Everyone has a “things to do list.” It is a nifty way of making sure we get things done. It is also gratifying to check things off as we accomplish these modest tasks.

 #1 Mow the lawn

 # 2 Clean the rain gutters

 # 3 Pick-up grandpa’s truss at the dry cleaners

 # 4 Write my congressman demanding that they do everything they can to thwart the Trump agenda.  

 # 5 Vacuum the cat

I don’t think too many people have on their things to do list:

 # 1 Be a complete a-hole at a concert this evening.  

However, that is exactly what people end up doing when they go to a musical performance and talk with people around them during the show. When I say “they”, I include myself in this lot of human scum. If anyone who is reading this has ever been to a concert venue of any kind, at any time in their life and has been “SHUSHED” or been given a dirty look, then you are guilty as well.

To my great shame, I’ll admit here publicly that happened to me once, many years ago. I took it to heart. I never for a second then or now felt like the price of admission to a musical performance, even one without a cover charge, entitled me to disturb, distract and disrupt those around me in any way.  

More often than not since that shameful display on my part, I am the one who has my index finger in front of and perpendicular to my lips. This move is followed by a simple point to the ear that is closest to the offending party and then a point to the stage. I follow this with a mouthing of the words “Thank you.” I do this while directing a smile in the direction of the people who think they are at “Talkachella.”

What triggered this editorial, in which I will attempt to search for the seeds of this revolution of rudeness, was the recent concerts by classic-rock icon, Steve Winwood. His Southern California tour stops were marred by this bad behavior and triggered a terrific article in the San Diego Union Tribune by George Varga, entitled: “Traffic Jam! Steve Winwood Played as San Diego Audience Yammered Non-Stop.” In the summer of 2000, Vargas wrote a piece entitled, “Close Your Big Trap. The Rest of Us Came to Hear Them, Not You.”

In the seventeen years since that piece was written everything around us has changed, or so it seems, except for the human capaciousness for rudeness and boorish public behavior. There is another fact that should be confronted and that is, music has been devalued as a part of our existence. The immutable law of unintended consequences is at play here, as our increasingly techno-driven value system has made the learned skill, that is the art of listening, all but a thing of the past.

Yet this phenomenon isn’t new. It doesn’t restrict itself to any one type of music or to any particular generation. These articles triggered the rather predicable Facebook discussions where baby boomers pointed out how rude and insensitive Millennials have become…‘These punks need to be taught some manners.’ I agree and who was it that didn’t teach them any manners in the first place? The Millennials think it is the loud mouthed, self-indulgent, self-centered, self-absorbed boomers. Guess what…you’re both correct.

The first time I recall being appalled by this at a concert was thirty years ago at a Frank Sinatra gig in Houston. I was 30, Frank was 70, the crowd was mostly in their 50’s and 60’s. As a Father’s Day present to my then father-in-law I took him to see, and presumably hear, his hero, the relentlessly obnoxious Frank Sinatra. The American musical icon played in front of a huge throng of adoring fans who cursed, smoked cigarettes and belched through the entire show. No big deal, so did the headliner.

This was one of those infamous late era performances where Sinatra forgot words to his own songs even though he was using teleprompters and had been singing them for most of the past thirty years or so. He was like a 1980’s version of Elvis Presley who had soiled that same venue a decade earlier.

Unlike Elvis, Sinatra wasn’t hopelessly inebriated, drugged out to the point of incoherence and morbidly obese. He appeared to have a little buzz going, as he never strayed too far from his hi-ball. He did however have an ‘I could give a rat’s ass about this audience’ attitude. His performance seemed purposefully shabby and sloppy. He went out of his way to be crass. Sinatra berated, mocked and made fun of his own son, Frank Jr., who was his musical director and band leader. It was uncomfortable, unnecessary and cruel. The whole affair was made worse by his fans.

The crowd brought food, ate and chatted as if they were at a ballgame. I was sitting in front of a group of people who brought a Texas size bag of potato chips and were passing that around and talking with their mouths full…a variation of Talkechella. I can’t ever recall being anywhere near a more unpleasant group of fans and I had seen the Rolling Stones in California surrounded by Hells Angels.

I have never been to a Trump rally, but like many of us, I have witnessed snippets of these freak shows on TV. The lack of civility and rude behavior coming from the audience, as well as the mean-spirited blather coming from the stage was very similar. Now in the age of Trump, 40, 50 and 60 somethings use Steve Winwood concerts to behave in much the same way.  

By all accounts its worse and now common place.

