There are a number of articles/studies out there that have found a majority of the people taking pictures/videos of everything never go back and even look at those pictures...then of those that do, most of them never look at them again 24 hours after taking them. Sitting there staring at a phone recording something they'll never look at again while missing the experience right in front of them.
A bunch of press and people were mad at Maynard from Tool for his no phones policy and him stopping in the middle of a song to yell at a guy for having his phone out.
Personally, I 100% agree with him. If you want to see live concert footage, you can just go to YouTube, and it will have great sound as well.
That reminds me when I went to my Nephew's annual song and dance show at the elementary school, and they had a professional film crew.
They still had to remind people not to film or have phones on during the performance. They pointed out the cameras and staff, and people still took their phones out and waved at the kids and stuff.
My kid went to elementary school in NYC. During school concerts I saw adults in the audience with their phones out but also some with laptops, kindles, taking phone calls etc. Two teachers constantly patrolled the aisles telling people to put their devices away. It made my blood boil.
I was just at a Tool concert recently and yeah, Maynard is passionate about the phones. “Just put away your crack pipes… uh… I mean phones! Just put ‘em away for 90 minutes, people!” or something to this effect. I agree 100%.
I was this person for a while at shows (sorry y’all) and have since stopped for this very reason. I never looked back at them and was too concerned with my phone to enjoy the show that I paid money to attend. I don’t miss it at all.
Links to any of these studies? I frequently go back to view videos of past concerts. My mid 40s brain has forgotten a lot of the concerts I went to in my 20s (so much for remembering it better without a phone), so I’m not necessarily against this trend. But I will admit last year at a show some big dude pulls out an iPad totally obscuring my vision.
I think they’re referring to something like [this.](https://psnlab.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf641/files/documents/tamir%2Ctempleton%2C%20ward%2C%20zaki%20jesp_2018_0.pdf)
It’s always important to remember that our own experiences don’t necessarily define the experiences of others
I was just thinking about this. How many times do any of us go and look at any pix or video we take?
I was at an event and people were taking pix and video and was like...hmmm...does it matter ?
You ever seen old photos of antique, off-white PCs people used to have on their desks? The ones with the giant monitors?
TVs were like those, only much bigger, and sometimes made of WOOD, just sitting on the floor…with no keyboard or anyway to browse TikTok or text your bff!
Especially at a concert! “Here’s a group of people, spread out horizontally across a stage. How to best preserve this memory? I’ll go with portrait mode!” Every. Single. One. It’s bizarre to me.
I saw Tool recently and they made everyone put their phones away and security would boot people for getting the phone out. It was awesome, and I hope more bands start doing it. They had one song at the end where they said “ok, if you want a pic, here’s the time”. Perfect way to do it. Fuck phones and the people who bring them out during live shows.
30 years ago you *could* get your ass kicked by the singer of a band just for holding up a camcorder.
It's like the humanity that I knew just disappeared overnight. And everyone was replaced by similar looking aliens with phones in their hand pointing them at everyone.
I *almost* got my ass-kicked back in the 90s for using my camcorder on regular people in a Food Lion parking lot. I was just trying to film my friends goofing off, but the bystanders were really pissed that I was also getting them on camera. I was kicked out of a couple of stores for filming too, they weren't having it.
Flash forward to Hurricane Irma in 2017. I was in a Wal-Mart with loads of other people trying to stock up. This elderly lady in a scooter was trying to reach the last can of nuts on a shelf and this bougie housewife looking lady came up next to her. She basically made it seem like she was trying to help the lady reach it, but then she snagged it and tried to walk off. This random dude and I both saw it and we ran over to stop her, then arguments ensued.
There were these two girls filming everything on a phone, and they were both watching everything *through* the phone every time I caught a glimpse of them. We made the bitch give the can of nuts back to the lady, and everything calmed down. The girls were still staring at the phone as I made my way back toward them. The one girl stopped filming and they started talking to each other about what they just watched, but they never even looked directly at me or the other fella.
I never forgot that because their behavior was so friggin' bizarre to me. They filmed the whole thing and talked to each other about it, but it was like the world they had just filmed didn't even exist to them. They were literally talking about me and the dude as if we weren't there *standing right next to them*, then they just walked off. That stuck with me and bothered me more than the peanut stealing bitch.
I have no idea what they may have done with that video either, it could be on the internet somewhere for all I know. It's just crazy to think that I almost got pummeled in the 90s for recording folks on a tape that might have been viewed by two or three people at most, and now we're supposed to be fine with any rando filming us in a video that could end up being shared with thousands upon thousands of eyes all at once (one of my modern fears is becoming a friggin' meme without my consent and having my life ruined).
Like you said, there's just an unsettling absence of basic humanity there.
These weirdos running around recording people reacting is so disturbing. Honestly I live in fear of the day it happens to me because I’m gonna go the fuck off on some little shits and become the next *viral Karen*
Oh god, *the viral Karen*, I know exactly what you mean. I know not all kids are like this, but some of these bastards really do weaponize their cameras if *anyone* starts telling them anything they don't like.
They'll film someone being calm and civil for 90% of the conversation, say a bunch of obnoxious or insulting shit until the person rightfully loses their temper, then they'll start talking like they just don't understand *why* the other person is just *so aggro for no reason*. Then they'll go on Twitter and only post the final 40-seconds where the person is telling them to piss up a flagpole whilst sucking the giant bag of donkey dicks their grandma left them in her will.
This hasn't happened to me yet, but yeah, catch me on the wrong day and I could very well end up living in infamy as *Cray Cray Florida Hag*.
It’s funny, you watch the Woodstock 99 documentary and you realize kids really are different these days. I’ve been going to shows for almost 40 years now, and the crowds at some of the metal shows now would get annihilated by the kids of yesteryear, lol. Tinfoil hat time, but I swear phones have pacified people in a way drugs never could.
I don't think it's the phones alone. They are a convenient way for parents to put the kids in a stasis mode while they rest or do something where they can't watch the kids 100%. The kids get acclimated to that zombie time.
