Entertainment For Lively Minds
Audience participation - yes or no?
So last night I went to see Stevie Wonder in Manchester.
Firstly, 99% of the night was absolutely fantastic. The set was largely drawn from his 70's classic run of albums and both Stevie and the band were pin-sharp and funky as hell. The three-song sequence of Sir Duke, I Wish and Isn't She Lovely was as good as anything I've ever heard live and Superstition was jaw-dropping and even had this old boy jigging gently in the aisles.
But....
Stevie likes a bit of audience participation. You know, the bits where the boys get to sing one bit, get told off for being rubbish, and get to sing it again. And the girls get to sing another bit. Then we all sing together. Then we get the bits where Stevie gets the audience to sing the song instead of him. Now call me picky, but I paid sixty-odd quid to hear Stevie Wonder sing Living For The City, not 17,000 off-key Mancs.
Without all the audience stuff, we could have had two or three more classics (room for Uptight and Misstra Know It All, perhaps) and could have avoided a drop in momentum at one or two points in the show.
Am I being picky and miserable, or is forced audience participation an evil that needs to be rooted out?
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I love it!
I think it's great - but then I am one of those annoying people stood next to you singing along to all the songs (well, until my wife elbows me hard in the ribs)
Best audience participation moment was seeing Ben Folds at the Barras in Glasgow. He stood up on his piano, conducting us all, getting thirds of the crowd to sing differnet parts of the brass section riff in one of his songs.
It was magical and made us all feel part of the show.
Was that the night he played
Was that the night he played with the Divine Comedy?
Cracking night :)
Twas indeed! Great time...
Twas indeed! Great time...
That would be 'Army'
That would be 'Army' wouldn't it?
Currently considering if it's worth paying £33 (£40 once you add in the Booking Fee, Transaction Fee, New Curtains for the Promoter Fee etc) to see Ben supporting Counting Crows at Newcastle Metro Arena. I would of course be leaving before the main act...
I *heart* Ben Folds
I was just going to post that Mr Folds is the master of audience participation and you beat me to it. The "Army" sing-a-long is great.
Glenn Tilbrook also good fun with his audience participation too...
Having read the Guardian
Having read the Guardian review of the gig I'm curious about the unexpected guest appearance of George Boateng. As I'm going to see the O2 gig tomorrow night, I'm hoping for a repeat appearance so I can shout "Come on the Tigers!" to a bemused multitude.
it's tricky one
if it's instead of any songs and a tired attempt to whip up some atmosphere probably no, but if it's great gig and the crown drown out the band singing along all to good. At some of the hip-hop shows I've been to it virtually replaces entire songs and is tiresome.
Lee Mack doesn't like it...
(One minute in)
Do you think if he heard...
the entire audience singing 'I Just Called To Say I Love You' back at him he'd finally realize what a steaming turd of a song it is and vow never to perform it again?
He did...
but he didn't.
Depends on the circumstances;
There's nothing worse that seeing it done for the sake of form, and the crowd going through the motions because they think they have to... Crawl-under-your-seat awful. However, when a crowd goes spontaneously bonkers singing along, it can be a great experience. And if the artist starts it up with a sense of humour it can work quite nicely. I remember a Prince show where he had the women in the audience going "meow", the men going "woof", all in time with the song, before the whole thing collapsed when the crowd (and the performers) couldn't stop laughing. A lovely moment.
depends on the singer and the crowd
I saw Crowded House in Marley Park, Dublin last summer and y'll know the way a Crowded House audience is predominantly male. They did 'Fall at your Feet' and the crowd sang (at Neil Finns insistance) a verse and chorus and it was positively moving. Not the bawl you hear of a throng bawling out Angels, Wonderwall or Livin' on a Prayer, but something restrained yet quite beautiful in a mantastic sort of way!
On t'other hand, I've seen McCartney tear the arse out of Hey Jude and the Stones do it with You Can't Always Get What You Want and i'd agree, that if it means the song gets dragged out, it's a pain in the 'nads, but if it's done right, it can be sublime.
Green Day got it right
I recall seeing Green Day ask one side of the audience to shout some sort of hooray...and the other to yell "Shut the fuck up!"
No thanks.
I do like a bit of banter from the performer though.
Not for me...
the most cringeworthy thing is any third rate "indie" bands 5th on the bill at some Festival or other slowing a song down midway through and going "let's see those hands!" - have kids today not seen Spinal Tap?
I remember seeing one example on some TV footage from a Festival of a band who were obviously above their station, stopping playing and saying "everybody sing along!"...cue camera falling on silent, dumbounded audience...classic! Can't remember the band, but a priceless moment.
The problem with those 'third rate indie bands'...
...is they have little or no charisma in the first place to carry it off and resort to lacklustre 'come on Glastonbury!' style fare.
I don't think Queen are terribly popular on this website, but when someone like Freddie Mercury did this sort of thing, he literally had the crowd in the palm of his hand. Same with McCartney, he does that same old 'now the boys...now the girls' schtick whenever he does 'Hey Jude' but it always seems to go down well with the crowd.
Dame Fred...
had more charisma in his left eyeball than most of today's bands put together. He understood that he was in the business of 'entertainment', and knew that acting like a stroppy teenager in a sulk onstage is not very interesting. Whatever one thinks of Queen's music, their singer was masterful at putting on a show.
It all depends
I think it can be wonderful to watch and fun to be part of if its spontaneous, or when obviously there was such an atmosphere that the crowd were gagging to join in, but when its forced...
Nothing worse than being bullied into participating and I think the Brits are naturally reluctant to join in. Watch any footage of concerts in France and they seem to love the participation bit.
I'm reminded of Ben Elton's comments on this (though I can't conjure up a YouTube clip to support it). It was something similar to Lee Mack's rant about RW and his hypothetical reply to a singer asking him to join in with the song was "why should I do your job for you? I don't ask you to come to my work and operate my lathe for me do I?"
I seem to recall
the phrase "fuck off I've paid - entertain me" being part of it. That whole Ben Elton album is very funny actually, regardless of what he went on to do later. "True adverts" was a highlight ("....Coke - it's a fizzy drink" etc)
Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?
I do when audience participation gets out of hand. Also, which is worse, when they do a medley of several songs in one great lumpy jazz odyssey - featuring audience. Booo!