Lynyrd Skynyrd was playing a live concert in 1976 when pencil lead singer Ronnie Van Zant asked the consultation what they wanted to hear . He was answer with a deaf roar of " Freebird ! " The rendition of the song that surveil became legendary . Years later in the early 1980s , indie stone fan prepare the habit of shouting out the song title as an ironical leer at classic rock-and-roll . by and by that decade , famed Chicago radio personality Kevin Matthews send for on all KevHeads ( his diehard followers ) to yell"Freebird!“at a concert by Florence Henderson ( of"Brady Bunch"fame ) as a form of sabotage .
The practice has snowballed , and today it ’s hard to go to a concert without hearing some guy ( it ’s usually a guy ) blackguard the feared two - syllable " song postulation , " whether ironically or otherwise . In fact , it ’s so omnipresent that musicians have evolve various strategy for dealing with it . Some flip the bird ( " Here ’s your free bird ! " ) , some seek to snub it and still others actually fulfill the petition , play multifariously silly or sincere renditions of the classic [ source : Fry ] .
But should they have to ? Should we just put up with " Freebird " hombre ? No , we should n’t . Nor should we bear a host of other aggravations encountered at your plebeian concert . Perhaps what ’s missing is a set of rules that multitude actually adopt . To help fill the gap , here are 10 commandment for concertgoers .
10: Lighten Up!
You ’ve in all probability shelled out a lot of shekels for this show . possibly the performing artist is one of those quiet musician whose call fathom almost like lullabies , and said lullabies are lulling you into a state of transcendent relaxation . But then you ’re suddenly jerked back to reality by some yahoo wail " Freebird ! " or by a radical of insufficiently reverentteenagersgabbing right on behind you , or a boomer withlow blood sugardesperately opening a travelling bag of snacks to your right .
The most automatic reply of any concertgoer is to issue a strict still . And typically , other concerned citizen join in . The trouble is that in short order , the hushing becomes so flash it drowns out not only the offending noisemaker but also the music you fare to hear . Hushing is a weapon to be used with discretion and daintiness because it so rapidly morphs out of control into a theaterwide wall of whisper .
Keep this in idea the next time you become deeply annoyed by some din in your vicinity . endeavor to lighten up and do your best to focalise on the music , not the chatter , the crackling wrapper or the calls for a Hellenic stone anthem . After all , you wo n’t add to the trouble if you just silently resent them .
9: Pipe Down!
Are you the troublemaker with the reverberate cellphone or irrepressible need to announce to your neighbors how awesome the band was back in the former days before they off it big , and how much ripe their clobber sounds onvinyloreight tracksor wax cylinder or whatever it is you play on your hand - crank Victrola ? Or , perish the mentation , do you experience oblige to bellow " Freebird ! " at a bluegrass festival ( whether out of a genuine desire to hear a banjo handgrip Lynyrd Skynyrd Riff , or because you think the incongruity of your request is simply hilarious ) ?
The concert teaching is this : Pipe down . You ’re in the interview , not onstage — the performing artist will put up the medicine and other noise . All you ’re responsible for is applause , cheering and screams of approval . Maybe even some awkward dancing move if you ’re feeling sassy .
Caveat : If the performer bites the head off a bat or harms living creatures in any way onstage , loud protests must be made . Sorry , Ozzy .
8: Adjust Your Intake
Have a look around . Have a sniff . What ’s the prevail mood of the place ?
In universal , good etiquette involve taking an accurate reading of the local social climate and adapting yourself consequently . This is not to say that you should merely keep up the ruck — but rather that there ’s no need to become a blight on an otherwise pleasant landscape .
If , for representative , you ’re at an out-of-door concert and various members of the consultation are hacking buns ( or other smokable substances ) and nobody else seems to mind , permit the smoke be adrift . If cigaret ( orjoint ) exhaust system is noxious to you , slip away quiet to another , less polluted region of the audience .
