Cell Phone Conversations and Sing Alongs at Elvis concerts

[AlmostBlue]

What is it with EC concerts where there is always loud singalongs, and very loud cell phone conversations?
Why do so many have to call their friends and yell over the music during the encores??
What am I missing? I have never seen it at other converts, only at EC converts. Should I do the same ?

[cbartal]

It's not a privilege, or a right, it's an obligation. If Elvis wanders toward a "C" chord, or a "D", or an"F"," "Em", "C", or a "G", it is your sworn duty to grab your cell and report to your best friend that couldn't make it that Elvis is about to go into "Pump It Up".

When it becomes apparent that he is actually doing a new, untested, even more avant garde version of "My Dark Life", you are legally entitled to shave the head of the nearest onlooker.

Make a quick exit, then head for a street vendor and buy a MLAR t-shirt. You'll be fine.

[spooky girlfriend]

At the Ryman on Tuesday, I was just wishing that everybody would sit the hell down and quit going out to buy drinks. There might as well have been a revolving door for all the people who kept getting up, time and again, first to get a beer, then to relieve themselves. I just wanted to see Elvis without a bunch of musical chair games going on around me. It was like going to the movies with a toddler who can't possibly wait until the end to get a drink or use the bathroom.

[mood swung]

Spooks, please don't talk about my husband that way.

[spooky girlfriend]

Oops. Didn't really have anything personal about Mr. Mood. He only got up once and was very discreet about it. I just meant all those damn people who got up multiple times and whom I worried would spill their drinks on me as they walked by. It just seemed like there was a flurry of activity. I've never been to a show with that much getting up and down.

Besides, I knew your hubby would have to keep drinking in order to tolerate listening to Elvis, so I perfectly excused his getting up for yet another beer.

[BlueChair]

I also wonder why people will spend $50 for a concert ticket and then spend most of it either drinking, talking, or going to the bathroom. You can do that at a bar.

But I don't think it's characteristic to just Elvis shows to have people constantly getting up, talking, having their cell phones ring, singing loudly, etc.. I have been to many concerts, and have had to deal with it many times. In fact, my Elvis experiences haven't been nearly as bad. Except for the idiot who sat next to RedShoes and I at the Taste Of Chicago show and would constantly try to talk to us.

I think the reason it was so noticeable for you this time was because of the quiet nature of the show. I love when people will just do the solo/acoustic thing, but sadly a lot of the audience sees a concert as a social event where the performer is just background music.

Sometimes I wonder how much of the audience are truly a fans of the performer at a given concert. Surely if they were fans, they would shut up!

As far as singing goes.. I guess people like to make themselves heard. The thing is, we're not at a concert to hear THEM, we're at a concert to hear Elvis! And when the performers aren't necessarily overpowering the volume of the audience, it creates a pretty crappy effect.

When you go to the opera or the symphony, people know that they are supposed to shut up. I wonder why at these quieter shows they don't just have an announcement "Due to the quiet nature of the show we ask that you turn off your cell phones and refrain from talking during the performance."

[Poppet]

yeah, there was some dork a couple rows behind us, who insisted on singing along. including w/ the songs from North. and he was loud. he made me and the guy next to me snort and giggle though. which, actually wasn;t totally appropriate in the middle of something like 'you left me in the dark', but we didn't jump up, run back, and throttle him.

before the concert started i turned to the guy beside me, who i don;t know from adam, and said - if you have a cell phone and it goes off, i'm gonna hit you. he took it rather well, i thought, and checked to make sure the phone was off. and, he found his missing sunglasses. see? i was helpful.

if i had been any more hyper and bouncy last night i would have propelled myself outside the atmosphere. ice_nine asked if i was always so cheerful. honest, i'm not. i really am sane. but i was massively jazzed last night.

and, i think i made a convert - my buddy 'jarvis' (we told him we all had board names, so he himself chose 'jarvis fontaine' as his name) was wowed by our man. jarvis says he's off this weekend to buy some elvis cds. yay me! i converted someone to the religion of elvis!

