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alexbaca:

(via nprmusic)

Is it time to ban cellphones at concerts? Does it seem old-fashioned NOT to Tweet or Instagram during a show? Do you just wish twitpickers would just get out of the way?

Take our survey.

I can’t see at the majority of shows I go to, so I look at my phone. I’m usually reading the news or Twitter. And, to be honest, the bands I have been able to see have been largely boring performers (notable exceptions include Metric in 2005 at a very empty 9:30 Club because, Emily Haines!; Sonic Youth in 2009 at a packed 9:30 Club where I was lucky enough to have a line of sight from my perch at the bar).

A few weeks ago I saw Grass Widow at Comet Ping-Pong and as usual, I couldn’t see and was using my phone (it was during the week of Phil Mendelson’s ascension, and the Post had dumped a lot of late-afternoon news that I hadn’t yet had a chance to read). My friend texted me to put my phone down. One of the women in Grass Widow called him out—not me—for using his phone, because even from Comet’s very low stage I was too short to be noticeably staring at a cell phone.

I love supporting performers I enjoy by buying their albums and going to their shows, and I appreciate the ban on photos and videos (since I rarely have a viewshed, I rarely take photo or video; for example, this was my view during The Promise Ring at Irving Plaza back in May). But I’ve found reading shit on my phone—while listening to a band I love!—to be much more enjoyable than staring at someone’s back.

EDIT: If I could read a book at a show, I would be even happier! But, you know, low lighting.

What Alex said. All of it. 

Yeah, yeah, I get it, the artist traveled ALL THIS WAY to come play and maybe they don’t want to look out and see a bunch of people staring at their phones. But I spent the money on the ticket to go to a venue that apparently is built around the idea that adults are all roughly the same height and maybe I didn’t come all that way to spend the entire show staring at someone’s shoulder blades.

tl;dr version: maybe we could start organizing the rules of concertgoing around the comfort of the concertgoers. Even the short ones who don’t actually get to, you know, WATCH the show.

AKA, why Tiff doesn’t go to more shows.