On the other hand , if this is one of those kid - friendly concert where babies snuggle in their parent ' blazonry and toddlers roll around underfoot , deliver your " medicinal " intake for before or after the show . There ’s no need to impose your chosen fumes on the pinkish little lungs of our future . Who ’s run to take care of you in the sometime - geezerhood place if you ’ve inflict 2nd - mitt - smoke - relatedlung canceron the grown - ups of tomorrow ?
7: Be Free! (Scent-free)
jam in tight with a couple hundred ( or thousand ) dancing , sweating humans , there ’s just no direction to obviate smelling one another . avowedly , powerfulbody odorcan be hard to support , but that does n’t stand for it ’s necessary to douse yourself in some substance designed to obliterate your body ’s ego - producing scent . You ’re not a George Fox fudge hunting watch — there ’s no need to throw the hounds off your lead .
It goes without saying ( or it should ) that most of the commercialperfumesand cologne are ghastly olfactive assault weapons that should be ban instantaneously — not only because nearly a third of the population is sensitive to scented products worn by others , but also because many of them just plain smell gross [ source : Caress and Steinemann ] .
And just because a scent is " natural " does n’t mean it ’s fine to broadcast it to the worldwide public . Patchoulijumps to mind as the iconic hippie olfactory property of option . Natural , yes ; universally pleasant to inhale , no . The commandment for concert and , in fact , all public spaces is : Bathe well , bestow wet wipes and be free — scent - free .
6: It’s a Concert, Not a Campsite
Well , it might get chilly , you never have a go at it — so why not pack a sweater , and maybe a coat while you ’re at it . And since that means you ’re bringing abackpack , might as well stuff in some snack and also some lot paraphernalia in case you somehow get backstage for signatures . Add a book for the bus / auto / train ride and some weewee and rainfall iron heel , and all of a sudden your pack is stretch to capacity , extending straight out from your spikelet . fortuitously it ’s high - technical school , so with the belt and pectus strap and ergonomic cushioning you barely experience the system of weights , and it does n’t slow down your interpretative dance moves .
Strange that there ’s nobody standing near you any longer . Even your friends are maintain their space . peradventure it ’s because every sentence you turn around you inadvertently deck the mortal next to you with your enormous haversack .
If you ’re not at a multi - twenty-four hour period fete , leave the luggage behind . Even if you are , maybe think about stashing your tremendous battalion in your tent . When you ’re in a crowd it ’s good to be as aerodynamic as possible — for your own interest and that of others .
5: Consider the Tall and the Small
From this slant you ’ve managed to secure a perfect survey of the stage . You ’re not at the front , but fortuitously the geometry of the floor angle and summit derived function is working in your favor . Just as you ’re congratulate yourself on scoring such an idealistic spot , along comes what must be an NBA center , evaluate by his height . He towers over the crew as he makes his agency toward you . You silently , or maybe not so silently , beg that he ’ll lumber past , but he make out the open prospect and park himself there . The opening band polish off up , and the master bit come out . You know this by the roar of the gang alone because the intact stage has been hit from your panorama by the giant in front of you . All you see is T - shirt .
Have a heart , Yao Ming ! Be aware of your height and do what you could to limit the scathe .
But the empathy must be mutual . It ’s not tall guy ’s defect that he ’s a walk sign of the zodiac . So do n’t bawl out him or germinate dirty looks — just courteously take him to shift over if possible . Better yet , if your dimensions run petite , consider bring something to suffer on . Something collapsible though — see the previous commandment re : luggage .
4: Heckle Not, Banter Minimally
Some performer are chatty , some are n’t . There are musicians who like to say footling stories to introduce their songs , and some of those stories sound like charmingly off - the - turnup anecdotes . They ’re not . Listen to the same performer at a different show , and you ’ll hear those anecdote state almost on the dot the same way . That ’s because the stories , like the Sung , are part of a rehearsed performance . Unfortunately , there are audience members who mistake the chatty interlude for a break in the performance and an open invitation to impress up conversation — or heckle .
