Frampton: "It's Rock and Roll, So tough..."

[zontar]

Videotaping a concert sounds cool, but if you've ever videotaped something you'll notice that you pay all your attention to your video device and totally miss the concert itself, completely missing out on the fun of being at a live performance in the first place.

It does seem counterproductive to do it that way.
Some acts allow cell phone recording--as long as you aren't selling it.
But the quality isn't great-but it can be a way to remember the concert.
And if you do it--still buy their music.

 

[FretNoMore]

Videotaping a concert sounds cool, but if you've ever videotaped something you'll notice that you pay all your attention to your video device and totally miss the concert itself, completely missing out on the fun of being at a live performance in the first place.

This is what I've learned in my other hobby, photography. If I bring the camera I become a photographer, standing outside the event looking in rather than experiencing it. It's a choice, either take pictures or take part in the event. I don't like it when people say "you're a photographer, can you take some pictures at the party/company event/wedding", because that means I will miss the fun everyone else is having. Hire me as a photographer or I'll leave the camera at home.

 

[smeet]

People are jerks, and they don't care if their freedumb impinges on your life. Flicking butts and throwing wrappers out of the car, sticking their iPhones and iPads in your face so they can tape something and block your view, having loud phone calls in movies... Man, if I had a rocket launcher...

 

[AaronVonRock]

Some comedian had a great line about being at a concert and wishing it would hurry up and finish so he could go home and watch it on Youtube.

 

[dalkowski]

I think technology has maybe changed faster than we can keep up with the last couple of years. We're in some kind of social trial and error phase it seems, give it some time and hopefully we'll have sorted out some acceptable rules and behaviour.

Anyone here read "The Circle" by Dave Eggers? I found it to be a rather chilling vision of where the pace of this technology may take us in the not-to-distant future. Recommended.

 

[Vlad5]

This is what I've learned in my other hobby, photography. If I bring the camera I become a photographer, standing outside the event looking in rather than experiencing it. It's a choice, either take pictures or take part in the event. I don't like it when people say "you're a photographer, can you take some pictures at the party/company event/wedding", because that means I will miss the fun everyone else is having. Hire me as a photographer or I'll leave the camera at home.

I'm a commercial photographer (hobbyist bassist), and if I had a nickel for every time someone invited me to a party and suggested I take photos I could probably retire.
Yeah, no problem, I'll just sit back and photograph you all enjoying yourselves. Lame.

So yeah, either you're photographing the event, or you're part of it.
Never works both ways.
Unless your bird watching or something.

 

[dalkowski]

So yeah, either you're photographing the event, or you're part of it.
Never works both ways.

I'm a writer myself and yep, you nailed it. I believe you can't possibly be fully engaged/connected an event/object/site/whatever if you're documenting it.

 

[blue4]

Most people just use the camera to snap a few photos for the scrapbook or a few minutes of video for the bar after. I get much more annoyed by the guitarist noodling between songs or the singers painful crowd banter.

 

[Frank Tuesday]

Who's Peter Frampton?

He's a guy that made a musical motion picture in 1978 with the Bee Gees called Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The songs all sounded kind of familiar. I think some of them might have been hits back in the '60s.

 

[Mark Reccord]

I have a couple of close friends that met Frampton separately and said he is a complete @$$hole. I don't like to start these "my friend's, cousin's, garbageman's, accountant's father in law says..." rumours but more than a few bands that have opened for him say the same. Just not a nice guy. Kim Mitchell of Max Webster fame (if you can call it that) told a story on the radio in Toronto with his experience when opening for Frampton. Pretty funny that a now B level performer has so much attitude.

The camera thing can get annoying, but no need to whine about it or throw a guy's phone. That's what security is for!

YMMV....

I've mixed monitors for Peter Frampton on a couple of occasions and he was nothing but gracious and kind both times despite some major technical glitches the first time. I didn't get the "rock star attitude" vibe from him at all. Now Ann Wilson and Pat Benetar, on the other hand...

This seems a bit heavy handed of him but I get why he did it especially after the audience member refused to stop when specifically asked to and security didn't intervene.

