Audience Wars

[sageoftruth]

After being out of college for three years, I decided to see a college acapella performance for alumni. It was then that I remembered why I never went to these events back when I was in college. You go to them to see a performance, but instead, you get a passive-aggressive war between the quiet guys and the rowdy kids in the audience. The audience is always filled with guys who just have to show their support by hooting, hollering and shouting out the names of their friends who are on stage (even though that pretty much disrespects everyone else on the stage). In arena concerts, that sort of behavior is just fine, since they have the equipment to keep everything onstage audible, but in these more formalized events, it seems competely out of line to me. What's your stance on audience behavior?

 

[AvsJoe]

Rowdy rules.

I just watched a school play from my sister's high school and the only time it was any interesting was when the crowd whooped and hollered at the stage. Ditto for an arts fest my brother participated in a few years ago.

 

[The Salty Vulcan]

Rowdy rules.

I just watched a school play from my sister's high school and the only time it was any interesting was when the crowd whooped and hollered at the stage. Ditto for an arts fest my brother participated in a few years ago.

Im with Joe. Rowdy usually means people are enjoying themselves and performers should be able to feed of that.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

(even though that pretty much disrespects everyone else on the stage)

Having been a part of that "everyone else" more times than I can count, I can say that the disrespect really depends on the nature of the hooting and hollering. There's a pretty big difference between people cheering for a good performance, and people cheering because they have a friend onstage. The former is elating for everyone on stage, while the other annoys everyone except the friend of the audience -- who generally is more popular as a person, but less talented of a performer (or at least less serious about the craft of whatever performing art is in question) than the other people who rarely get cheers.

TLR: If the cheers are because the members of the crowd are honestly enjoying themselves, then it's good for everyone involved. If it's a loud minority that only cheers for one person, it's disrespectful and annoying.

 

[Drakmeire]

I have a strong belief that every event with a large number of people should involve crowd-surfing... that's why they won't let me into the opera hall or the seating above the O.R. in hospitals anymore.

 

[The Salty Vulcan]

I have a strong belief that every event with a large number of people should involve crowd-surfing... that's why they won't let me into the opera hall or the seating above the O.R. in hospitals anymore.

You too? Man, we need to start a petition or something

 

[BonsaiK]

After being out of college for three years, I decided to see a college acapella performance for alumni. It was then that I remembered why I never went to these events back when I was in college. You go to them to see a performance, but instead, you get a passive-aggressive war between the quiet guys and the rowdy kids in the audience. The audience is always filled with guys who just have to show their support by hooting, hollering and shouting out the names of their friends who are on stage (even though that pretty much disrespects everyone else on the stage). In arena concerts, that sort of behavior is just fine, since they have the equipment to keep everything onstage audible, but in these more formalized events, it seems competely out of line to me. What's your stance on audience behavior?

As a very frequent performer, I find rowdiness is a good thing, even if I'm performing a quiet piece. In fact I deliberately do thing onstage during quiet numbers to solicit that type of reaction. If it gets too much or too belligerent I just use a bit of crowd control... after all, I have a microphone and they don't so it's pretty easy to shut someone up if I have to. In extreme cases security might get involved but that's rare. I'd rather generally that people were reacting in some way rather than not reacting at all.

 

[sageoftruth]

(even though that pretty much disrespects everyone else on the stage)

Having been a part of that "everyone else" more times than I can count, I can say that the disrespect really depends on the nature of the hooting and hollering. There's a pretty big difference between people cheering for a good performance, and people cheering because they have a friend onstage. The former is elating for everyone on stage, while the other annoys everyone except the friend of the audience -- who generally is more popular as a person, but less talented of a performer -- or at least less serious about the craft of whatever performing art is in question -- than the other people who rarely get cheers.

TLR: If the cheers are because the members of the crowd are honestly enjoying themselves, then it's good for everyone involved. If it's a loud minority that only cheers for one person, it's disrespectful and annoying.

Yeah, that sums it up pretty well. There were two guys behind me doing that at the time. The performer hadn't even done anything yet. Eventually, I switched seating and fixed them with an irritated stare. That quieted them for most of the performance. It's pretty much the only way I know how to stand up to them without making a scene.

 

[sageoftruth]

After being out of college for three years, I decided to see a college acapella performance for alumni. It was then that I remembered why I never went to these events back when I was in college. You go to them to see a performance, but instead, you get a passive-aggressive war between the quiet guys and the rowdy kids in the audience. The audience is always filled with guys who just have to show their support by hooting, hollering and shouting out the names of their friends who are on stage (even though that pretty much disrespects everyone else on the stage). In arena concerts, that sort of behavior is just fine, since they have the equipment to keep everything onstage audible, but in these more formalized events, it seems competely out of line to me. What's your stance on audience behavior?

As a very frequent performer, I find rowdiness is a good thing, even if I'm performing a quiet piece. In fact I deliberately do thing onstage during quiet numbers to solicit that type of reaction. If it gets too much or too belligerent I just use a bit of crowd control... after all, I have a microphone and they don't so it's pretty easy to shut someone up if I have to. In extreme cases security might get involved but that's rare. I'd rather generally that people were reacting in some way rather than not reacting at all.

Neat! You have security? What kind of performances do you do?

 

[BonsaiK]

After being out of college for three years, I decided to see a college acapella performance for alumni. It was then that I remembered why I never went to these events back when I was in college. You go to them to see a performance, but instead, you get a passive-aggressive war between the quiet guys and the rowdy kids in the audience. The audience is always filled with guys who just have to show their support by hooting, hollering and shouting out the names of their friends who are on stage (even though that pretty much disrespects everyone else on the stage). In arena concerts, that sort of behavior is just fine, since they have the equipment to keep everything onstage audible, but in these more formalized events, it seems competely out of line to me. What's your stance on audience behavior?

As a very frequent performer, I find rowdiness is a good thing, even if I'm performing a quiet piece. In fact I deliberately do thing onstage during quiet numbers to solicit that type of reaction. If it gets too much or too belligerent I just use a bit of crowd control... after all, I have a microphone and they don't so it's pretty easy to shut someone up if I have to. In extreme cases security might get involved but that's rare. I'd rather generally that people were reacting in some way rather than not reacting at all.

Neat! You have security? What kind of performances do you do?

I don't usually have my own security but there is generally some provided by the venue. If there isn't hired security there, or failing that, someone in my entourage who would be capable of taking care of any hostile incidents, I won't perform.

I play and sing, sometimes as a group, sometimes not. I won't go into any more details than that because I like to preserve my anonymity on this forum.

 

[Ham_authority95]

In my opinion, it makes everything more interesting...in negative ways and positive ones.

Last night I did this concert for a bunch of friends and family at our rehearsal spot and the hecklers completed the show.

Hell, if I was performing classical music I would be fine if someone in the audience yelled "FUCK YEAH!!! I LOVE YOU!!" and get kicked out if it was entertaining enough...