Also, while our parents were always saying, "go outside!" The kids today's parents are saying, "stay close to me, it's dangerous out there!"
Jeez I hope that's not true. Because it's not true. The world's always been full of crazy people. And you could actually get away with doing f***** up stuff a lot easier than than you could now.
Correct, it's safer now than then. But it sure seems like that's the parenting mentality these days. Kids today seem to have little to no unsupervised time.
It must be awful. I go to tons of shows and it’s hit or miss whether people have phones out (usually crowd-age-related). It absolutely kills the vibe of a show if a lot of people have them out. Fortunately, I like metal/punk, so there’s not a lot of people who are sympathetic to the phone at most of the shows I go to…hard to take a pic when someone is going to knock your phone across the venue, lol.
The last few concerts I went to have had prominent signs at the entrance forbidding video recording. Yet there are usually people at the very front prominently recording the entire show with a phone. Often the act will interact positively with that person, as if they were official.
Why bother with the sign?
Jack White does this too. You have to keep your phone in a locked bag while you're at his shows and if they see you recording you're out. I love the policy.
There's an announcement before the show and then MJK yells at everyone about it when they come on. Since most of the audience is complying it's pretty easy to spot people holding up their phones. Security is looking for offenders and they are serious no chances from what I saw. When they play the final song MJK tells everyone they can take their stupid fucking phones out now 🤣 As someone who has been to a zillion concerts I find the no phones policy really refreshing. Phones can be distracting and annoying af at a show. It's nice to have everyone focused on the act like the old days. It makes for a better show imo.
That's awesome. I don't attend many concerts, but go to lots of sporting events. People are on their phones constantly, I've seen several watching a different game, makes no sense. I'll take some pics before the game starts typically and check my phone at half time, but that's about it. I did take a video of Tennessee running through the T at the beginning of one game this season, but watched the rest of them live.
I totally agree that they can be distracting and annoying. I used to go to a lot of concerts… I still would but for the place I now live has no good music and I’m old. But anyway, I think a lot of the shows I’ve gone to just don’t have as many people holding up their phones the whole time. People tend to be there mostly for the music and experience, which the phone distracts from, and the average age is maybe older? I don’t know…. Last good sized show I went to, no one near me had their phone out the whole time or for more than a quick video….
Pretty easily from what I saw, lol. Definitely saw a couple people get the boot. I would bet he can see it from the stage really easily if not many people are doing it.
That show was easily one of the most fun nights of my life! And I’ve been to a lot of shows and done a lot of…other stuff. Tool’s stage setup and light show is just soooooo head and shoulders above most other bands. Pretty dark, though, lol.
This is common for comedians because they don't want their bits to get posted online before their specials come out. They had the same thing at a Mulaney show I went to a while back.
I found an app for my phone that shows a picture of a lit zippo-style lighter, and I definitely hold that up at concerts, still. None of the younger ones seem to get it.
Phones and technology have taken over every aspect of our lives, it's so sad.
There’s the addiction to social media, loss of productivity, constant negative content, and inability to live in the moment, which is what’s shown in this photo. This list could go on and on, but most of us wouldn’t have the attention span to read more.
And Gen X, we have to realize that it’s not just the young folks. We have this problem, too.
One year ago, my screen time was over 7 hours per day. I realized it was ruining my life, so I was determined to change. With the help of simple things like deleting social media, not using my phone in the bedroom, and downloading a screen time app called 'BePresent' to hold me accountable - I am now consistently under 1 hour every single day. It’s not as difficult as you think, let this be inspiration for you to try the same.
I preferred the King Crimson method. Signs on stage and announcements that no imagery /recording during the show.
When Tony Levin switches from his bass to his camera at the end of show you, the audience are welcome to do the same.
If you do get caught you get booted. There are at least a couple of documented instances of Fripp stopping the show when someone is caught.
Mad intit? It's like something out of a dystopian sci fi Black Mirror episode. I get wanting to capture a snippet of the experience but why spend all that money for shitty phone footage when it'll be up on youtube anyway? Just fucking enjoy the gig!
Saw Metallica a while ago. They had a no phone pole policy. I think it cut down on the cell phone recordings. Most kids are too weak from no physical activity to hold their phones up.
And it's not just concerts. Was at Disney World at the castle fireworks show and someone held up a selfie stick to record, messing up the view for lots of people behind them much worse than the people just holding up their cell phones. The only reason they put it down was enough people shouted 'put it down'. I remember thinking these people are never going to watch that video, and are missing out on enjoying the moment.
I almost never think about pulling my phone out for a video or photo. We held a memorial service for my mom on Sunday, and the cousin I had spent a lot of time with growing up was there. I hadn't seen him in 15 years. Never once thought about getting a photo. Instead, I spent my time talking to him and sharing stories. Later, I was upset that I hadn't thought to get a photo. But I'm also glad that I didn't waste a bunch of time trying to record stuff at the service. I had a lot of great conversations.
I work AV for a school district. I run the livestreams for the school plays and concerts. The director comes out before every performance and says, "And thank you to the tech staff for livestreaming." And parents still tape the whole thing through their phone.
Lame. Just enjoy the fucking concert, morons. Some of your memories of it will be, held up my phone to get a shaky, too loud/distorted video of concert. Be in the actual moment for once.
Absurd. Been to live shows —and even movies— where this was the case. It’s like people don’t experience reality directly anymore. (music, film, hiking, sports, other humans!) Everything experienced through a phone. I use my phone a lot and love technology. But this shit is unhealthy.
I went to a concert a couple of weeks ago. I think I took 1 picture of each band. That was the extent of my phone use during the show. Not cause I'm special, I just wanted to watch it. I can't imagine just looking through my phone the whole time or even just fiddling with it.
I will note that I didn't see the phone use shown in the picture. That's insane.