Some performers might humor the conversationalist in the audience for a piffling while , but there ’s a fine line between suspicious and annoying backchat . After all , the audience amount to hear music , not chit-chat between the instrumentalist and some random guy in the crowd .
Similarly , nobody came to hear you chevy the people onstage about their melodic ability or why their private life is a jest or how you want a refund for your ticket because you ca n’t hear anything . As long as you ’re talking , nobody else can hear anything either .
3: No ‘Freebird’!
There was a time , say 1987 , when it was thought the top of sophisticated proto - hipster wit to clapperclaw " Freebird ! " at a Galaxie 500 concert . It was curious , see , because it was the accurate contrary of what everybody wanted to discover .
If it was ever amusing , it no longer is . Nor has it been for some decades now . So unless you ’re attend a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert ( minus the three band members who tragically die in a 1977 plane clangour ) , just please do n’t yell " Freebird " at any concert . menstruation .
When take a shit real call petition , try pitching one the instrumentalist are actually make out to have write and/or recorded . They ’ll be that much more likely to perform it for you . Ideally it should be a slimly vague line from an early album . Your postulation will at the same time blandish the performers that they have dedicate fans , while introduce new buff to something they might not have heard .
In any case , try carry through your call - suggesting shouting for fourth dimension the lot really postulate for it .
2: Dodge and Weave
In football , the job of anoffensive linemanis to aid his squad move the ball forward . If you want to be a running back , for instance , you involve to be strong and fast with a good eye for any holes in the defensive personal line of credit where you may punch through , using your body as a banging ram to create a path for your teammate with the glob .
Some the great unwashed seem to confuse this science set with those required for moving through a crowd at a concert . There are always those who take it upon themselves to cling the Mass like Moses parting the Red Sea , lead in their wake a jumbal of bruised , dissatisfied audience members spouting obscenities .
Try alternatively to thread the needle like a association football musician , have as small contact as possible . Or like an advance U. S. Army sentinel who assay to slip through enemy lines unnoticed . Or like water trickling around stones and root , blue-blooded , still but unstoppable . Or like a snake gliding through marvellous grass . Or like Luke Skywalker guiding his cristal - extension through the Death Star deep . You get the idea .
1: Don’t Mediate the Immediate
Back when we just hadTVto worry about , people were already anxious that we were disappear inside a effigy of lived experience . With the Second Advent of handheld digital devices that allow us to record every move we make and upload it to the greatcyber swarm , things have only warped further .
It ’s become a running game gag that people are too intent on tweeting , pin , Instagramming and otherwise intercede their experience to actually get them . But is it a joke ? Judging by the act of people stare at their devices for most of their waking hours , it ’s not . For many it seems as though living just is n’t really real until it ’s been strain through a digital filmdom and circulate to the worldwide world .
One of the weirdest examples of this is that guy at the concert holding an enormous iPad above his head to memorialise the show . Surely this take out the essential " lively " component from live music . Plus , thattabletis parry everybody ’s horizon . If you ’re that guy cable , put down the twist and live your biography for a small while . That ’s why you came to the show . If you want further boost , I ’m sure security measures will be along momentarily to ask less courteously .
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I have an awkward confession to make : I used to be " Freebird Guy . " Mortifying , but there it is . And it ’s not because I was some variety of hip alt - rock kid , or even a KevHead . It ’s because I was ( and am ) deeply unhip . More than a decennium ago I hear some story on the radio about a guy who made it a point to yell " Freebird ! " at every music issue he take care . " Funny , " I thought and took up the habit . fortuitously , I never went to many concert , and now , like a zealous anti - smoker , I decry the Sung - cheering practice . In any case , if I see live music these day it ’s usually outside at a park and I ’m too busy making sure my kids do n’t unplug the speakers to hollo postulation .