Is it high ticket prices and a sense of entitlement and privilege that the mostly upper middle-class, mostly white, scumbags who inhabit much of these audiences the problem? Is it Steve Winwood himself and these classic-rockers who just will NOT go away, which causes their fan base to respond to their performances in this manner? Is the ubiquitous nature of classic-rock radio and this music that is so ingrained in our consciousness that talking over the performances seems like a natural way to respond to this corporate money grab?  How many people in these audiences have heard Winwood’s performances before? Does he have anything new to say at this stage in his career? If he did would people want to hear it or were they there to hear the same thing over and over and over again?

 I truly don’t know, but one could surmise all of these things could be a factor and what caused this “Blabapalooza” as Varga called it in his article. It doesn’t however, in any way, excuse those offending parties.

We live in an age of excess. Everything can be taken for granted. This includes music. If we miss a musical passage because we were having a chat with the person next to us, no big deal. We can view a YouTube video of it when we get home. There isn’t a single song from Steve Winwood’s performances I’m guessing, that isn’t available on our computers that we couldn’t listen to for free anyway. So, a big-time concert such as this is just reduced to background music for our own socializing.

With all the entertainment options available to us in our own domiciles, we stay home more often. A concert is the only chance many folks have to socialize and do they ever take advantage of that opportunity! Why don’t these people just go out to dinner and have a conversation over a meal?

It is because they don’t want to miss anything. They want other people to know that they can afford an overpriced concert ticket. They can go back to their offices the next day and tell their colleagues that “I saw Winwood.” To that I would respond, “Yeah, but did you hear him douche-bonnet?”

It was in and around the same time that I saw Sinatra for the first and last time that I dropped out of the world of corporate, commercial music. By that time, and against all odds, I had found something else. I was no longer a predicable consumer of music. I could no longer find what I was looking for at a box store.

During these last thirty some years I have witnessed the decline of rhythm & blues music. Just like the way rock & roll became simply known as “rock” and any notion of its African-American heritage was being wiped clean for mass consumption, rhythm & blues simply became, “the blues” or still worse yet, “blues-rock”. It became white and it has been abused and fallen victim to much of the same historical revisionism.

The blues nightclub has all but disappeared, but this music survives in mostly menu venues aka restaurants which cater to everything but this music most of the time. Often bands have to perform in front of, underneath and surrounded by T.V.s showing the ubiquitous sporting events which have become a pervasive part of our collective consciousness.

The audiences for these performances are more mature. Oh hell, who am I kidding…they are not more mature, they are just plain old and exhibit the same crass behavior that marred that Sinatra gig thirty years ago…but with a twist.

Rather than listen to the music, much of the audience is made up of dumb shits making the heil Hitler sign with their smart phones. They are of course all video documentarians who are not living in the moment any more than the blathering Winwood windbags. They however think of themselves as doing some kind of public service by providing a YouTube video of their favorite musicians. On some level, it is almost as distracting and by my way of thinking just plain rude.

Then they start in with the Facebook posts and tags, during the performances mind you. I have friends who have never heard more than thirty seconds of a single performance…ever. Their addiction to their smart phones is so all encompassing that these devices serve as an excuse to not pay attention to the music that is being performed. “Hang on a minute. I have to tag my friends.”

Sitting next to someone who has lights flashing in their lap is just plain weird and of course distracting. These people, who have the attention span of a hummingbird on crack, can’t wait to tell their friends and associates on Monday what they did over the weekend and they don’t have to anymore. They can post on social media what they are doing, while they are doing it and where they are doing it….RIGHT NOW. Essentially, they are sharing a musical experience that they are not really experiencing. Narcissism has been taken to an entirely new level. “Look at me. I’m here and you’re not.”

How do people listen to music when they are not going to a live show? I’m guessing they don’t. Based on CD sales, this might be the case. Heck, new cars don’t even have CD players in them anymore. I know, I know there are streaming services, satellite radio and little outlets where the cigarette lighters used to be, but that’s not the point. 

My point is that if you are listening to music while driving or even walking down the street with your earbuds for that matter, you are still multi-tasking. Nothing wrong with that of course, but how many people go home and put on a CD or vinyl disc and walk over to a comfortable chair and just listen? Not many I suspect, yet this is what is expected of you at a concert. Sit down, shut up and listen. Not too many people can do this anymore. It is practically impossible for a nation full of overly caffeinated, over stimulated, hyper connected, busy bodies on sensory overload with an inflated sense of their own importance, doing Jell-O shots to kick back and just listen.

It is worth a try and I encourage you to do just that…especially if you are anywhere near me. It might be difficult at first and it might take some practice, but the rewards are truly worth the effort.

As a public service, I’ll also give you something new you can add to your, things to do list. “Go and hear live music this evening and shut my cake hole while the musicians are performing.”

-  David Mac