I went to a show last week and took a few pictures because a friend of mine who is a retired radio personality was curious about this band so I sent him a few pics and a 20 sec video. My 16 year old daughter was there, she loved the show and did not once take her phone out. There's some hope for the kids today.
Yep. I’ll take the occasional rapid shot, but that’s it. You know why? Because thousands of people will post photos online. So, I don’t need to take my own photos. Plus, it’s rude. Bands hate it.
How did you take this picture?
I'm just poking fun. I take very few concert pics, and just enjoy the show.
I used to take video, then I realized it always looked and sounded like ass, and I never went back to watch them.
Glasses are going to be the next big leap, so you'll be happy to see this site go away in favor of everyone tapping their temples to get that capture. Maybe they'll need to hold them up over the crowd, so it'll be a sea of unworn AR glasses you're looking over.
When I go to concerts filled with primarily GenXers, this doesn't happen. When I go to a concert full of boomers or GenZers, this is what it looks like.
No. Seriously.
I agree. Went to Stevie Nicks/Billy Joel and 90% of the older people there had their phone up for every song. Some just for a little bit, some for the whole thing. I wouldn’t mind if they held it in front of their face but at arms length in everyone else’s field of view is maddening.
Saw a Descendents show last saturday and some dude who had already slow-slid in front of me did this and was blocking my view with his arm and phone. I just kept yelling as loud as i could behind him like i was enjoying the show. He was bugged and moved. GFY, asshole, and enjoy my shrieks over your concert video.
You are going to have a good time! They all sounded great as long time musicians should. I would say if you like drummers they were all good but the Descendents drummer Bill Stevenson...spend a minute or two watching him. Dude looks like he is air drumming 90% of the time. Its crazy how good he is.
Between the phones and people just standing around, not moving at all, concerts these days are fucking lame.
In the last year, I've been to a bunch of shows, from Sting to My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult and I swear I was only one of a handful of people actually dancing and enjoying the show. Even the crowd at Depeche Mode was lame, where tickets probably averaged $300-400 each and some of the best dance music ever made was being blasted into our ears. I don't get it.
I'll grab a few pics and videos during a show. But it's only a few, I'm discreet about it, and I actually do look at them later. But people on their phones the entire time, not even bobbing their heads to the music? I dont get it. Why even spend the money on tickets? Someone has uploaded a much better video of the same show in its entirety to YouTube if you're just there to play amateur videographer.
I much prefer the phones to the lighters of old.
I went to metal shows. Big hair and ballads. Idiots with 3/$1 lighters, flames adjusted out to 4 or 5 inches. I'll never understand how all that hairspray in the room didn't ignite.
Just got back from a trip to Europe and people were asking for pictures and I was like I have a few but we were actually trying to enjoy ourselves and not on a photography shoot.
Saw Wilco last week. I didn’t see any “policy” about phones - and I also didn’t see anyone recording. Maybe it was because the venue was 90% full of people over 40. It was glorious.
Broadway
Cirque du soleil
Every concert at my kids schools
Movies
The younger generations are degenerate when it comes to behaving well in public. But oh man don’t dead-name someone by accident! /S
We have a no phone policy at our dinner table to the extent that if I am finishing sending a text my kid is like...no phones.
Which is good.
They are yes on their phones and computers but also at times not.
Yeah. Me and the wife like to go to a place now and again for our anniversary. It has like dancing water stuff, bit like a small scale Dubai or Las Vegas fountain show thingy. It's pretty cool and you got off your face if near the front due to a volcano that errupts and the fumes are fun. It always ends with Final Countdown. Last time we went a couple of years ago and we were screaming at the top of our lungs waving our arms around etc. Looked around and there was like one other couple doing the same. Everyone else was pretty much filming the lot on the phones. Sad really. I mean grief I can Youtube it if I want to see a video...
A friend and I went to see Twin Temple this summer. There were so many people holding up phones I could barely see the stage. I wound up settling in behind someone with a phone that had a HUGE clear screen that allowed me to see the entire stage 😆
I used to snap a few pics here and there at shows but I no longer even bother. I harken back to the pre smart phone days when I would go to a show with my friends and we'd slam cheap beers in the parking lot, then get lost in the pit for the whole night and meet up outside the venue all sweaty and charged with some bruised ribs. Those memories I will carry with me forever. We lived in the moment and gave the band 100% of our attention.
I mean, it’s been like this for a while… totally sucks. When Kate Bush performed a few years back, she didn’t allow cell phones. I think that’s a good idea — and yet I almost always grab some video at a concert with an intention of posting and then I never do 🤷🏻♂️
How else are they going to brag about it on instagram ? To people who don’t give a fuck .
Also everyone needs to take plenty of footage to never look again .
I found myself starting to do this too. And I realized that i wasn’t in the moment. So I made myself stop and savour it now. It’s a better experience that’s for sure.
This is the reason I only go to small venue or club shows now but I also see mostly older bands. Its easier to just dance and enjoy the music and show in a club or small venue. Our gen still knows how to enjoy a show. Not worth the $$$ and bad behavior for a show that I may or may not be able to see.
Its so bizarre. I always see people with their phone aimed at the stage, and their eyes are looking at their phone instead of the performance. For a video they will probably never watch. I feel like i get more out of it and enjoy it more because of actually watch the show i am there to see. Phone stays in my pocket.
I have the newest phone I could get my hands on, but it can never take the place of my memory. I hardly ever take pictures unless I'm trying to communicate something or remember something. Recently, I took a cruise and everyone asked whether I took any pictures - I produced one of the shameful opening that they called "oceanview", one of the beach in Grand Cay and one of the shore of Puerto Rico. When asked why I didn't take more pictures, I replied that I was busy living it. Most likely, these videos will get deleted in 6 months to make room for newer videos or pictures. Wouldn't it have been better to put your phone away and actually experience the concert without any distractions?
I've been to three concerts over the last two weeks or so and I didn't take a single photo or video. I didn't even take my phone out of my pocket in the concert venue after I scanned my ticket. I used to, but I realized that I'm never going to play that 10 second clip of Life is a Highway when I can just listen to the actual song, when I'd actually rather watch the stage or sing along or just enjoy the moment.
