Slayer’s really funny because I used to like them when I was 13. But I abandoned them ever since I discovered my self-importance and sacrificed my true drives and opinions in favor of impressing others with my carefully calculated façade of "sensitivity" and "intellectualism."

4. Yelling "Slayer!" at a Slayer show
What you’re saying: I like Slayer.
What we hear: Slayer!

5. Yelling “Freebird!” as a joke.
What you’re saying: I still think it’s funny to yell “Freebird.” Even though it’s been 12 years since I’ve ever heard anyone besides myself even politely snicker at it.
What we hear: I wish people liked me. I must the only one at this AC Newman show without a girlfriend. Try harder, man! Try harder!

6. Yelling “Freebird!” as a ironic meta-joke
What you’re saying: I’m sooo beyond those stupid assholes who yell “Freebird” at shows. I take great pride in knowing I have such a solid grasp on cultural trends that I can be just a tiny step above them... even though they are so banal and insipid, I wonder how they can pull themselves away from Desperate Housewives to even drag their pathetic husks to a bar (haha, zing, dude!). Also, I still think Alf, Care Bears and Steve Perry are inherently funny and that’s why they are all drawn on my shirt in magic marker.
What we hear: Woo. I sure love to drink PBR!

7. Yelling “Freebird!” sincerely because you seriously want to hear “Freebird!” right now.
This has never happened.

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 13:50 (twenty-one years ago)

more cowbell

― j.stein, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 13:57 (twenty-one years ago)

At the Yo La Tengo show where they had Neil Innes and Sonic Boom playing with them, someone shouted out "Urban Spaceman 3" which I thought was amusing, but not very many people got the joke...

― Jack Battery-Pack (Jack Battery-Pack), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 15:17 (twenty-one years ago)

surely you're allowed to yell "Freebird" at a Skynyrd show. Before, during and after they play it.

― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 15:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Ok I find people yelling "Freebird" at everything from lamp posts to Josh Groban way more sufferable than people yelling "Urban Spaceman 3" at Neil Innes and Sonic Boom.

― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 15:21 (twenty-one years ago)

rapier wit like that belongs on ILM and nowhere else

― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

This has never happened to me. Should I start doing it?

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 15:31 (twenty-one years ago)

More Annoying: "Freebird!" vs. "More Cowbell!!"
Origin of yelling "Freebird!"
TS: Holding up a Lighter at shows vs. Yelling "Freebird" at shows
"Freebird!" vs. "Boooo-o-o-o-o-o-o!" Which is more clear-headedly rockist?
"Freebird!" vs. "Free The Birds!"
Injecting a cry for "Freebird!" into a lengthy discussion condemning rockism: Good fun or extremely poor etiquette?
Meta and Fair: "Freebird!" vs. "FAR AWAY!!"

Ladies & Gentlemen....let's have a big `round of appause for...THE SEARCH FUNCTION!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 15:33 (twenty-one years ago)

At the Prefuse 73 show, this drunk prick I went to school with yelled "Do something awesome!" more than once.

― Candicissima (candicissima), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

You're a grump.

― Alex up my BUTT, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Michael Fitzgerald (my friend and drummer in my band called the moonbears www.themoonbears.co.uk) shouted 'MR BLUE SKY!' at a fortuitously silent moment in a Grandaddy sell-out Birmingham show.
THEY laughed, even if no-one else did.

― Neil Kulkarni, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:26 (twenty-one years ago)

"Do something awesome!"

A thousand times cooler than yelling "Freebird".

You're a grump.

And you're lazy.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:31 (twenty-one years ago)

No it wasn't especially cool at all. He just looked really stupid.

― Candicissima (candicissima), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:42 (twenty-one years ago)

rapier wit like that belongs on ILM and nowhere else

Hey, you're mean.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:45 (twenty-one years ago)

At a Yo La Tengo show (of course) some guy kept yelling "8th song on Electro Pur(r)a... please?" (sic). So, if I yell anything anymore, it's "Number eight!"