 

[Liam Wald]

He was also the iconic frontman of a little known punk band called The Misfits

I have never heard the terms iconic and little known used together in reference to the same thing???????????

 

[lamarjones]

He asked a dude to put it away, and the dude didn't. Dude got what he deserved.

That said, the phone thing isn't going away, and almost every technological change out there has been met with sour grapes at some point. As far as recording with inferior technology, at shows where they don't mind a zoom q4 is amazing for what it does.

Getting in the way of other people would be my only gripe. Then again, courtesy is a huge thing for me. Both for the people experiencing and the people who want to document.

I have never heard the terms iconic and little known used together in reference to the same thing???????????

That is because there is a smiley face after little known, trying to let you know that they were actually a huge influence and Danzig went on to do a lot of fairly major stuff.

 

[Coolhandjjl]

....... if I had a rocket launcher...

No, that's Bruce Cockburn. A real musical artist.

 

[smeet]

No, that's Bruce Cockburn. A real musical artist.

If he had written that song today, he would have included a line about butt-heads on their iPhones.

 

[Vlad5]

Does Frampton feel like I do?

I was at a Reverend Horton Heat show where some drunk guy insulted him mid-song.
Horton leaned over as if to hear the guy better and socked him in the face from onstage.
Didn't miss a note on his guitar as far as I could tell.
Funniest thing I've seen at a concert in years!
Horton told security to drag the guy out and they did.
A few songs later some goon swings his beer bottle at and splashes Horton and his guitar.
Rev. Heat stops the song, and goes into a lecture about crowd etiquette and basic social decency, about 30 seconds into it says,
"Never mind... will someone drag this jerk out of here so I can move on?"
Security obliged, the crowd loved it.
Horton started the song over and moved on.
Good show.

 

[zontar]

Man, if I had a rocket launcher...

or a rocking lawn chair...

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

Yes, sometimes its kids, sometimes it's old people with too much time to kill.

Its no worse than a group of people drinking too much. Or a group of "bros" who can't control the volume of their voice. Or the busybody who loudly sighs every time someone's doing something they don't like.

Well then, feel free to bury your nose in your cellphone. I'll feel free to be a busybody rolling my eyes.

 

[dalkowski]

I have never heard the terms iconic and little known used together in reference to the same thing???????????

Velvet Underground

 

[David Jayne]

or a rocking lawn chair...

I've got one. It rulz.

 

[ShoeManiac]

Good for Frampton. I'm personally sick of paying money to be at a show only to have my view obstructed by people who feel the need to record the gig on a smartphone or iPad. It's obnoxious. It's totally inconsiderate to anyone standing behind these people. And Frampton was right: how many of these people ACTUALLY watch their own videos?

Clearly Frampton was making an example of the one guy. Why? Because he was close enough to do something about it. And maybe this one act would get people to snap out of this mindless desire to record everything simply because they can.

I was actually tempted to photograph/record a gig I went to a couple of years ago. But when I got there I saw all of the professional cameras that had been set up to document this particular show. It was pretty clear that this gig was being recorded and would eventually be released. The video and sound quality of that was bound to be far better than what I could record from the floor of the Izod Center with my iPhone. And sure enough, there was a DVD/BluRay release as well as a CD release of the 'Love for Levon' gig released within the following year. Now will every gig get recorded? No. But more acts are offering up live recordings like these in an effort to broaden their income streams. Another case in point? I saw the Allman Brothers Band during their stand at NYC's Beacon Theater in March. I've been wanting to see one of these gigs for a long time. I've only ever seen the Allmans from the Beacon on television, but I know that those recordings are out there. The best thing of all? The Allmans record their sets and offer them for download almost immediately! I can actually buy a professionally recorded and mixed version of the show.

Be there. Be in the moment. You bought a ticket to see someone perform live. Enjoy that live experience. Odds are that if you want to check out some live shows on YouTube, invariably someone, very likely the ARTISTS THEMSELVES, has made something like that available. And it doesn't look or sound like $***.