The Wall Street Journal ran story today, “Is Video Killing the Concert Vibe?” which looks looks at the “backlash” against concert-goers using their phones at shows, namely for filming. Story is sort of a silly trend piece, but it did catch my attention. Here’s a tidbit.
[Wilco] posts signs inside venues and delivers an announcement over the public address system before show time. A robotic pre-recorded voice informs the audience that Wilco welcomes audio recording, singing along, shouting requests between songs and “general merriment.” But “to avoid ending your evening with Wilco prematurely,” it says, keep your cameraphone stowed. The venue’s security guards take over from there, usually targeting transgressors with a flashlight beam to the face.
Mr. Tweedy says so far most crowds are policing themselves, and that it’s paying off: “I honestly feel the crowd’s engagement with the show. There’s a more audible kind of reaction to different musical moments, a kind of intangible energy.”
As far as I can tell from the story, Wilco isn’t anti-cameraphone to protect its intellectual property or anything. It’s more to manage audience behavior and mood. Weird.
Now, I don’t care much for Wilco, so I doubt I’ll be at one of their shows anytime soon. But I wonder what my reaction would be if a band I really liked tried to prescribe my phone use like that during a gig. Like Phish, for example. During their shows, I’ve got my iPhone out for basically the entire time – filming, photographing, jotting down notes. Heck, at Charlottesville last December, I even experimented (unsuccessfully) with making a recording using the FourTrack application. If Phish were to follow Wilco’s approach, I think I’d be pretty disappointed.
