Pictures [or Video]...Or Were You Really Even There?

aka Assholes at concerts!  But I will get to them in a minute...

I went to APSI (AP training) at The University of Arkansas over the summer and one of the days the instructor had us reading excerpts from various AP tests that have been given over the past few years.  We were to read, interact with (annotate) and try to answer the MC questions for them.  One passage we were given and one that prompted much discussion was from On Photography by Susan Sontag.  This part, in particular, stuck out to me.  It also prompted much discussion that included what I will talk about in this blog.

Photographs furnish evidence. Something we hear about, but doubt, seems proven when we're shown a photograph of it. In one version of its utility, the camera record incriminates. Starting with their use by the Paris police in the murderous roundup of Communards in June 1871, photographs became a useful tool of modern states in the surveillance and control of their increasingly mobile populations. In another version of its utility, the camera record justifies. A photograph passes for incontrovertible proof that a given thing happened. The picture may distort; but there is always a presumption that something exists, or did exist, which is like what's in the picture. Whatever the limitations (through amateurism) or pretensions (through artistry) of the individual photographer, a photograph -- any photograph -- seems to have a more innocent, and therefore more accurate, relation to visible reality than do other mimetic objects. 

Music has always been a big part of my life.  I went to my first concert in 1991, I was a junior in high school.  My cousin and I bought tickets to see Nelson.  Here is an old band poster just in case you are too young to know who they are.  Nelson is comprised of twins (clearly!) Matthew and Gunnar Nelson.  They are Ricky Nelson's (from Ozzie and Harriet) sons and while they did follow in his musical footsteps they did stray a bit from his style of music and from his more clean cut image.  Obviously, for this post I had to find a picture of them since unless you were Zack Morris you didn't have a cell phone and those dinosaurs certainly didn't take pictures!

Fast Forward 28 years and a whole lot of technology later.... I have been to A LOT of concerts in the past 28 years and up until just about 4-5 years ago the only thing I have from those shows are my memories of them.  More recently I have seen a total of 38 bands in the 19 concerts my husband and I have attended since April 2018.  I have some sort of digital "reminder" of each of these events, if not something from each band. 

This past weekend we went to Kansas City to see Alter Bridge and Skillet.  They had a lesser known band called Dirty Honey opening for them.  The show was inside an old theatre downtown by Sprint Center.  It's not a super small venue, but it was a little smaller than some we've been to recently.  We got there about 45 minutes early to stand in line since our tickets were pit/GA tickets; we like to get as close to the stage as we can. 

This is what I ended up seeing for most of the first 2 bands.  It was pretty frustrating, but since I had planned to blog about this experience it was perfect.

There is nothing better than a couple of 6'6" + dudes who push their way in front of you just before the band you have been waiting to see for the past 4 months starts to play!  I did have an excellent view of his back and what little I could see through their phone screens for most of Alter Bridge.  There was a point in the show where I became the asshole I had been complaining about, because there was a song or two that I could barely see the lead singer so I held my phone up to document it!

We did get lucky when the last band came on most of the D-Bags that were in front of us left and we were able to actually see.  We also got shifted around more toward the middle which was also nice.  At this point, I was close enough that I was able to take photos and some video without being "that guy" who holds the phone up so that no one behind can see.

We LOVE concerts, but the atmosphere is so different now that everyone in the crowd has access to a
phone/camera.  I have been to shows where the guy next to me in the front row recorded the ENTIRE show.  I have been to shows where people around me did Facebook live through most of the show.  We are SO busy taking pictures and videos and reading comments on what is being posted that we aren't actually enjoying the show!  I have tried to NOT be that person.  I take a few pictures of each band, I try to get a couple of snippets of video if it's a song I really like.  Other than that I am putting my phone away and enjoying the moments that I am there.

I have a friend who went to see Madonna recently.  He posted a photo of the outside of the venue, but no images inside.  His caption said that all phones were Yondr'd at the beginning of the show.  I feel like this is something that we will be seeing more and more.  Partially because of copyright issues, but also because of how uninvolved with the show we become as we spend more and more time on our phones documenting it. 

I don't feel like I was any less "there" when I saw Nelson back in 1991.  I don't need the pictures to prove it so why do I feel like I need to prove that I was at every concert I go to now?  It's the age we live in.  It's how we share with out "friends" online.  It's really sort of ridiculous!!