Friday night I attended a concert in Nashville, TN. It did not start out well! Not the concert, but the travel. What should have been a 15 minute drive turned into a 2 hour drive. We parked 15 blocks from the arena, and walked through the freezing cold. Apparently Nashville organizes don’t understand you can’t plan 2 concerts, a parade, and shut down the main road in Nashville (Broadway) all at the same time. Chaos!!!
If you’ve ever been to a concert with classical music, you know there are certain rules of etiquette. For example, it is rude to clap in between the different movements of a piece. You should wait until the end of the piece to clap.
Well, during Friday night’s concert (Tobymac, Relient K, etc) I noticed some rules of etiquette should be put in place for all other types of concerts as well:
- If you don’t know the band’s old songs, don’t claim to be their biggest fan. Sure you can sing-a-long with the latest radio hit, but you’re gonna look kinda weird when you’re stone faced because they’re playing a hit from 2002.
- Do NOT go nuts playing air guitar on lead solos. You couldn’t play it if you had a real guitar in your hand, so leave the riff to the real musician.
- If you’re going to get in the mosh pit and jump around, don’t come out crying if someone elbows you or steps on your foot.
- Act like your parents let you out of the house every once in awhile. There’s no need to scream randomly.
- If you wouldn’t scream when your parent says it, don’t scream when the artist says it. [Lead singer: "We went to Subway today..."] [You: "Yeah!!!!! I love Subway!!!! Woooohoooo!!!!"]
- If your tickets are on the floor, no sitting allowed.
- When it’s completely quiet and the artist is talking about children who are dying in Africa, don’t yell “I love you!”
- Wear clothes that fit…seriously.
- If you don’t have a cell phone to hold up during a slow song, don’t use your PSP instead.
- If you’re 6’4, don’t pick your hair into a fro before the concert. The people behind you won’t be too happy.
- Don’t try to act hardcore if your mom brought you to the concert in her mini-van.
- If you’re at a Christian concert and you want to raise your hands in worship, that’s fine. But it’s not worship if you only raise them cause the camera pans over to you.
- If you have a 4 month old baby, do not attach him to yourself with a harness, put earplugs in his ears, and stand in the mosh pit 5 feet from the stage (Yes, I saw this Friday night!)
- If you have a 3 year old, do not die his hair red and put it in a mohawk (Yes, I saw this Friday night…from the same family that had the baby!)
Tags: Concert Etiquette, Nashville, Relient K, Sommet Center, Tobymac
December 9th, 2008 at 9:03 am
This list should be published on the back of tickets. I am not a huge fan of Relient K, Toby Mac, etc. but I do enjoy some classics every now and then. However I refuse to go to a CCM concert anymore simply because there is something about it that causes teens to lose their minds. I have been to both CCM and secular concerts and it only seems to happen at the CCM’s. I don’t get it…
December 9th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
great post, man! one of my pet peeves? the little whine-y girls that go to the concert when, clearly, they have never heard of the artist before. As soon as the band takes the stage, they start to scream and jump around like said artist is their absolute favorite. It’s especially funny when they try to sing along and obviously don’t know the words. There is nothing wrong in finding an artist you like at a concert, but you don’t have to act like you’re their biggest fan when you haven’t even heard of the act before. [/end rant]