I am a crotchety old lady

[trinityvixen]

I am old. I'm not, but I totally feel it. I don't enjoy the sort of "cutting loose" that people my age do. I don't drink to excess to have a good time. (A margarita here or there to the point of being buzzed is as far as Trinity goes these days--I did my heavy drinking for one lifetime, thank you.) I do not do drugs or have any interest in trying them. I don't run around like a maniac. I just...it's not worth the effort or the consequences, man. I've even lost interest in any temporary body-mod things like dying my freakin' hair, that's how old I am.

So I go to a concert, right? And I am probably younger than 75% of the crowd, but I feel like I'm too old to be there. Because the crowd is full of people doing all those things that I don't feel add to my enjoyment of the music or the moment. They're smoking like five-alarm fires and drinking to drown whole schools of fish and moshing like paranoid meth-heads on a bender. I just--I don't need that bullshit to have a fucking fabulous time at a concert by one of my favorite bands. In fact, my fucking fabulous time was seriously shortened by fuckers doing those things and not giving a shit (or being too incapacitated by overpriced, shitty beer to notice) that they were killing the natural high the rest of us old-young people were able to get from just some goddamned loud music with total fannish abandon.

I was there in the crowd for, max, two hours, and my lungs burned. I've never had that happen, and I sat behind some guys ten years ago at a concert who smuggled a giant bong and two gallon-sized bags of pot and smoked the entire fucking thing. I have even smoked cigarettes and not had my trachea seize up in agony as the cells lining it DIED. I couldn't even finish the concert because I was grouchy, in severe pulmonary pain, and in constant fear that the fuckheads in the impromptu mosh pit that opened next to me were going to get another notion to just start charging my way again.

I think I'm too old for this shit. Or, I guess, I should say, that I'm too old to see any concert unless I'm assigned a fucking seat and it's indoors in a state where smoking indoors is tantamount to assault with a deadly weapon (which it fucking is). I don't think it will even matter as there is hardly any single band I follow any more that I would spend concert-ticket money on.

(Concert was good, don't get me wrong. My best pictures--such as they are--are here. Luckily, with time, the annoyance I felt will fade, but the thrill will stay with me.)

Comments

[shell524.livejournal.com]

This reminds me.... I was going to pull the videos and pictures off my phone from the Toadies concert, where yes... the two incredibly tall guys in front of me spent the entire thing smoking up and we were mere feet away from a small group of thrashing teenagers. The crowd at this thing was incredible... I've gone to several fairly big name concerts at this particular festival, but this was the most absurd crowd I've seen...

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

The thing is, with seats, this all gets better. Open admission style concerts are just going to have to be "not my thing." With seats, nominally, people have a place to be and they are there. The open place on the lawn is all first-come, first-serve, and even if you get a good spot, thousands of people will come through and try to squeeze in and maybe move on but maybe not. They're not going to care if they're blocking your view because they're only interested in their own. And as the night goes on and more intoxicants are consumed, it will just get more and more true.

Whereas if you have a seat, you can go, "GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY AREA." Because you have a space and a reason for being there. Grah.

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

I've done plenty of concerts and bought seating and people are just as likely to stand and block your view. I dunno if it's ever worth it for a big show like that.

[shell524.livejournal.com]

*Shrug* My biggest problem with standing room concerts is that I can't stand in one place for more than about 20 minutes. For Wildflower I used Mom's handicap parking permit because I KNEW that after standing around for an hour to two hours I wouldn't be walking very far. Forget any bouncing or jumping or people stepping on me or smoke, all that discomfort is just second to what my own goddamned body does to me.

Funny thing, though, one of the tall dudes become acutely aware of and extremely sorry about how tall he was once he was high and kept apologizing.

[viridian.livejournal.com]

I am honestly of the same opinion. The last two concerts I went to were only MEH, and I cannot handle smoke at all. I really only want to go when friends are going -- the music is never all that worth it, even for bands I enjoy.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

The smoke kills me. I am not kidding about the burning either. It burned as bad as acid reflux or the way your esophagus feels after you've just thrown up. ONLY IT WAS MY LUNGS.

And the music is often not worth it--not unless you know beforehand that such-and-such a band does a great concert. But by then it's probably too late.

[viridian.livejournal.com]

Bleh. I used to spend days with a stuffy nose after long car rides with two smoking parents; I'm allergic enough that it bugs me after more than a few hours of constant exposure. So basically I would have died or something, and it is for that reason that I cannot even hate you for seeing NIN without me.

And yeah, idk. Even the good concerts I've been to were really not THAT great. I might've gone to this one had I known about it because Trent Reznor's going on a break or some shit, but meh. I couldn't be arsed to even keep track of when they were coming here.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I've seen NIN before, and it was a better concert overall when they tour alone. Longer set, better music choices. (We love you, Trent, but for the love of god, no one listens to your new stuff.) But yeah, the experience would have killed me if it could have. Or I would have killed somebody. I'm happy I didn't end up in jail either way.

[saturn-shumba.livejournal.com]

I used to casually smoke once upon a time, so I find it odd that I have a lung breakdown when I hang around cigarette smoke for too long nowadays.

That said, I hear ya on all points. I pretty much gave up on concerts like that, for all the reasons you listed, plus one extra reason: I broke my ankle a couple of years ago and I just don't have it in me to rock out like I used to. Give me a small bar venue, and I'll be happy.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

My cousin who smoked said that she found being around smokers and inhaling the smoke worse than just smoking herself. Whatever joy the act of smoking gives a smoker? Absolutely none of that comes out when its other people's smoke in your face. Seriously, for as much bad shit as a smoker keeps in their body with each cigarette, they must exhale all the noxious stuff.

I wish I liked the kind of bands that meet in bars or smaller venues. I just don't know that many.