― diedre mousedropping and a quarter (Dave225), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:54 (twenty-one years ago)

He just looked really stupid.

Well, at least it was something more original than "Freebird".

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:56 (twenty-one years ago)

where does opening your show with "hello, cleveland!" come from? other than cleveland, that is.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I think it started with Spinal Tap.

― diedre mousedropping and a quarter (Dave225), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:06 (twenty-one years ago)

"At the Yo La Tengo show where they had Neil Innes and Sonic Boom playing with them, someone shouted out "Urban Spaceman 3" which I thought was amusing, but not very many people got the joke..."

Haha that is funny.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:10 (twenty-one years ago)

"Hello Cleveland" did indeed start with Spinal Tap.

This thread is brought to you by the resigned-sounding but indefatigable fellow requesting "Paint It Black" on Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Nothing else in the "Hello Cleveland" genre beats the moment in "Fooling Yourself," on Styx's _Caught in the Act_ where Tommy Shaw, after "Let's see what you've got / Just take your best shot and don't blow it" bellows "LET'S SEE WHAT YOU'VE GOT, NEW ORLEANS!" History does not record what, in fact, New Orleans had, nor whether it was shown to Mr. Shaw.

― Guayaquil, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Can you yell "cowbell" if you see that a drummer has a cowbell on his kit and is underutilizing it, or ignoring it completely, and you like the sound of cowbell?

― grana, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

"LET'S SEE WHAT YOU'VE GOT, NEW ORLEANS!"

I made the same request once and lived to almost regret it.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:09 (twenty-one years ago)

grana: no. Cowbell brings a very specific flavor to a song. A drummer who bothers to have and use a cowbell knows exactly when and how he or she wants to use it. Unless the music is latin-inflected, that's like one song per performance.

If you notice that a guitarist has a phase shift pedal and is underutilizing it or ignoring it completely, and like the sound of phase shift, do you yell PHASE SHIFT? No, you do not.

Anywa my question is: why hasn't SOY BOMB become a meme in the same category?

― The Mad Puffin, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:11 (twenty-one years ago)

History does not record what, in fact, New Orleans had, nor whether it was shown to Mr. Shaw.

Fortunately for ILM, I am at work.

However, the Interweb does seem to be quite willing to render unto any enterprising soul who cares to hit up Ye Olde Google Images an extraordinary number of pix showing what, exactly, New Orleans Has Got to show.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Having actually grown up in Cleveland, it's interesting to note that only once have I heard a band open up a show with "Hello Cleveland!": The Smashing Pumpkins (it was James).

― PB, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:20 (twenty-one years ago)

a friend of mine saw Built to Spill a year or two ago at the 930 Club in DC and said when someone yelled 'Freebird,' they actually played it. where does this fall on the c/d continuum?

― matlewis, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

in the old news category.

― diedre mousedropping and a quarter (Dave225), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

the band that is, not the post.

― diedre mousedropping and a quarter (Dave225), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

What if you yell Freebird at a Drive By Truckers show?

― Jockey, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:55 (twenty-one years ago)

or better yet, an Allman Brothers show.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:58 (twenty-one years ago)

At the Blue Oyster Cult show last year the band themselves made "more cowbell" jokes.

To original poster: You are 5 steps above.

― Bed Fellows, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 19:32 (twenty-one years ago)

btw, no one would ever assume they're the only person at an AC Newman show without a girlfriend.

― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

four years pass...

i thought i had posted abt this somewhere but maybe not --

was @ a japandroids show in boston & the crowd bought the band (only 2 guys) a few rounds of shots btwn various songs. someone passes up maybe the 4th round of shots and the drummer is all "you guys dont know what ur gettin into here, at this rate we'll be playin skynyrd covers p. soon"

& someone in the crowd yells out "Freebird!" ~

― johnny crunch, Thursday, 11 February 2010 00:42 (sixteen years ago)

Uhhhhhhhhh

Was this at Great Scott in Allston sometime last year?

