Apologies to anyone who is expecting a review on the Vampire Weekend Gig I went to last week, but really I have to get something off my chest which came to the foreground during this gig.
My Pet hate!
Pet hate gives what I’m about to talk about an almost light hearted name to something that really gets my blood boiling, but it seems to be the correct description and it’s one that I shall use for now.
Obviously, the number of annoyances at gigs is far and wide, ranging from people who go out of their way to hurt people in a mosh pit, to people throwing their pints of lager when one the first chord of their favourite song is played.
But my pet hate at gigs isn’t about getting bruised or wet and made to smell of lager for the rest of the evening, no no, mine is far more simpler and seemingly less blatant to most people.
Talking.
Now, I’m not talking about people who cheer during songs, or people who might make a humorous comment directed at the act on stage. That quite often is what makes a gig enjoyable and creates a fun atmosphere. What I’m talking about is the inconsiderate and rude individuals who shall talk about nonsensical crap during the quieter periods of the gig.
The most recent of this common occurrence took place during the Vampire Weekend gig of last week. During one of their quieter numbers, and a song that just so happens to be one of my favourites, ‘I Think Ur A Contra’.
Now I understand that everyone has their favourites, and that most people love Vampire Weekend and would go to their gigs for the songs that makes them want have a little jig, or, in some peoples cases, throw moves onto the dance floor that resemble someone having an epileptic fit. But what some people don’t seem to understand is that a lot of people at the gig that actually like more than just ‘A-Punk’ & ‘Cousins’, and will pay £20+ to see and hear a whole set and not just the ‘highlights package’.
On top of this, it’s not like they’re ever talking about anything of great importance. More often than not, it’s some idiot bloke who will take the opportunity of a quiet period during the gig to chat up a girl who probably only went along with him because of the offer of a free ticket where said girl is likely to run off after and avoid his texts and phone calls! Or it’s a group of lads boasting about how many pints they’ve had, or a guy telling his friends an offensive and largely unfunny joke he got in an email earlier that day.
There also seems to be a strong pattern to the type of gigs this happens at. Quite often, if you go to see a band who isn’t being played on Radio 1 and XFM non-stop, it will mean that the about 95% of the people there are going because they are massive fans who would happily hear every single song in their back catalogue and listen to them intently, the number of times people will talk during a quiet song or one of the more obscure numbers is minimal, if not completely unheard of.
Obviously, Vampire Weekend cannot be placed amongst these types of bands. As you’re almost guaranteed to hear them at least once over the course of the day, and probably several times when a new single is released. I think it’s safe to say this will attract a certain type of fan base.
Now, I’m not going to get up my own arse by saying that the type of people who go to gigs on the back of hearing them on XFM during Drive-time aren’t true music/gig fans, because more often than not, that will be how I hear band for the first time.
But I think where the difference lies is that when I will take the time to hear their albums and appreciate the music before I make the decision to see the band, others will use their disposable income on buying gig tickets to bands and artists that they’ve heard a few times on the radio, but have no real interest in finding out what the rest of their songs sound like. Worse than that, they have no respect for the people who do want to hear the rest of their music.
And I think having this type of audience has a bigger part to play than just the size of the crowd. An example of this would be when I went to see Guillemots at Somerset House in 2007, they were only starting to make a name for themselves after getting a mercury music prize nomination, and were able to sell out venues of 4000+, but when it came to a version of ‘We’re Here’, which involved Fyfe Dangerfield alone on stage with his guitar, silence was key to this song having it’s full effect. That is exactly what he got too, as soon as he started singing, 3000 people went silent to hear an absolutely beautiful and quiet version of a brilliant song.
Here is that song for you to listen to...
Anyway, I could talk about this pet hate of mine till the cow’s came home so I shall leave it at that. Please add your thoughts below, thanks.
By the way, Vampire Weekend are really good live.
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