Gig-Goer of the Week, Part 4

So, tonight we’ve been to see The Boy Least Likely To at the Academy 3. Per usual, the proper review is forthcoming, this really needs saying instead.

Now, I’ve said it a few times, but I’m tiny. At gigs I have a hard time finding a place to see. Tonight was a bumper night because I found a spot near the front but not right at the front (which is always better) behind and to the left of a group of 3 teenage girls, 2 of whom were almost as small as me. They were stood where they were because there were small females in their line of vision to the stage as well. On the other side of them were two women, also quite small in stature. For me this is the greatest thing that can happen at a gig – finding myself in a clump of friendly, small females who understand my predicament and who are going to be friendly and polite and will enjoy themselves and not talk through the whole performance. Yay.

So, about 2 minutes before the band come on this woman elbows up beside me, trying to get in the small gap between me and the young girls. So, I moved half an inch, just in an attempt to assert where I’m standing. So she takes this as a cue to elbow me a few times. I love it, really, people who rock up just as the band come on, push their way to the front and cause everyone to be uncomfortable and lose their view. When this woman realised I was not moving for her she stepped back a bit. I thought I was safe. Ha.

About a song and a half into the set this woman and her boyfriend decided to move, so they shoved past me quite roughly, past the girls in front of me and down into the front/middle of the crowd. They were promptly ejected as they’d pushed in where there was no space. So they thought it would be okay to move to in front of the girls in front of me and they got shouted at by the crowd around them more. Then they tried to stop in front of me, and got shoved again, shouted at by me and the girls. So they ended up between me and The Ledge, who’d been stood behind me. I got a few more elbows before the woman realised I really was not moving for her and she shifted to be behind the two women on the other side of the girls. Then the boyfriend tapped me on the shoulder and said “I’m sorry.” I gave him a look which I think expressed exactly what I was thinking about his apology – he should not have done anything to warrant having to make it. He then leaned in to The Ledge and tried to justify his behavior only to be told that The Ledge was on my side and that I had a good reason for being annoyed as this sort of thing happens all too often to me. This is the point at which one of the women they were stood behind left for a couple of minutes to go to the bar.

Now, correct me if I’m wrong, somebody, but if someone leaves their spot at a not full show (any show really, but there was space here) and their friend stays, it’s polite to assume they’re coming back and will want to come back to where they were. I mean, why would you not let them do that?

Apparently when you think you are the most important people in the gig and everyone should move for you is when.

Oh yes, first they tried to not let this girl back in where she had been stood. Then they decided to start screaming at her. All I could hear was “Move out of my way” and a few expletives. And the sound of shouting. And these two nice women trying to say that this couple needed to shut up and let them watch the gig, they weren’t moving cause they’d been there first. Which seemed fair to me. But this couple disagreed and spent a few minutes shouting at them about it, thereby nearly causing a fight and disrupting the gig for everyone in the vicinity. And it meant we missed the throwing of cake.

So here’s this week’s gig etiquette lesson:
You do not have a right to stand anywhere in particular. If someone is there before you, they do not have to move and you should not try to make them move just so you can see. If you want to be at the front arrive early. If you want to stand in front of someone smaller than you, be polite and ask them if it’s a problem. Don’t just barge in. And never assume that just because someone’s walked off and left their friends that they are not coming back.

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