Jam Band Chatters

I saw Dylan last week. I noticed very little, if any, talking while the music was being played.

People that love to talk usually make good money and need something to do with it so they go to shows now because shows cost a lot of money and they make so much it doesn't matter how they spend it. 

I personally haven't noticed a difference in they level of talking between different types of shows, but if it is true, it could be that for many people going to jamband shows, the show is part of a greater social and community experience, sort of like a family get together with much socializing to do. 

for some people it is a social event, the music is secondary.

yeah, don't get it. 

My last five shows:

PhilCo @ Cap; Mavericks @ Tarrytown MH; Oteil & Friends @ Cap

Intolerable.  People needed to be asked/told to STFU (from another section in the case of the Mavericks show).

Joe Jackson @ Beacon; Plant/Krauss@ Forest Hills

Just exactly perfect. Some NYC Saturday night drunks BS between songs for JJ, but it was over before most of of even turned our heads.

The offenders in the first three: Seemingly coked-up frat bros (on a Monday night); two hammered 40-ish ladies; one plastered lady rattling on to her hubby, who did his best to keep her volume down until she passed out during set break, respectively.  And those are just the proximate examples.  The Cap shows had audible crowd buzz during quieter moments.  

At least the zombies endlessly scrolling through their phones stay quiet for the most part.  I don't get them. But they're a non-factor.

It's 1 in 10,000 that come for the show.

I don't know about that. When I go to pop bands like Lady Gaga and Lorde not only is there talking but 60% plus are holding up their phones for the entire show recording. At Lorde I saw a person spend most of the show turned toward the video screen recording that on her phone. 

I've stopped going to festivals because at any given time 50 to 70 percent of the audience isn't into the band playing. Not only are they talking - they are also either walking out to go to another stage or walking in to catch the next act on that stage. You get about three songs in the middle of the set where there isn't mass migration through the crowd. 

That said people were pretty quite at Bjork but I think that was more that people were just trying to figure out what the hell was going on. I'm going to Nora Jones on Friday and will report back on that show. 

Willie Nelson.....2 drunk chicks and a big ole redneck, Full on loud drunk talk/yelling/cackling during "You are always on my mind"

Spun around and told em to shut the fuck up while in church. Started getting lippy and big boy started to bo up on me, to my surprise 6-7 dudes came up behind me and had my back. They all slinked off a few minuets later.

Talking at shows is really starting to irk me as I get older.

Oysterhead, not a word from anyone!! Heavenly Bliss, also could have been the 100+ doses everyone around me ate too. Lots of slack jaws that night.

Willie Nelson.....2 drunk chicks and a big ole redneck, Full on loud drunk talk/yelling/cackling during "You are always on my mind"

Spun around and told em to shut the fuck up while in church. Started getting lippy and big boy started to bo up on me, to my surprise 6-7 dudes came up behind me and had my back. They all slinked off a few minuets later.

Talking at shows is really starting to irk me as I get older.

Oysterhead, not a word from anyone!! Heavenly Bliss, also could have been the 100+ doses everyone around me ate too. Lots of slack jaws that night.

Wow kyela you have very eclectic tastes. Or you have a youngster that is into the current music.

Jam band fans are by far the most uncouth in the music industry. Not even in question. I mean forget it of you're seated next to a group of 8-10 guys and girls who all went the show together. They will be chatting it up all show long guaranteed.

On top of it, psychedelics have an acute affect on acoustic signals. These inane conversations become amplified and difficult to block out. 

Plant/Krauss@ Forest Hills>>>

Forest Hills 6/4/22    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ketC5Tj5oA

Watched a couple minutes, looks like a great show & band

>>>Wow kyela you have very eclectic tastes. Or you have a youngster that is into the current music.

No just weird taste in music I'm childless. Let's just say as an old white guy I wouldn't be going to many of those shows without my wife and even then we feel like we have to pretend that our kid is off by themselves at the show. 

I followed the psychedelics into the rave scene when the Dead scene became a shit show. I guess it fucked with my synapsis. 

Chadoobie, chattered, chattered.

>>>>Jam band fans are by far the most uncouth in the music industry.

They have just been to 10x more shows than the average concert goer and feel like they are owed something. Super entitled. What ever your concert hack is it doesn't work when everyone else there has been doing the same hack for 30 years. 

One of the many joys of the 2009 -2013 Leonard Cohen concerts was the 

absolute silence  and focus of the audience while the songs were performed.

People didn't even dare show up late.

Caught the show in LA. Incredible.

Everybody is the "biggest" fan, overweening sometimes 

Psych bands like The Black Angels have a pretty hip and respectful crowd. At the show I saw last fall, there were very few talkers and virtually no phone holders. Plenty of psychedelicized folks too. Similar scene when they opened for Primus last week in Portland, in the daylight, no less.

I go to a lot of shows in different genres because my tastes have always run the gamut and because my livelihood depends on it. For the most part, as an audience gets older there seems to be more talking especially when large amounts of social lubricant is applied. The younger crowds who populate more pop oriented music, while not talking, do indeed try to capture as much of the show on their cell phone as possible. There is a special ring in hell for those who do it with their tablets. One act who will remain nameless has told me that when someone holds up tablets to record that if for some chance I would toss some hard projectile that cracks the screen, the band management would have my back. I've been tempted...

The comment about the Leonard Cohen was spot on. Most respectful audiences ever. 

At jam band shows I make it a point to give wide berth from anyone who appears to want to interact with me...especially the free hug freaks. I have been knows to carry hotel bars of soap and hand them out, though.  

So I said I would give an update on Nora Jones at the Greek Berkeley. Yes everyone STFU'ed. I've been to Catholic mass that had more talkers, but really the show could have used some talkers. 

First off NATALIE BERGMAN opened for Nora. This was on Friday in Berkeley CA, on the day that SCOTUS overturned Roe v Wade. Every song Natalie sung was a love song for Jesus. So not off to a good start.

Nora basically did a set meant for Cafe Du Nord at the Greek. At on point she asked the lighting crew to show the audience and when they didn't she said Oh I guess you aren't set up for that. I've never seen the audience at the Greek in complete darkness for an entire show. She is very talented and has an amazing voice, but she forgot she is a performer. Easily the worst show I have ever seen at the Greek. 

Ouch. Thanks.

....I'd say maybe she didn't fall from the tree but her old man is Ravi Shankar. I could be missing something there too. People take their own paths.

She is very talented and has an amazing voice, but she forgot she is a performer. 

Interesting comment. The last few times I saw her perform, as part of Puss N Boots, Nora was very animated, silly, cracking off-color jokes and interacting with the audience. Hell, she even did a Pete Townshend jump and windmill move!