First concert in years -- and may be years before next one

OK, so my friend buys Aaron Neville tickets at a casino last night and I go (aside: I had no idea, even while watching him, he was 71).

I'm not at idiot (shhh!) and I know some people are going to be liquored up. But my friend paid $67 per ticket for nice seats, and about a third of the way in, two couples walk in and sit right across the aisle from us in the same row (so about four feet). The guys are one gigantic fat guy (former high school athlete, though), and his lawyer/whatever he was friend.

The two guys will not stop yapping; not "I'm into the concert" yapping. More like, "Boy, what about that 11th hole today" yapping. Really, really loud. Talking with their wives. Talking with the loud woman behind them (I think she was trying to quiet them and instead got dragged into their shit). And, oblivious, they seemed to yap even louder when Neville was doing something quiet/slow. Every now and then, they'd get into the song itself, but even that was obnoxious, like "Geez, I'm at a concert, better act like it."

People moved away from them. People gave them dirty looks. They ran out of drunk energy a couple of times, but then they'd get going again. All the way through to the end, when the fat guy went down in front of the stage and got shooed away by the security guards.

Odd as it sounds, they didn't really bother me; what bothered me was how much it bothered others, and how oblivious they were to the fact they were ruining the show for people around them.

Is this typical for casino shows? Between that, a mediocre dinner and four $15 minimum hands of blackjack lost in about 4 minutes (my "up" cards -- 4, 3, 2, 6; dealer final numbers -- 20, 21 (started with a 6 showing), 20, 20), it was not an impressive night back.

 

I went to a matinee concert yesterday at a small venue and the guy sitting next to me brought a 15-month-old. It turned out that the kid kept quiet for the most part, but I'm pretty sure the guy didn't enjoy the show because he spent the entire time engaging the infant so as to avoid bothering others.

I've never been to a casino show, but as a general rule, talking is frowned upon in smaller venues and those where you have assigned seating (especially indoors). If it's a larger concert with lots of noise and you can move around at will (especially outside), then talking is not much of a big deal.

I was at a Wilco show one time hanging out in back with my wife, and when they started to play one of the songs, I spent about 15 seconds explaining the origin of the lyrics. Some guy turned around and said, "Be quiet, I can't hear." I responded, "Fuck you, it's a concert."

 

Have never had a problem with a casino-associated concert, and my sample size is not small.

 

Going to concerts in my younger days it seemed like everyone was into it - if not the music, the event itself. Maybe the music was just louder. But I've been to a few concerts in recent years where it seems like people just show up because they have nothing better to do and don't mind letting other people know it.
But then again, maybe casino shows are different. Some may get in on comps and view going to the thing as a "prize" - more interested in letting people know they are whales than anything else.

 

I think, much like my four terrible hands of blackjack, this was just luck of the draw, and I won't make future decisions based on that. But the two rows in front of me were complaining about these guys to each other, two couples right in front of them were talking about it, and one couple just flat moved out of their great center seats to the edges to get away from them. One guy was getting so pissed I thought he was going to start a fight, but he never said a word (I'll bet he said a lot after he left).

So, the lesson: Some people are selfish assholes.

 

Seems like this might have something to do with the type of demographic that shows up at an Aaron Neville concert.

 

You know, oddly (or maybe not in South Florida), it was pretty old, but you can have a crowd of 500 people in their 40s and 50s and just two idiots, and there you go.

 

Hey, I've had plenty of fun at Rush concerts. But I had one of them spoiled because they were smoking enough pot to make the entire place high.

I'm in no position to tell people what they should do. But when it gets congested enough to affect my well-being and enjoyment of an event ... well ...

 

If that were the case, you're enjoyment probably wouldn't have been negatively affected too much.

 

If you go to see one of the has-beens that make up most most of the casino circuit, you deserve what you get.

 

It came pretty close to making me sick. Eyes were stinging and the smell didn't help the stomach.

It wasn't a moral issue, but one of health.

 

wait, so you're saying you didn't get high before the concert?