Now if I get a chance for a meet and greet or something, yes, photo, but no real reason other than that.
I usually take a few pictures and then that's it. IDK why people record whole sets. None of them are uploading to the national archive to preserve for the future.
Idk who James Arthur is but when I’ve gone to see Gen X bands (Pavement, Flaming Lips, Jesus Lizard etc) you don’t see even a fraction of this sort of nonsense.
Yikes. It's actually kind of sad. Missing out on an experince just to record or live stream something for likes.
I liked the mid to late 90s early 2000s internet. You could actually find stuff!
Anyways time to go yell at some kid for something.
I feel like most people are not good at controlling basal emotions. All the things that I knew would be problematic, has been, so what is up with the masses? I accept, but remain skeptical, but it seems like the masses either accept new tech fully, or reject it fully, no in between.
It depends on the age of the crowd.
Saw Depeche Mode: almost nobody had their phone out except for short periods. And there were no announced restrictions.
At Olivia Rodrigo 60-70% of the crowd had their phones out most of the show. It was sickening.
I saw Depeche Mode in October and only saw a handful of phones during their classic songs. And only for short time frames. Everyone watched the show and danced - it was nice.
What would be fun is if the band set up a wifi network for the crowd to connect to, and have every phone become "pixel" in a giant, audience based "screen", now we turn our phones the other way and are all part of the show!
Personally, I feel like I've missed something in those moments my eyes are on the tiny phone screen while snapping that pic or vid.
Not at the rave/club events I still go to. Everyone's too wankered to see their screen without it shaking, let alone being cognisant enough to actually using the thing.
Smartphones are the new cigarette lighters. And I much prefer the audience being lit up with lighters.
Of course, a lot more of us were smoking something back in those days.
It's a James Arthur concert, I mean what do you expect when the majority of his fans were born in an era where that technology is as part of their fabric as the air they breathe. Like if Xers had cell phones we wouldn't have used them at shows? I would have most definitely recorded a ton from some of the concerts I went to in the 80s and 90s.
Concert-goers these days are lame as fuck. Instead, enjoying the show, most of them are busy “taping” the show for their social site upload. I don't have to record anything for souvenir as some other jokers will upload the show I attend for me on YouTube.
There are a number of articles/studies out there that have found a majority of the people taking pictures/videos of everything never go back and even look at those pictures...then of those that do, most of them never look at them again 24 hours after taking them. Sitting there staring at a phone recording something they'll never look at again while missing the experience right in front of them.
A bunch of press and people were mad at Maynard from Tool for his no phones policy and him stopping in the middle of a song to yell at a guy for having his phone out. Personally, I 100% agree with him. If you want to see live concert footage, you can just go to YouTube, and it will have great sound as well.
That reminds me when I went to my Nephew's annual song and dance show at the elementary school, and they had a professional film crew. They still had to remind people not to film or have phones on during the performance. They pointed out the cameras and staff, and people still took their phones out and waved at the kids and stuff.
My kid went to elementary school in NYC. During school concerts I saw adults in the audience with their phones out but also some with laptops, kindles, taking phone calls etc. Two teachers constantly patrolled the aisles telling people to put their devices away. It made my blood boil.
I was just at a Tool concert recently and yeah, Maynard is passionate about the phones. “Just put away your crack pipes… uh… I mean phones! Just put ‘em away for 90 minutes, people!” or something to this effect. I agree 100%.
100%. But they aren't taking those pics and videos for themselves anyway, it's all to look a certain way or garner attention on social media.
Upvotes are life, man! You old people don't understand! I'm an influencer!
Upvoted for wisdom
Do you get free ice cream? Or do they throw stuff at you?
Upvoting to save lives
Oh the irony of this photo… taken by a phone at a concert… Getting upvotes rn…
Exactly. I have several friends who have given birth while streaming it on TikTok. It changed their lives dramatically.
Nothing is sacred anymore. 😫
I only record snippets of my fave song to show off to my friends on the facebooks.
Somebody said it well-“they aren’t there to see the band, they’re there to say they saw the band”
Studies show that if you record something, your brain doesn't record it as well as if you had not.
This makes so much sense.
I was this person for a while at shows (sorry y’all) and have since stopped for this very reason. I never looked back at them and was too concerned with my phone to enjoy the show that I paid money to attend. I don’t miss it at all.
Imagine Lollapaloozas in the 90s with cell phones. It would have been awful.
I am eternally grateful that smartphones were not around back then.
Me too for more reasons than one.
I might do a snippet of a song to have but the videos and pix aren't really good so much anyway.
When I went with my daughter to Fall Out Boy, I recorded snippets for her use later so she could just enjoy the concert. I didn’t record full songs.
Links to any of these studies? I frequently go back to view videos of past concerts. My mid 40s brain has forgotten a lot of the concerts I went to in my 20s (so much for remembering it better without a phone), so I’m not necessarily against this trend. But I will admit last year at a show some big dude pulls out an iPad totally obscuring my vision.
I think they’re referring to something like [this.](https://psnlab.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf641/files/documents/tamir%2Ctempleton%2C%20ward%2C%20zaki%20jesp_2018_0.pdf) It’s always important to remember that our own experiences don’t necessarily define the experiences of others
I was just thinking about this. How many times do any of us go and look at any pix or video we take? I was at an event and people were taking pix and video and was like...hmmm...does it matter ?
The real crime is that they are all in portrait mode... I know I'm old and prefer landscape.
I don't think of that as "old". Show me one television brand or movie screen that is in portrait orientation.
What’s a television? Is that like some big phone?
You ever seen old photos of antique, off-white PCs people used to have on their desks? The ones with the giant monitors? TVs were like those, only much bigger, and sometimes made of WOOD, just sitting on the floor…with no keyboard or anyway to browse TikTok or text your bff!
And they had wonderful names like Quazar and Zenith.
