Shh

We were at the eels gig on Saturday night at the Manchester academy. A fine gig I might add with E and the band in fine form. We did however, experience one of the many things that irritate me at gigs. There are a lot of things that irritate at gigs and I assume these are general gripes such as tall people standing in front of you, sweaty people touching you, over priced band merchandise and Scandinavian prices for beer. These are part and parcel of the gig going experience.

One thing that is getting more irritating as I get older though is talking at gigs. I don't mean shouting in-between songs or even saying something to your mates. I mean stood there chatting like you're in the pub completely oblivious to the fact there is a hush over the crowd as a softly played song is performed. If your disinterested in the artist then fuck off to the bar.

Seriously, it's not cheap to see a band live these days and that is one of the consequences of downloading music, legal or otherwise. In the twenty first century it is the touring which makes the artist the money and I accept that.

Eels tickets were I think £20 each plus booking fee(another rant for another day) so almost £50 for the two of us. That's a lot of money. If you paid that to go to the theatre you wouldn't stand some fucking moron behind you talking throughout. So why do we put up with it at gigs. Who are these people?

Maybe I'm noticing it more as I'm getting older and the bands I am going to see are quieter. In 1992 I saw napalm death, in 2010 I saw the low anthem, who it has to be said had an impeccably behaved crowd. You could hear a pin drop. There isn't this problem at classical concerts. You have paid to hear someone perform, let them perform and listen to the music. I'm pretty sure Damien Rice stopped a gig once because people were talking. Now I'm not a big fan of his music but I can understand his frustration, he pays a lot of attention to detail and his songs are quite emotional. If all he can hear is some berk going on about the mpg of his new Beemer you'd get frustrated.

I recently got the new big star box set and on the last disc there is a live concert recorded from around 1974/5 in the background you can hear people talking. All the way through, completely disinterested in this legendary band performing. So it's not a new thing, just something I don't think we need to put up with.

Eels last Saturday night, I didn't film this by the way.