Topic: What to do about people on cell phones?

[perks]

I've been to Prince shows where he's got as many people looking for cell phones as there are people in the audience.

If they catch you with a phone out you are immediately shown the door.

Prince is one guy I'd love to stealth just to feel all warm inside after I got the show recorded that I'd done something that would completely piss him off if he'd only known.   

EDIT:  To be clear, I do think he's a pretty amazing artist.  It's just that his kinda freakish desire to control his media empire and/or his audience are pretty off-putting.

In fairness to P - when he invites you to hear him perform on his property he's allowed to make house rules. I make people take their shoes off before entering my home and I make people go outside if they want to smoke. Those are my house rules.


I'll also add he's got a way of getting even. I can't tell you how many times I've waited in front of a fully loaded stage for too many hours only to get the rug pulled out from under me as he decided at the last minute he's not going to play. Its always a weird situation when you see his band milling around in the audience and they don't even know if they are going to perform.

[aaronji]

Today people think that they are entitled to be disruptive. Everyone else go fuck themselves.

Exactly...

At a Chick Corea performance if you are the douche that cant pay attention to the art you should leave and go in the lobby so the rest of the audience doesn't need to be distracted by your foolishness.

I see a lot of jazz, often in nice halls (the kind where everyone has a drink in the foyer during intermission), and this always astonishes me.  Last time I was in LA, I got a ticket to see Jarrett (with DeJohnette and Peacock, no less) at UCLA.  The guy in front of me held up his iPad for half the show.  Expensive tickets too.  Keith Freakin' Jarrett Trio...

[acidjack]

I see a lot of jazz, often in nice halls (the kind where everyone has a drink in the foyer during intermission), and this always astonishes me.  Last time I was in LA, I got a ticket to see Jarrett (with DeJohnette and Peacock, no less) at UCLA.  The guy in front of me held up his iPad for half the show.  Expensive tickets too.  Keith Freakin' Jarrett Trio...

I'm amazed that people have the tolerance to hold up phones or iPads for that long. I mean, I find stealth-taping pretty annoying/limiting to do, and holding up a stupid phone requires way more stillness/concentration than that....

[Fried Chicken Boy]

I see a lot of jazz, often in nice halls (the kind where everyone has a drink in the foyer during intermission), and this always astonishes me.  Last time I was in LA, I got a ticket to see Jarrett (with DeJohnette and Peacock, no less) at UCLA.  The guy in front of me held up his iPad for half the show.  Expensive tickets too.  Keith Freakin' Jarrett Trio...

Sit-down jazz performance or stand-up rock concert, it should be legally justifiable to savagely beat that guy to death.  With his fuggin' iPad.

[aaronji]

^ I think it was a big old first generation iPad, too, so it would have made a pretty good bludgeon (^^ and would have been that much harder to hold up the whole time)...

It was like screen-in-screen, with both showing the same film.  Except one was live.  If Jarrett had noticed him, I might have gotten to see one of his notorious tantrums!

By the way, the reason he only held it up for half the show was that my entire row bitched at him and several people informed the usher.

[John Willett]

THIS is what a classical musician did in Slovakia when a phone rand during the concert. 

[2manyrocks]

Sitting in court one day when one of the lawyers phone rang.  The judge motioned him to the bench, took the lawyers phone and said, "he can't come to the phone right now.". Then he hung up and returned the phone to the lawyer with nothing more said. 

[Chuck]

THIS is what a classical musician did in SLovakia when a phone rand during the concert. 

I like that.

[connloyalist]

I was in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam today. Someone's phone rings before the music started, so the conductor waits 'till the phone stops ringing; nobody was claiming ownership of the telephone so it took a while. That's what really surprises me most: you are in a concert hall with hundreds of people. Your phone rings, and you have to know it is your phone. The people around you should be aware of probably whose phone it is. How can you sit there as if you are oblivious to the ringing phone?

Then between two movements just as the conductor was ready to start, the thing rang again. The conductor lowered his arms, the guy finally stormed out of the room clutching his phone. Then we continued.

It's the first time I have ever been around when something like that happened.

Regards, Christine

[aaronji]

^ Pretty impressive hall, huh?

[connloyalist]

Defnitely. Just listening to the acoustics is a joy. Looking at the mics they have hanging from the ceiling I was wondering what they are (sorry, a bit off-topic).


Regards, Christine

[aaronji]

The acoustics are superb!  I live a bit to the south, but I make the pilgrimage a few times a year.  I have tried to figure out some of the mics before, too, but I would need binoculars to do so, I think!

Check out the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, as well, if you haven't yet.  The acoustics there are excellent also...

[voltronic]

I was in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam today. Someone's phone rings before the music started, so the conductor waits 'till the phone stops ringing; nobody was claiming ownership of the telephone so it took a while. That's what really surprises me most: you are in a concert hall with hundreds of people. Your phone rings, and you have to know it is your phone. The people around you should be aware of probably whose phone it is. How can you sit there as if you are oblivious to the ringing phone?

Then between two movements just as the conductor was ready to start, the thing rang again. The conductor lowered his arms, the guy finally stormed out of the room clutching his phone. Then we continued.

It's the first time I have ever been around when something like that happened.

Regards, Christine

Ugh - I had a similar experience several months back.  The St. Olaf Choir was in town for a concert (one of the finest choirs in the world, collegiate level or otherwise) and they were in the middle of an intricate Bach motet.  Large church, completely packed and otherwise silent audience.  About 10 rows forward of me, a cell phone rings.  And rings.  And rings.  Finally, the conductor stops the choir at the end of the phrase.  At this point the phone had stopped ringing because it probably went to voicemail.  He slowly turns around to the audience, says "is everyone's phone off now?" and restarts the piece.

To put you really in the moment, here's a link to the same choir performing that piece from their home concert of the tour.  Go to 6:45.  The ringing happened about halfway through the piece which is 8-9 minutes long.

https://www.stolaf.edu/multimedia/play/?e=1167

[scorsesefan]

Does the swatter work for people staring down at their cellphones as they run into you on the sidewalk?