― t(o_o)t (ENBB), Thursday, 11 February 2010 00:45 (sixteen years ago)

yup

― johnny crunch, Thursday, 11 February 2010 00:48 (sixteen years ago)

idk y but it came 2 mind recently

― johnny crunch, Thursday, 11 February 2010 00:48 (sixteen years ago)

was it u that yelled ?

― johnny crunch, Thursday, 11 February 2010 00:52 (sixteen years ago)

lol, no was not me but I was standing right near the guy that did and distinctly remember him doing so. what's weird is that call all destroyer was also at that show but none of us knew it at the time.

― t(o_o)t (ENBB), Thursday, 11 February 2010 00:55 (sixteen years ago)

Do you live up here?

― t(o_o)t (ENBB), Thursday, 11 February 2010 00:55 (sixteen years ago)

ha thats wild. nah i lived in allston 4 3 yrs while i went 2 bu so get back there every once in a while...i live in ct now

― johnny crunch, Thursday, 11 February 2010 00:57 (sixteen years ago)

I lived in Allston for a long time and still have a soft spot for it. Was driving through there yesterday actually. It's funny but when I first moved to that area Great Scott was a total meathead joint then I moved away for a couple years and when I came back they were having shows and stuff. Weird. Anyway yeah - funny about that show and the Freebird dude was v annoying.

― t(o_o)t (ENBB), Thursday, 11 February 2010 01:35 (sixteen years ago)

omg three ilxors in a v. small space! johnny when did you go to bu?

― call all destroyer, Thursday, 11 February 2010 01:43 (sixteen years ago)

haha! a while ago (02-05). yeah i vaguely remember great scott being lame and i just ignored it for a while & then at some point the decembrists were playing there. it was weird, the good part was their retaining of dollar natty light drafts, at least for a while

― johnny crunch, Thursday, 11 February 2010 01:50 (sixteen years ago)

lol I worked at BU from 2001-2003 and was away from '03-'05 so that's the the transition must have happened.

― t(o_o)t (ENBB), Thursday, 11 February 2010 01:54 (sixteen years ago)

i used 'while' 5x in 2 posts

― johnny crunch, Thursday, 11 February 2010 01:54 (sixteen years ago)

i was there from 02-06--lol i wonder if we know any of the same ppl

― call all destroyer, Thursday, 11 February 2010 01:57 (sixteen years ago)

well i was @ teh 14w skool

― johnny crunch, Thursday, 11 February 2010 01:58 (sixteen years ago)

ohhhh i see prob not then :(

lol @ googleproof of l4w!!

― call all destroyer, Thursday, 11 February 2010 02:03 (sixteen years ago)

oh but yeah if you make it up here anytime you should holla at me and enbb

― call all destroyer, Thursday, 11 February 2010 02:04 (sixteen years ago)

lawl school is srs biz, cant be 2 safe

word up, will do that

― johnny crunch, Thursday, 11 February 2010 02:07 (sixteen years ago)

play some acca dacca

― Department of Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification (S-), Thursday, 11 February 2010 02:09 (sixteen years ago)

oh god I'm so tired that I couldn't figure out what the hell l4w was. I was running through the names of all the schools in my head trying to work it out /idiot.

― t(o_o)t (ENBB), Thursday, 11 February 2010 02:30 (sixteen years ago)

there was tkis kid who used to yell "play 'sweet child o mine'!!" every time the music teacher walked towards the piano in year 8 music class

same guy took a half-the-room run-up to jump a table then went head-first into the window, smashing it and cuttin up dat forehead

― the avuncular tonsil hockey (haitch), Thursday, 11 February 2010 02:50 (sixteen years ago)

o shit u know what it wasnt even the decembrists, it was SUFJAN STEVENS. was a good show iirc

― johnny crunch, Thursday, 11 February 2010 02:53 (sixteen years ago)

sounds v credible

― vag gangsta (k3vin k.), Thursday, 11 February 2010 02:55 (sixteen years ago)

yea that is p. divergent from the 'freebird' relevant story

― johnny crunch, Thursday, 11 February 2010 02:56 (sixteen years ago)

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