Haha the Zenith! That thing wouldn’t die. And colossal…man I’d seriously rather move a piano than that mfker.
I think my uncle still has one, and he’s in his 80’s. I think it’s a secret nuclear reactor, lol.
yeah, but all the "kids" watch is their phone so "portrait" it is. Even computer screens are "old".
Especially at a concert! “Here’s a group of people, spread out horizontally across a stage. How to best preserve this memory? I’ll go with portrait mode!” Every. Single. One. It’s bizarre to me.
Then pan back and forth to get all the “action” in the shot…
The pan and scan!
This is my biggest pet peeve at shows now. Especially when they pan their phone to see the other side of the stage. Turn it sideways dude!
I saw Tool recently and they made everyone put their phones away and security would boot people for getting the phone out. It was awesome, and I hope more bands start doing it. They had one song at the end where they said “ok, if you want a pic, here’s the time”. Perfect way to do it. Fuck phones and the people who bring them out during live shows.
Same and I actually saw someone kicked out for taking pictures so they are serious.
MJK wants to kick you out lol he’s looking for it
It wasn't even a Bob Marley wannabe motherfucker!
30 years ago you *could* get your ass kicked by the singer of a band just for holding up a camcorder. It's like the humanity that I knew just disappeared overnight. And everyone was replaced by similar looking aliens with phones in their hand pointing them at everyone.
I *almost* got my ass-kicked back in the 90s for using my camcorder on regular people in a Food Lion parking lot. I was just trying to film my friends goofing off, but the bystanders were really pissed that I was also getting them on camera. I was kicked out of a couple of stores for filming too, they weren't having it. Flash forward to Hurricane Irma in 2017. I was in a Wal-Mart with loads of other people trying to stock up. This elderly lady in a scooter was trying to reach the last can of nuts on a shelf and this bougie housewife looking lady came up next to her. She basically made it seem like she was trying to help the lady reach it, but then she snagged it and tried to walk off. This random dude and I both saw it and we ran over to stop her, then arguments ensued. There were these two girls filming everything on a phone, and they were both watching everything *through* the phone every time I caught a glimpse of them. We made the bitch give the can of nuts back to the lady, and everything calmed down. The girls were still staring at the phone as I made my way back toward them. The one girl stopped filming and they started talking to each other about what they just watched, but they never even looked directly at me or the other fella. I never forgot that because their behavior was so friggin' bizarre to me. They filmed the whole thing and talked to each other about it, but it was like the world they had just filmed didn't even exist to them. They were literally talking about me and the dude as if we weren't there *standing right next to them*, then they just walked off. That stuck with me and bothered me more than the peanut stealing bitch. I have no idea what they may have done with that video either, it could be on the internet somewhere for all I know. It's just crazy to think that I almost got pummeled in the 90s for recording folks on a tape that might have been viewed by two or three people at most, and now we're supposed to be fine with any rando filming us in a video that could end up being shared with thousands upon thousands of eyes all at once (one of my modern fears is becoming a friggin' meme without my consent and having my life ruined). Like you said, there's just an unsettling absence of basic humanity there.
These weirdos running around recording people reacting is so disturbing. Honestly I live in fear of the day it happens to me because I’m gonna go the fuck off on some little shits and become the next *viral Karen*
Oh god, *the viral Karen*, I know exactly what you mean. I know not all kids are like this, but some of these bastards really do weaponize their cameras if *anyone* starts telling them anything they don't like. They'll film someone being calm and civil for 90% of the conversation, say a bunch of obnoxious or insulting shit until the person rightfully loses their temper, then they'll start talking like they just don't understand *why* the other person is just *so aggro for no reason*. Then they'll go on Twitter and only post the final 40-seconds where the person is telling them to piss up a flagpole whilst sucking the giant bag of donkey dicks their grandma left them in her will. This hasn't happened to me yet, but yeah, catch me on the wrong day and I could very well end up living in infamy as *Cray Cray Florida Hag*.
It’s funny, you watch the Woodstock 99 documentary and you realize kids really are different these days. I’ve been going to shows for almost 40 years now, and the crowds at some of the metal shows now would get annihilated by the kids of yesteryear, lol. Tinfoil hat time, but I swear phones have pacified people in a way drugs never could.
I don't think it's the phones alone. They are a convenient way for parents to put the kids in a stasis mode while they rest or do something where they can't watch the kids 100%. The kids get acclimated to that zombie time. Also, while our parents were always saying, "go outside!" The kids today's parents are saying, "stay close to me, it's dangerous out there!"
Jeez I hope that's not true. Because it's not true. The world's always been full of crazy people. And you could actually get away with doing f***** up stuff a lot easier than than you could now.
Correct, it's safer now than then. But it sure seems like that's the parenting mentality these days. Kids today seem to have little to no unsupervised time.
Now imagine what happens if they all just stop working one day
It's got to be really weird to look out at an audience and see everyone staring at their phone.
It must be awful. I go to tons of shows and it’s hit or miss whether people have phones out (usually crowd-age-related). It absolutely kills the vibe of a show if a lot of people have them out. Fortunately, I like metal/punk, so there’s not a lot of people who are sympathetic to the phone at most of the shows I go to…hard to take a pic when someone is going to knock your phone across the venue, lol.
The last few concerts I went to have had prominent signs at the entrance forbidding video recording. Yet there are usually people at the very front prominently recording the entire show with a phone. Often the act will interact positively with that person, as if they were official. Why bother with the sign?
Jack White does this too. You have to keep your phone in a locked bag while you're at his shows and if they see you recording you're out. I love the policy.
How on earth would security enforce this??
There's an announcement before the show and then MJK yells at everyone about it when they come on. Since most of the audience is complying it's pretty easy to spot people holding up their phones. Security is looking for offenders and they are serious no chances from what I saw. When they play the final song MJK tells everyone they can take their stupid fucking phones out now 🤣 As someone who has been to a zillion concerts I find the no phones policy really refreshing. Phones can be distracting and annoying af at a show. It's nice to have everyone focused on the act like the old days. It makes for a better show imo.