[wehitandrun]

If you dont see sing-alongs at other concerts, you need to goto better shows.

I didn't sing along lastnight, because I knew the theatre environment would make me look ridiculous.

However, when I see him at a HOB-style club, I will be screaming along. Singing along is what shows are all about.




<3,
s.

[BlueChair]

If you dont see sing-alongs at other concerts, you need to goto better shows.

I didn't sing along lastnight, because I knew the theatre environment would make me look ridiculous.

However, when I see him at a HOB-style club, I will be screaming along. Singing along is what shows are all about.
.

That's very specific to pop/rock shows, wehitandrun. The whole singing along and jumping around aspect. I sing along if the band is loud and rockin'. If you do that at jazz, classical, opera, etc shows you will be beaten up or shown the door. And I'd argue that Elvis's lower key shows are more like jazz performances than they are rock 'n' roll shows, even if he is essentially a rock/pop artist. If the entire audience is singing along, you won't be able to hear Elvis. And that's what you are paying money to hear. Not some random guy who can't sing in tune.

[wehitandrun]

I'm still coping with the fact that Elvis didnt just write the song "Uncomplicated" and is not on the second leg of his spinning-wheel-of-songs tour. =[

So yeah, you win.


<3,
s.

[laughingcrow]

As far as singing along goes...unless they're a complete and utter show off, I've no probs with people singing along to the rock songs...usually you can't hear them anyway, jsut see them mouthing the words. Then you know you're looking at someone as obsessive as you are.
But the songs from North...what a prat. Why would you do that, unless you were trying to show off ''ooh look everyone, Im such a big fan, I even know the words to Fallen''. I would have been nonplussed about that, and have made him be quiet. People with mobiles that go off...well I spose it can happen by accident. If you're quick about getting it off, no major prob...if you have an audible conversation, then again action should be taken by surrounding concert goers. Why don't they have 'mobile phone's off' warnings at concerts like at the cinema??

I'm generally not a fan of concerts where there is a bar so close to the stage...when I saw EC in Vegas in the summer, during the quieter bits, you could hear the chatter and clinking fairly loudly, and it was just distracting.

I don't mind people standing up and/or dancing, as long as it's not all the time, like during I want you ...I don't dance in the aisles, but generally become absorbed by the music at concerts, trying to listen hard.

The getting up for a piss every ten minutes thing is annoying...at concerts, at football games...I guess it's worse if you've had a few. I always try and get middle aisle seats so I don't have top have people coming past me. In Vegas, there was the fattest family (and I mean SAFARI fat) I've EVER seen (ma, pa and jethro) a couple of rows in front. Ok, no probs..everyone has to move their seats back a little bit to make room for their 'girth', fine...but when they decide to get up every fifteen minutes...what the f**k! I don't know whether it was a wee-we break, or hunger pangs or what...but that was annoying. Im guessing it would have been even more annoying if you had to let them past you.

RANT OVER

[AlmostBlue]

it wasn't the cell phones ringing.. it was people calling others on their cell phone and YELLING over the music, talking about Saturday night or something... but singing along can be great.. like that couple in row 3 or four standing arm in arm at the Greek theater.. that was actually nice to see... even the girl in the front row singing along to Dark Life was great.. it was done out of admiration, not to show off

[SweetPear]

At the Ryman on Tuesday, I was just wishing that everybody would sit the hell down and quit going out to buy drinks. There might as well have been a revolving door for all the people who kept getting up, time and again, first to get a beer, then to relieve themselves. I just wanted to see Elvis without a bunch of musical chair games going on around me. It was like going to the movies with a toddler who can't possibly wait until the end to get a drink or use the bathroom.

Very well said.

I also wonder why people will spend $50 for a concert ticket and then spend most of it either drinking, talking, or going to the bathroom. You can do that at a bar.

