From: geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller)
Newsgroups: alt.peeves
Subject: Re: Concert peeve!
Followup-To: alt.peeves
Date: 4 Sep 1992 01:55:01 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Menlo Park, Ca.
NNTP-Posting-Host: purplehaze.corp.sun.com



In article <1992Sep3.192831.988@intelhf.hf.intel.com> dcovell@pcocd2.intel.com 
(David Covell) writes:

>The scenario:  aging ex-hippy attends his first real rock concert in 12 years
>(ELP at the Concord Pavilion), expecting to enjoy a once-beloved band and
>remember earlier, carefree days as the aroma of quality dope wafts on the
>breeze (amazing how I can identify the variety even after all these years of
>abstinence). 

Peeve: People post about the same event I was planning on writing about,
and beat me to the punch.  I was there also.  And from the way you
describe it, I was sitting very close to where you were.  My ears are
still ringing.  At that range, about ten rows out and slightly forward
of Keith Emerson's position on the stage, the experience was like being 
hit by a continuous, two-hour tsunami of sound.  It reminded me of the
Black Sabbath concerts I used to go to.

!Peeve: Emerson, Lake and Palmer -- my favorite band until I
discovered the Dead.  Still one of the very best in my book.
I'd wanted to see them live for almost twenty years.


>Good seats, great view of both Palmer and Emerson. I try to ignore the 
>opening band (Bonham, a peeve-worthy band if ever I heard one) while 
>anxiously awaiting the main attraction. 

Ditto.  I even refrained from going down to the seating section until
they'd finished their set.  Whoever booked that band, and placed them
on the same bill as ELP should be shot.  The music of obnoxious heavy 
metal bands with pretentious Robert Plant-wannabe lead singers (except
not as ugly, but then, who is?) tends to clash with more sophisticated 
fare, which is damn near anything this side of C&W.

Peeve:  While reclining on the lawn, I got chewing gum on my jeans and 
the lower edge of my T-shirt.  I didn't bother bringing anything to sit 
on because I hadn't planned on spending any time in the lawn area.


>We are soon treated to their impressionistic dancing and energetic fist-
>in-the-air ritual, which of course is of consider- ably more visual 
>interest to us than is Keith's playing (the boolean not function is to 
>be inserted here). 

This wasn't the thirtysomething guy with the crewcut and his friends, was
it?  I was caught between a group like you describe to my front, and a 
group of drunk loudmouths in the row behind me.  They fortunately shut up
when the music started, but until then, it was like being trapped on the
SNL set of The Loud Family.


>The inevitable occurs like a reverse cascade: parties in the row behind 
>the neandertals are forced to stand to see, producing a ripple effect of 
>standing, shouting people clamoring to see, until I'm forced to either 
>join the lemmings or remain seated, blind, and irate.

Neanderthals indeed.  This was the first outdoor concert I'd attended at
which I had a reserved seat, instead of spreading out a blanket on the
grass, and I was looking forward to not having to stand up at intervals
in order to see the band.  Alas, 'twas not to be.


>Bonuspeeve: the posterior of said mesomorph's mate was not only totally
>devoid of any redeeming aesthetic qualities, but was of sufficient mass to
>obstruct the view of persons seated in the next section. 

I was at Concord Pavilion the previous Friday evening, to see Santana.
I was seated on the lawn, about halfway up, more or less at dead center.
As soon as the music started, some dickhead several yards in front of me 
stood up and began dancing.  He was a bit downhill from me, and his head 
and shoulders blocked most of my view of the stage. He didn't sit down
until the last half hour of the concert.

Another peeve from the Santana show, and applicable to Bonham's set at
last night's concert as well, was the number of people whistling and yelling
while the music played.  Bonham may not have been my cup of tea, but the
overexuberance of these people made it difficult to pass the time until the 
main act by retreating into a reverie of daydreaming; my train of thought 
kept getting derailed.  

Seeing this behavior at two consecutive concerts makes me suspect that it's 
the norm (ObCheers: "Norm!") rather than the exception.  It had been years 
since I'd been to a concert by any band other than the Grateful Dead, so
I've apparently become spoiled by my fellow Deadheads' relatively civilized 
and considerate behavior.  Of course, once mssrs. E, L and P took the stage,
there was no way that these dickheads could've been heard over the music.


>!peeve:  Surreptitiously bouncing a dime off the back of said mesomorph's
>thick skull and enjoying the sight of him raving, threatening, and posturing
>to the crowd with no target for his rage. 

Wish I'd thought of that.  I'd have used an Eisenhower silver dollar if
I'd had one.


Geoff


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