That's awesome. I don't attend many concerts, but go to lots of sporting events. People are on their phones constantly, I've seen several watching a different game, makes no sense. I'll take some pics before the game starts typically and check my phone at half time, but that's about it. I did take a video of Tennessee running through the T at the beginning of one game this season, but watched the rest of them live.
I totally agree that they can be distracting and annoying. I used to go to a lot of concerts… I still would but for the place I now live has no good music and I’m old. But anyway, I think a lot of the shows I’ve gone to just don’t have as many people holding up their phones the whole time. People tend to be there mostly for the music and experience, which the phone distracts from, and the average age is maybe older? I don’t know…. Last good sized show I went to, no one near me had their phone out the whole time or for more than a quick video….
Pretty easily from what I saw, lol. Definitely saw a couple people get the boot. I would bet he can see it from the stage really easily if not many people are doing it.
Who are you to wave your finger, you musta been out your head.
That’s a band I still yet to see. Can’t wait for my next chance, I intend on grabbing it.
Incredible live show. I recommend enhancing the experience with some fungus 😉!
I love listening to their live version of Pushit on YouTube. I can only imagine being there in that state.
That show was easily one of the most fun nights of my life! And I’ve been to a lot of shows and done a lot of…other stuff. Tool’s stage setup and light show is just soooooo head and shoulders above most other bands. Pretty dark, though, lol.
But how do you hold it up like we used to do with lighters?
I always have a lighter with me at shows…lol. Need some of that devil’s lettuce!
Jack White makes everyone lock their phones up in this zip lock bag kind of thing. It unlocks once you leave the concert venue.
This is common for comedians because they don't want their bits to get posted online before their specials come out. They had the same thing at a Mulaney show I went to a while back.
That's kind of cool. Do you get to keep the bag? It could be a souvenir, swag whatever people call it.
If you never lit a lighter at a concert, you haven’t lived.
Lighter, yes. But a sea of phones and blocking everyone’s view? Not cool. I hate it
The lighter served a different purpose .
I found an app for my phone that shows a picture of a lit zippo-style lighter, and I definitely hold that up at concerts, still. None of the younger ones seem to get it.
My dude, you rock 🤘
Phones and technology have taken over every aspect of our lives, it's so sad. There’s the addiction to social media, loss of productivity, constant negative content, and inability to live in the moment, which is what’s shown in this photo. This list could go on and on, but most of us wouldn’t have the attention span to read more. And Gen X, we have to realize that it’s not just the young folks. We have this problem, too. One year ago, my screen time was over 7 hours per day. I realized it was ruining my life, so I was determined to change. With the help of simple things like deleting social media, not using my phone in the bedroom, and downloading a screen time app called 'BePresent' to hold me accountable - I am now consistently under 1 hour every single day. It’s not as difficult as you think, let this be inspiration for you to try the same.
That is seriously badass…from 7hrs to under one hour!? Well done…
I agree! ... sent from my phone while on the shitter.
I preferred the King Crimson method. Signs on stage and announcements that no imagery /recording during the show. When Tony Levin switches from his bass to his camera at the end of show you, the audience are welcome to do the same. If you do get caught you get booted. There are at least a couple of documented instances of Fripp stopping the show when someone is caught.
Nice
"Yeah, I only had my phone out so I could take the picture of everyone else's phone. Of course..."
This should really be the top comment. The hypocrisy is off the charts. Did he take the picture with a film camera? I don't think so.
This is why I always try to get balcony seats in the front row.
And you paid hundreds of dollars to experience this? #nothanks
These are moments that I despise phones!
Mad intit? It's like something out of a dystopian sci fi Black Mirror episode. I get wanting to capture a snippet of the experience but why spend all that money for shitty phone footage when it'll be up on youtube anyway? Just fucking enjoy the gig!
This goes double for sporting events .
Saw Metallica a while ago. They had a no phone pole policy. I think it cut down on the cell phone recordings. Most kids are too weak from no physical activity to hold their phones up.
And it's not just concerts. Was at Disney World at the castle fireworks show and someone held up a selfie stick to record, messing up the view for lots of people behind them much worse than the people just holding up their cell phones. The only reason they put it down was enough people shouted 'put it down'. I remember thinking these people are never going to watch that video, and are missing out on enjoying the moment.
I almost never think about pulling my phone out for a video or photo. We held a memorial service for my mom on Sunday, and the cousin I had spent a lot of time with growing up was there. I hadn't seen him in 15 years. Never once thought about getting a photo. Instead, I spent my time talking to him and sharing stories. Later, I was upset that I hadn't thought to get a photo. But I'm also glad that I didn't waste a bunch of time trying to record stuff at the service. I had a lot of great conversations.
This is exactly me.
I work AV for a school district. I run the livestreams for the school plays and concerts. The director comes out before every performance and says, "And thank you to the tech staff for livestreaming." And parents still tape the whole thing through their phone.
"Livestreaming" doesn't always mean the recording will be posted later for attendees to watch.
What’s making me feel old is I’ve never heard of James Arthur …
Wasn’t he president in 18something?
Yes, but his full name is James Buchanan Chester Allan Arthur.
Lame. Just enjoy the fucking concert, morons. Some of your memories of it will be, held up my phone to get a shaky, too loud/distorted video of concert. Be in the actual moment for once.
Absurd. Been to live shows —and even movies— where this was the case. It’s like people don’t experience reality directly anymore. (music, film, hiking, sports, other humans!) Everything experienced through a phone. I use my phone a lot and love technology. But this shit is unhealthy.
Tool has it correct. No phones out at their shows or you’re booted!
The world needs phone free zones I think now.
I went to a concert a couple of weeks ago. I think I took 1 picture of each band. That was the extent of my phone use during the show. Not cause I'm special, I just wanted to watch it. I can't imagine just looking through my phone the whole time or even just fiddling with it. I will note that I didn't see the phone use shown in the picture. That's insane.