Good question.

I have no problem with people expressing themselves and at the appropriate venue, it's not a problem. Exactly, you won't hear the cell ringing or the enthusiastic accompanyment. It is pretty annoying, though, when you want to see a show, no matter where it is, and the goings on of the people around you just persistantly interfere with your seeing the show. I've been to lots of shows in all kinds of places and I think it just comes down to how respectful you choose to be of the people around you.
It's not your age (unless you're 3!) (Of course there's always the people who bring their kids to all kinds of inappropriate places at inappropriate times, like the 10:30pm showing of an "R" rated movie, in which case, it is not the crying child that I'm annoyed with, but the adults who brought them and the management that allowed them in.) or how much you've had to drink or smoke or whether you're a fan or not......just if you choose to be rude or respectful of the people around you.
I'm a nice person, so I guess I expect that other people will be the same. And for the most part, that's true. But you know there's always that self-absorbed jerk who's just oblivious to everyone else. And who, of course, hasn't got a shred of COMMON SENSE.
Like the cell phone thing. It is just so incredibly rude to have them ringing anytime, anyplace. (Having them go off during a church service just really put me over the edge on this.) I've just always wondered, that if these people are so cell phone savvy, then why can't they find the VIBRATE ONLY option on their cell menus?
But with such intimate places like the one's EC's been playing, I just feel bad for the performers that people could be so rude during their show. I'm sure it must be very distracting, and probably insulting as well, to have all kinds of comotion going on while you're trying to perform.
One good thing about the really small places is that, for the most part, the people there all really want to be there. And that can be pretty neat, to be part of an atmosphere that is really focused and appreciative of the performer on stage.
It looks like the audiences of EC's shows are filled with a good deal of loyal (and well behaved) fans from this board. I think that's a trip!

[SweetPear]

I was just re-reading my previous post and it sounds like one, long, continuous rant. For that, I apologize.

Bluechair said it all quite eloquently a few posts earlier. I should have just left it at that!

[verbal gymnastics]

I always make sure my phone is switch off when I go to concerts.

I switch it on straight after the show. I have to say Mrs VG has fantastic timing.

The last two times she has phoned me after an Elvis concert I have been chatting to Elvis and the second time I was chatting to Steve.

Such is my love for Mrs VG that I broke off conversation both times with them and spoke to her!

In future I'm switching the phone back on much later! Much later...

[miss buenos aires]

At the Beacon, there was this woman sitting behind me singing along just loud enough to be totally distracting. So I told her, as nicely as I could, that it was a little distracting, and would she mind not singing, and she was surprisingly nice about it. Later on, when that guy started singing along at the top of his lungs with "God Give Me Strength," she leaned forward and said, "Hey, it could have been worse, you could have been sitting in front of him..."

[SweetPear]

VG, you are such a nice guy!
My husband has that extra special timing also and I not only wouldn't have answered the phone (whilst I was engaged with Elvis and Steve!), I would have given him bloody hell for calling!
(I think he's used to it by now!)

[verbal gymnastics]

SweetPear - I don't have to live with Elvis and Steve!

It was a bit strange to be waiting 40 odd minutes to speak to Elvis and then Mrs VG calling me at the moment I got a chance to chat to him. I don't know what he thought (if anything). Still, I managed to get to talk to him again after I rushed my call with the Mrs. Bless her.

It was a bit different with Steve. There were only a few of us there at the time and I didn't want to miss my chance to get Steve to sign a birthday card and message for Plaything. Which he did. Which was nice.

But as I say, the phone is going to switched on much later in the future

[SweetPear]

VG~

My husband's a sweety to me. Which is just how you seem to treat your MrsVG. I also think that my hubby would echo the sentiment about him having to live with me also.

It very well may be that hubby and I share some uncanny telepathy (which truely is amazing!) but......it's Elvis!!



IT'S ELVIS!!!!!!!




I dunno, maybe it's a girl thing!