Mobile phones at gigs

[Lemon221]

Just got back from an amazing gig I’ve been looking forward to for so long. I haven’t been to a gig in probably 4 years now. Tonight I’ve come away feeling so annoyed at the amount of people filming the entire songs, they block the view behind them and I have to watch them through their screen! It was driving me nuts. The woman directly in front of me looked miserable, but filmed most of the first three songs, I moved closer after that. I understand getting a few pics and short videos, but I just kept thinking why can’t we just live in the moment without having to document everything!? What’s the likelihood these people will go back to these video clips again and again?

Went to see Ed Sheeran the other week. I was stuck behind a family with 2 teenage kids. The boy clearly didn’t want to be there. The teenage girl spent all the time filming herself singing along. The mum and dad spent most of the time filming the girl filming herself. It was baffling! A few times the dad stepped back (onto my toes) to film the mother and daughter dancing. Unfortunately, it seemed to coincide with me signing my loudest. But I struggle to remember song lyrics so I might have been embarrassingly singing total gobbledygook right near his microphone.

There is or was a band that insisted that if you brought a phone with you, it had to then be placed in a locked pouch, unlocked at the end of the gig. Cannot remember who though, but the idea is good.

I took my rainbow flag to a gig recently!
It was encouraged and I just wrapped myself and my friend in it, no annoying others, there were loads of them anyway.

That's fine. It's the flags that block views that I hate. It's selfish.

I go to a lot of gigs and behaviour has been getting worse over the last few years. When I tell people to stop talking others around me thank me for dealing with it but I rarely see anyone else telling people to STFU.

we have a t-shirt that OH sometimes wears which has "I'm sorry, are the band interupting your conversation?" on the back.

Lucky me, I'm in Germany. I am also a grey haired lady and have no qualms about telling people to STFU or move away. But often I'm not the only one.

I was at Einsturzende Neubauten last night and it was bliss

gosh are they still going. I only know the one song, but i play it often.

No, I'd never do that.
Tbf if no one got out a phone or sang or whatever I wouldn't either, I'm not a total dick but it happens at everything I go to and is fine if you are considerate about it.
The worst behaviour I've seen recently was a bunch of drunk 40 somethings at Pet Shop Boys.
I am 40 something too but know how to behave in public.

We saw Madonna a couple of years ago and she had this rule. Phones had to be locked in tamperproof bags and anyone seen with one in the venue was removed.

Dd went to see another (much younger!) artist a couple of weeks ago and the artiste requested people to please not film entire songs and to enjoy the experience whilst you were there. Photos and short videos fine, just please not entire songs.

When I went to the ABBA Voyage pre opening we had to hand our phones in before the event, so that it would not be leaked to the press. Thank god, or there would be thousands of clips flooding instagram and Facebook with people posting clips all over the place to make sure everyone knew they were there. One of my relatives is at Glastonbury and has already posted a dozen videos of bands playing.Don’t delude yourself that people want to watch a wobbly video, where you can’t even hear the band because of people singing and shouting around you. Why waste your time at the festival, trying to find a signal, uploading videos, and worrying if your battery is running low. People really don’t give a shit. If I want to see a band playing live, I will go on YouTube and watch a professionally filmed video.