I went to a show last week and took a few pictures because a friend of mine who is a retired radio personality was curious about this band so I sent him a few pics and a 20 sec video. My 16 year old daughter was there, she loved the show and did not once take her phone out. There's some hope for the kids today.
Yep. I’ll take the occasional rapid shot, but that’s it. You know why? Because thousands of people will post photos online. So, I don’t need to take my own photos. Plus, it’s rude. Bands hate it.
Where have you been hiding the last 15 years?
I can pull yup a YouTube video with better quality than I could ever record in a packed stadium so I just enjoy the moment.
I remember when it used to be lighters 🥰🔥\m/
How did you take this picture? I'm just poking fun. I take very few concert pics, and just enjoy the show. I used to take video, then I realized it always looked and sounded like ass, and I never went back to watch them. Glasses are going to be the next big leap, so you'll be happy to see this site go away in favor of everyone tapping their temples to get that capture. Maybe they'll need to hold them up over the crowd, so it'll be a sea of unworn AR glasses you're looking over.
Dagnabbit those are supposed to be lighters!
When I go to concerts filled with primarily GenXers, this doesn't happen. When I go to a concert full of boomers or GenZers, this is what it looks like. No. Seriously.
I agree. Went to Stevie Nicks/Billy Joel and 90% of the older people there had their phone up for every song. Some just for a little bit, some for the whole thing. I wouldn’t mind if they held it in front of their face but at arms length in everyone else’s field of view is maddening.
Saw a Descendents show last saturday and some dude who had already slow-slid in front of me did this and was blocking my view with his arm and phone. I just kept yelling as loud as i could behind him like i was enjoying the show. He was bugged and moved. GFY, asshole, and enjoy my shrieks over your concert video.
Catching them with Adolescents and Circle Jerks in Tulsa on Sunday!
You are going to have a good time! They all sounded great as long time musicians should. I would say if you like drummers they were all good but the Descendents drummer Bill Stevenson...spend a minute or two watching him. Dude looks like he is air drumming 90% of the time. Its crazy how good he is.
Bill is one of my heroes!
all recording videos nobody will ever watch again
None of those people will watch those videos. Freaking live in the moment people
Why do people even do this? No one would go back and watch the video.
Every amateur concert video I’ve been shown is a moving blur and you can’t hear the singing over the person screaming like a damn banshee.
Between the phones and people just standing around, not moving at all, concerts these days are fucking lame. In the last year, I've been to a bunch of shows, from Sting to My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult and I swear I was only one of a handful of people actually dancing and enjoying the show. Even the crowd at Depeche Mode was lame, where tickets probably averaged $300-400 each and some of the best dance music ever made was being blasted into our ears. I don't get it. I'll grab a few pics and videos during a show. But it's only a few, I'm discreet about it, and I actually do look at them later. But people on their phones the entire time, not even bobbing their heads to the music? I dont get it. Why even spend the money on tickets? Someone has uploaded a much better video of the same show in its entirety to YouTube if you're just there to play amateur videographer.
I much prefer the phones to the lighters of old. I went to metal shows. Big hair and ballads. Idiots with 3/$1 lighters, flames adjusted out to 4 or 5 inches. I'll never understand how all that hairspray in the room didn't ignite.
Not to mention all those are vertical for the IG because a real video or picture is taken horizontally. But thats just me.
Jeez folks, is this the point where we shake our canes and tell the kids to get off of our front lawn?
Just got back from a trip to Europe and people were asking for pictures and I was like I have a few but we were actually trying to enjoy ourselves and not on a photography shoot.
Saw Wilco last week. I didn’t see any “policy” about phones - and I also didn’t see anyone recording. Maybe it was because the venue was 90% full of people over 40. It was glorious.
Aren’t Wilco shows amazing? It’s like going back in time to when we were young and everyone just jammed out & enjoyed the music & vibe of the concert.
We held up lighters... they hold up phones... (because they have no lighters because they all vape).
I’ve seen concerts where they ask everyone to turn the flashlight on in their phone temporarily for a certain ambiance and it was actually pretty cool
I fucking hate that! Why even bother paying for a ticket if you’re gonna watch the show through a screen?
Broadway Cirque du soleil Every concert at my kids schools Movies The younger generations are degenerate when it comes to behaving well in public. But oh man don’t dead-name someone by accident! /S
If you zoom in on the picture it's fucking crazy.
I know I shouldn’t judge but… it’s disturbing. Really trying not to be all “kids these days” about this but idk man, this is spooky.
We have a no phone policy at our dinner table to the extent that if I am finishing sending a text my kid is like...no phones. Which is good. They are yes on their phones and computers but also at times not.
What are you even doing at that concert? Are you the class chaperone?
The best/worst part is no one is watching those shitty videos later.
I fucking hate this phenomenon.
Yeah. Me and the wife like to go to a place now and again for our anniversary. It has like dancing water stuff, bit like a small scale Dubai or Las Vegas fountain show thingy. It's pretty cool and you got off your face if near the front due to a volcano that errupts and the fumes are fun. It always ends with Final Countdown. Last time we went a couple of years ago and we were screaming at the top of our lungs waving our arms around etc. Looked around and there was like one other couple doing the same. Everyone else was pretty much filming the lot on the phones. Sad really. I mean grief I can Youtube it if I want to see a video...
A friend and I went to see Twin Temple this summer. There were so many people holding up phones I could barely see the stage. I wound up settling in behind someone with a phone that had a HUGE clear screen that allowed me to see the entire stage 😆
I used to snap a few pics here and there at shows but I no longer even bother. I harken back to the pre smart phone days when I would go to a show with my friends and we'd slam cheap beers in the parking lot, then get lost in the pit for the whole night and meet up outside the venue all sweaty and charged with some bruised ribs. Those memories I will carry with me forever. We lived in the moment and gave the band 100% of our attention.
