I saw Journey, Foreigner, and Night Ranger last night. It was a pretty good concert. Felt kind of odd, though, because it’s the first arena show I’ve been to in years. Sitting down the entire time was weird, but kind of nice.
Here are some random thoughts I had during the show last night:
- If none of the original members are in the band, is it really that band? Or it is basically a cover band?
- Is it common for deaf people to attend rock concerts? I was really surprised to see a sign language interpreter down on the floor.
- Does anyone actually like it when bands play stuff from their new (usually unreleased) albums? It takes me a couple listens of a song or an album to really appreciate it, so I really don’t enjoy hearing new stuff at concerts.
- Is it really necessary to shriek like a banshee? It sounded like the girl behind me was getting attacked. And she about did, by my fist.
As to your first point, sounds like you got yourself a Ship of Theseus paradox right there. As to the second, a lot of deaf people like loud music, because they can feel it, and if they aren’t profoundly deaf, they can hear it to some degree.
I have mixed feelings about new songs at concerts. Sometimes that’s the best time to hear a song, when it’s still a little raw and not too pat or produced. Sometimes it’s just a lull in an otherwise exciting concert.
Yeah, I figured they might like being able to feel it, or could hear it to some degree. It just struck me as kind of odd, as I’d never seen or thought about it before.
I think it depends on who you’re seeing. When you’re seeing classic rock bands, you want to hear the classics. Unless you’re a diehard fan, you really don’t care too much about their new stuff. Especially when you consider my first point: if there are no or few original members, who are the ones who wrote the classic hits, then why would you want to hear new songs by a band that’s arguably not even the same band?