 Concert
Etiquette
Fans Disguised
as Empty Chairs
by Wally Denton,
class of 1970
June 15, 2006
I attend quite a few concerts…..Usually
the inexpensive ones that are outside
featuring crossroads-type artist. There
is nothing I enjoy more than being
outside on a nice evening with a few
thousand of my closest friends listening
to live music. It’s not so important
to me that the featured band consists
of original members as long as parts
of the performance sound like the music
I remember. Having original band members
is a luxury that few mature bands have.
I know that Dan Z. and Rick L. differ
with me on this, but it’s ok
to have different opinions. Sometimes
the social aspect of the gathering
is just as important as the listening
experience (to me).
The venue and the
genre of music usually dictate acceptable
behavior….Usually! It’s
obvious to most that the crowd acts
(and looks) differently at a Trapt
concert than that at a James Taylor
gig. But the difference is not always
so obvious. As many bands (and their
loyal fans) age, things sometimes mellow.
This was the case at the last Little
Feat concert at Innsbrook. In the past,
Little Feat fans were a little on the
raucous side. When the band came on
stage, a large contingency of the crowd
would move as close as they could get
to the stage. There they (we) would
stay for the entire set, dancing, bouncing,
singing, and waving our arms in the
air like lunatics.
But things are changing.
With no assigned seats, you are free
to stake out your space as soon as
you get to the venue. To some, this
means standing in front of the stage
while the opening act plays, during
the break between bands, and
finally for the headliner. This has
a cost on the social interaction of
those most loyal fans, as they must
figure a way to get food and drink
(and make the necessary trip to the
Porta-John) without losing their position.
A new, different strategy is starting
to emerge. Some attendees get there
early and take a folding chair to the
front of the stage and set it up. Then
they disappear to perform the aforementioned
activities. Folding chairs are not
permitted for some concerts (Lynyrd
Skynyrd in particular). A folding chair
takes about the same amount of space
as three crazed fans, if that particular
band has crazed fans.
When Little Feat
started to take the stage, there was
the normal compression towards the
front….with a twist: As the
crowd got to the area dominated by
folding chairs, Southern courtesy took
over and most of us stopped. As the
band opened with one of their most
popular songs, confused fans tried
to figure out what to do.
Halfway through
the opening song, longtime fans still
held back out of courtesy to a barrier
of folding chairs that were only half
occupied. By this time, that was too
much for my buddy Mike and me. We moved
on in as close as we could to the stage,
careful to stand in front of empty
chairs only.
The empty chairs stayed empty
until halfway through the third song.
We wouldn’t even have been aware
of the return of the chair owner’s
return except they lightly brushed
against us (even though there was enough
space to avoid us) and muttered something
barely audible. I then noticed some
disapproving glances from a few of
the chair people. Directly in front
of me (the equivalent of about the
fifth row) was a kid sitting sideways
in a chair playing a game on mommy’s
cell phone. In front of this kid were
two more kids sitting, having a yelling
conversation, completely ignoring the
band.
My Bud and I took all of this
in and decided to ignore the "empty
chairs fans", stay put and enjoy the
show. Discussing it afterwards, we
concurred that we were committing no “Yankee
like behavior” and that the non-fans,
hogging the prime fan area, were actually
the bad guys. We also wondered how
much impact this had on the band, since
most performers seem to get energized
by fan adoration at stage-side.
So
that brings up the question….Do
you honor empty chairs or non-attentive
fans in a situation like this? I know
it differs with every venue and band
(and attendee) but sometimes there
is a very large gray area. I don’t
want to act like a Yankee but I don’t
want to roll over and give in to inconsiderate
people either.
Tonight I go to see
Styx (Dan and Rick, I know, it’s
not really Styx because Dennis DeYoung
won’t be there). I expect this
to be a much more mellow concert than
last week. Since my wife is going,
I’ll be carrying the dreaded
folding chairs, but rest assured, no
matter how early we get to Innsbrook,
OUR chairs will NOTbe set up in the “Standing
Fan” area.
What do you think?
WALLY DENTON
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