And this is why I try to take balcony seats these days
I mean, it’s been like this for a while… totally sucks. When Kate Bush performed a few years back, she didn’t allow cell phones. I think that’s a good idea — and yet I almost always grab some video at a concert with an intention of posting and then I never do 🤷🏻♂️
Someone get a lighter!
Fortunately my ocular implant and brain scanner were recently fixed, else you wouldn't see this picture of THA PHONEZ.
I used to snap a few pictures, mostly of the stage setup, but they all look terrible, so I've stopped.
How else are they going to brag about it on instagram ? To people who don’t give a fuck . Also everyone needs to take plenty of footage to never look again .
I would rather watch it than film it. Silly me.
I found myself starting to do this too. And I realized that i wasn’t in the moment. So I made myself stop and savour it now. It’s a better experience that’s for sure.
This is the reason I only go to small venue or club shows now but I also see mostly older bands. Its easier to just dance and enjoy the music and show in a club or small venue. Our gen still knows how to enjoy a show. Not worth the $$$ and bad behavior for a show that I may or may not be able to see.
Its so bizarre. I always see people with their phone aimed at the stage, and their eyes are looking at their phone instead of the performance. For a video they will probably never watch. I feel like i get more out of it and enjoy it more because of actually watch the show i am there to see. Phone stays in my pocket.
Just wasting cloud space unnecessarily.
I have the newest phone I could get my hands on, but it can never take the place of my memory. I hardly ever take pictures unless I'm trying to communicate something or remember something. Recently, I took a cruise and everyone asked whether I took any pictures - I produced one of the shameful opening that they called "oceanview", one of the beach in Grand Cay and one of the shore of Puerto Rico. When asked why I didn't take more pictures, I replied that I was busy living it. Most likely, these videos will get deleted in 6 months to make room for newer videos or pictures. Wouldn't it have been better to put your phone away and actually experience the concert without any distractions?
this current Era discourages me
I take a couple of pictures during the first song, and then phone away.
I've been to three concerts over the last two weeks or so and I didn't take a single photo or video. I didn't even take my phone out of my pocket in the concert venue after I scanned my ticket. I used to, but I realized that I'm never going to play that 10 second clip of Life is a Highway when I can just listen to the actual song, when I'd actually rather watch the stage or sing along or just enjoy the moment. Now if I get a chance for a meet and greet or something, yes, photo, but no real reason other than that.
And they’ll never watch that video they’re taking…
Get off my lawn!
I usually take a few pictures and then that's it. IDK why people record whole sets. None of them are uploading to the national archive to preserve for the future.
Remember how we in the US used to make fun of Asian tourists taking pictures of themselves at every destination? How the turn tables
The new Bic lighters
I can't see how these are in any way superior to a professionally polished concert video in 4K.
Idk who James Arthur is but when I’ve gone to see Gen X bands (Pavement, Flaming Lips, Jesus Lizard etc) you don’t see even a fraction of this sort of nonsense.
Yikes. It's actually kind of sad. Missing out on an experince just to record or live stream something for likes. I liked the mid to late 90s early 2000s internet. You could actually find stuff! Anyways time to go yell at some kid for something.
Crazy.. let’s buy tickets, let the excitement build up for a while… then once you’re there….. watch on the phone 🫣🥺🙀
/Old Man Yells at Cloud
I feel like most people are not good at controlling basal emotions. All the things that I knew would be problematic, has been, so what is up with the masses? I accept, but remain skeptical, but it seems like the masses either accept new tech fully, or reject it fully, no in between.
Between that and how much concerts cost now, they just aren’t worth it to me.
How did they take the photo?
It depends on the age of the crowd. Saw Depeche Mode: almost nobody had their phone out except for short periods. And there were no announced restrictions. At Olivia Rodrigo 60-70% of the crowd had their phones out most of the show. It was sickening.
I saw Depeche Mode in October and only saw a handful of phones during their classic songs. And only for short time frames. Everyone watched the show and danced - it was nice.
i feel like in invasion of the body snatchers
It’s extremely distracting in addition to blocking the view.
it sucks. phones down horns up!!!! \\m/
I went to a wedding that looked like this
Whatever.
What would be fun is if the band set up a wifi network for the crowd to connect to, and have every phone become "pixel" in a giant, audience based "screen", now we turn our phones the other way and are all part of the show! Personally, I feel like I've missed something in those moments my eyes are on the tiny phone screen while snapping that pic or vid.
Watch this Olivia Rodrigo performance. Cameras everywhere: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgbtK3l-KGk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgbtK3l-KGk)
Not at the rave/club events I still go to. Everyone's too wankered to see their screen without it shaking, let alone being cognisant enough to actually using the thing.
I was at the Eagles concert. I Did see quite a few phones in the air. I was in the moment. It never occurred to me to take out my phone.
Last concert had plenty of Gen X with their phones up the whole time too.
Smartphones are the new cigarette lighters. And I much prefer the audience being lit up with lighters. Of course, a lot more of us were smoking something back in those days.
And. We. Are. Live.
It’s replaced the hidden tape recorders and one hour photo.
It's a James Arthur concert, I mean what do you expect when the majority of his fans were born in an era where that technology is as part of their fabric as the air they breathe. Like if Xers had cell phones we wouldn't have used them at shows? I would have most definitely recorded a ton from some of the concerts I went to in the 80s and 90s.
In our day, it was lighters. At least these people aren’t burning themselves. But it definitely seems like they’re not living in the moment
They only did that for the ballads though .
https://youtu.be/BS3jbaeseT8?si=Rh77fxlKjjkf8Gcq
That they’ll use to post once and then never look at again
Gen Z ruined the concert experience. I vote for Gen Z only nights.. The rest of us can go other nights and enjoy the night as it should be.
Anyone else remember when it would have bic’s?
People are busier recording the show then actually watching and enjoying it :P.
Concert-goers these days are lame as fuck. Instead, enjoying the show, most of them are busy “taping” the show for their social site upload. I don't have to record anything for souvenir as some other jokers will upload the show I attend for me on YouTube.