Youtube comments provide critical insight into the minds of concert-going keyboard warriors; “this crowd dead,” “dudee, their should’ve been way more people for them,” “they suck live.” While these kinds of comments represent the night for upset fans, it’s more likely that less crucial things represent the night to touring musicians; that pizza place before the show, their friends that showed up, there are a lot of girls here, free beer, made some money, cool. And sure, sometimes a band will be upset enough about gig turnout to let it ruin their good time, if that’s the case – then don’t listen to that band. They don’t get it. It’s so easy to have your city stand out on tour that you would have to go far out of your way to screw it up.
All DIY bands understand that nothing is guaranteed in touring. Bands rely on the charity of people around the country in order to keep their tour financially stable. All parties in this transaction benefit in a few ways; The band gets to continue sharing their art/doing what they love/doing what they hate, all without drowning in debt, the attendant gets a cheap show/new shirt/new friends/a warm feeling from helping another human being. This is the most pure, honest and beautiful exchange I’ve ever had the pleasure of constantly being a part of, on both sides. Quite possibly the only pure thing left on this shit rock (earth) is a bunch of kids driving around in tin cans selling their shit rock (the music).
Bands like Touche Amore, Tigers Jaw, and Code Orange Kids now draw a fan base that contains people who have never known a DIY show, nor have they ever witnessed the powers of a DIY community, and because of that, they run the risk of having fans who are entry level “emo/screamo whatever” fans. I always make an attempt not to generalize people as posers or whatever because they’re new to something I’ve been into. The truth is, we’re all posers or we someday will be. We will all unfortunately fall victim to the backward glances and the uncomfortable small talk surrounding our lack of knowledge about some future neo-gaze-trap music. As per the old saying “assuming makes an ass out of u,” newcomers mixing with the surface level assumptions of punk concerts (“fuck the man,” “hate mosh,” “anything goes”) is specifically what ends up making a night uncomfortable for everyone. Things such as the following are never ok; yelling “_____ has a big dick” to interrupt a band as they play, jumping on stage and kissing anyone in any band, stealing merch from a touring band because you’re a broke joke. Think about these things in any context. Would you do any of these things to strangers? Would you do these things to your friends? The answer is no. What makes it worse is the bands that are your new favorite thing used to have shows where they could play on the floor and they could do whatever they wanted because of the “respect” fostered by DIY. Unfortunately, that gets lost somewhere in the mix.
Just as there are bands that will be upset by every lame detail about the show, there are also many more bands who won’t care in the slightest about some jerk trying to ruin everyone’s night. While it’s tight that they have a good attitude, you can wonder to yourself why that band isn’t coming through your town again. As if a giant 105 degree (at 1 in the morning) slab of rock and dirt in the middle of the driest part of country wasn’t an attractive enough 7 hour detour. Nobody wants to go to your town in the first place, so why go out of your way and make it suck more. We don’t even have a taco shop anymore.
I get that it’s not like you can get everyone at the Touche show or the Tigers Jaw show to go back in time and be DIY aficionados or that you can even get them to come to future house shows, or get them into printing zines/writing blogs, or get them to start bands of their own. But, it’s also ridiculous to think that these people should want to do any of that stuff. While it is something I would recommend, the issues at hand don’t even demand their participation. It should be obvious as a human being how to act in the face of something new, how to act in front of people you respect, how to act in front of people you hate. Understanding is complicated, but respect is easy dude, don’t be an asshole.
- Respect the touring musicians. At the end of the day, this is their job. Remember that drunk guy who came to get his family sandwiches 5 min til close? Don’t be that guy.
- Respect the people attending the show with you. Hate mosh with each other, not at each other.
- That’s it! See how easy?! Practice your new powers of respect here; Weatherbox, Dikembe, Caravels and Am I Being Detained @ The House of Wonk Aug 4th. Details for that show can be found on Facebook.
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