What if I just want to see the band?
Some bands, I don’t remember who, used to have special “taper’s only” sections at their concerts. The people that bought tickets in these sections were bootleggers and they brought all their gear to record the shows. And one of the benefits was that they were able to do that without any interference from fans singing off-key, screaming so loudly that it ruins the recording, and so forth. You put all the tapers into one section and let them do their thing — nobody bothers them and they don’t bother anyone else.
I was reminded of these taper’s sections while I watched this official U2 360 EPK on YouTube from the first Chicago concert. Here’s a freeze-frame from Saturday’s show:
Check that out. Practically every person in the shot is holding up a phone or camera to get a picture of Bono. It’s insane. I love that U2 has — since the Elevation tour — openly allowed fans to bring in non-professional cameras. Awesome thinking on U2’s part. But look what it’s created. Imagine being 5′-4″ and stuck behind that mass of bodies with their arms raised and cameras held high. That would suck, frankly.
I’ll be just like the folks above at the shows I’m seeing this month and next. I’ll have my camera with me each time and I’ll try to get the best shots possible. But I’m also thinking it might be time, maybe some day in the future, for a special “no-camera section” at U2 shows. Because really … what if I just want to enjoy the show? What if I just want to see the band?
Last 4 posts by m2
- Some U2 Ticket Sellers are Crazy - March 26th, 2010
- From Berlin to North Carolina: A U2 Fan Gets His Trabant - March 17th, 2010
- Edge Has an Angel - March 14th, 2010
- Video: Bono talks, U2 does 'King of Trash' - February 24th, 2010
When you step back at the whole picture/video thing at a U2 concert, it is weird, and kinda sad.
95 % of the pictures and video taken at the U2 gigs will be rubbish, which will be e-mailed around and put up on picture websites, and after that will be discarded. We are all guilty of it(myself included), one reason is because it’s our own personal photos we are taking and theres something good about taking a photo at a U2 gig.
But, there is no doubting that this is intefering with the main reason we all go to these gigs, to see a band live.
The best camera and video recorder I know of, is inside my brain, and it doesen’t need a memory stick, downloading them is a bit tricky however !
At most baseball and football games that I’m aware of, there’s one section of the stadium that designated the “Family Zone” or some such thing. And they don’t sell beer to those sections, nor do they allow beer in those sections.
I guess my idea is kinda like that. Not that I’m equating fans shooting photos with the drunken idiot who had 11 beers while sitting behind me and my 11-year-old at a Mariners game last month and turned into a disgusting potty mouth as the game wore on. Totally different from shooting U2 photos, but the idea is the same — just give people a choice.
100% agree. I wouldn’t like to go to a show and have lots of arms in front of me and not be able to see a thing.
I imagine that as obnoxious as this image appears, my guess is that after a few shots the fans put their cameras down to enjoy the music.
Also … I’m trusting that all these crappy shots w/ point&shoots are keeping me in business as a pro shooter.
I think It’s gone a bit too far actually but not sure what you can do about it. Like everyone else, I like having my own personal shots of the band. However, I was in the pit at Don Valley, Sheffield and many people seemed preoccupied with filming and taking pictures. A bloke in front of me hardly took his eyes of his camera all night. That’s the choice people make but people weren’t enjoying the show or dancing. People observed, they didn’t participate, and that took a bit away from the show.
Mark, if you wanna see people participating, you have to come to Argentina to see the band (I hope they come next year)
I was at the Saturday night show in Chicago-in the GA section and thought to myself “wow, it’d be nice if everyone wasn’t trying to take pictures.” It was impossible to see the band because of all the arms and cameras in front of me. It went on for the ENTIRE show. And everytime one of the band members walked in front of my area, it was even worse. I was giving myself whiplash trying to get a view. Good thing they had the giant screens. Although I was only 30 feet from the walkway, I found myself watching the screen most of the time because there were way too many cameras. Of course, I found myself whipping my camera out on occasion, but stopped when I realized I was trying to hard to get a good shot and wasn’t enjoying the concert. So, my camera went away. The next time I see them, I vowed not to bring a camera. I will just see the band!
*sigh* I was at both Chicago shows and was thinking that I would love to be able to sit with all the other hard core fans like in the early days when whole sections of tickets were reserved for club members-people who knew the songs, knew when not to let out an ear-piercing whistle (hint-not during One or Walk On or Moment of Surrender), didn’t get puking drunk or call Desmond Tutu the n-word. That last one made me leave my seat, the idiots were just too much to bear. Can we petition the fan club to seat us together?
Aside from the louts, both shows were good but I liked Sunday’s better, Your Blue Room was a fantastic treat! even if only a handful of people knew it.
When attending some of the shows of the European leg I really started longing for the good old times when there was no digital photography and people couldn’t take photos or shoot videos with their mobile phones. Though I took a couple of pictures in some concerts as well I must say that I found it sad to witness people holding up their cameras all the time during concerts instead of cheering, dancing or singing. Fact is, the atmosphere in shows was better 10 years ago, and it’s not just at U2 shows, it’s a problem at every concert I’m going to these days. Sometimes I get so annoyed with people who don’t want to put their cameras down. I found the concertw where I didn’t take my camera with me to be the ones I enjoyed most in the end, simply because I could get lost in the music.
I never thought about how annoying all those cameras would be - you guys make some great points that really should be considered…
All the more reason to line up early for GA - to get a spot on a rail so the cameras can’t go up between you and the band. Thanks for the heads up!
I am 5ft 4 and was at the u2 Cardiff gig and yes I had to stand on tippy toe and to try and see over raised hands it was not very good as i only wanted to see and sing along with the band, yes bring back fan club only seats good idea. I just want to get lost in the music
There was a lot of picture-taking. (And it wasn’t really a band decision to allow photos… that is something the promoter has the decision-making power over…but when everyone has a device with a camera in it, it is logistically impossible to try to rule it out.)
However, in that shot you wrote about above, I’m about 99% certain that was at the point in the night where Bono requests everyone to take their cells out & light them up. In fact I was disappointed when half the crowd took them down after only a minute into the song.
I’ll take camera interference anyday over second-hand smoke or second-hand illegal substance items anyday.
The interesting theme that seems to be appearing - cell phone reception is on overload in the stadium based on certain carriers. I think the photo M2 posted shows why.
@PACulltion - I’ve seen probably 1,000 - 2,000 photos from this tour so far, thx to reviewing all the fan reviews/photos submitted to U2tours.com. There are hundreds of photos I could’ve used to make the point in this post, all of which have throngs of fans reaching cameras as high as they can in the hopes of catching a photo of the band. The pictures are from throughout the entire concert, whenever the band goes out on the bridges and whenever they walk around the circle. It’s not just one moment, one song, when people are doing what you see in this photo. It’s the whole show.
360 Chi1 was the first show I’ve ever brought a camera to in a three decades worth of concert going, and mainly b/c I was hooking up with international friends met from the boards here
. I’ve always otherwise been totally into the watching the concert & being in the moment, so I think its a valid point.
Aside from being distracting, annoying & an sightline obstruction, it can most definitely take away from the concert experience. Taking a few snapshots here and there is fine by me but there are some people who take pictures incessantly. I think many of those people are more interested in saying they were “there” than actually being present & listening to the show. (Same goes for the beer quaffers during the main show).
As for arm waving, cheering & singing, that is part of the concert experience for many, myself included. Not 100% of the time either but to be expected & its an energy that U2 and many bands feed off of for their performance.
Lastly - For tapers there could be a separate area for sure but I’d say the primary purpose of a concert is the live experience, first and foremost. Not the photos or boots, which are secondary.
These are dangerous little devices, indeed. Perhaps by 2013 the fascination will have faded, and we’ll go back to our disarmed approach to concert going. Or, even better yet, U2 will put it all out there so we don’t have to make our own scrapbooks; commercial audio and video ‘bootlegs’ produced overnight and distributed electronically. How long to sing that song?