We went to see Squeeze and the guy in front of me was playing games on his phone the whole time. He came alone and barely paid attention. Why did he buy a ticket?
We went to see Squeeze and the guy in front of me was playing games on his phone the whole time. He came alone and barely paid attention. Why did he buy a ticket?
Picture of Difford and Tilbrook playing Hourglass since I didn’t take a picture of the guy who paid an admission fee to sit in a loud room and do crosswords on his phone.
Charitably, could be an attention issue. I've had to start learning about ADHD as I'm basically the only one in my nuclear family without it, and a common thing is needing to be doing something while listening.
It is mildly infuriating at the best of times to have someone constantly fidget and squirm and not acknowledge you while you talk, but listening doesn't always look like listening unfortunately.
Though, I haven't heard of this specific thing while at a concert it's not beyond imagining that it's just a tactic to accommodate their own needs.
If he is accommodating his own needs and those needs involvie being a distraction, maybe he could have bought a ticket for the mostly empty back row so his phone wouldn’t shine in other people’s faces.
True. Being inconsiderate is not ADHD specific, fine to call it out
It could also be a case of severe addiction; I’ve too often been at (different kinds of) performances where people felt the need to play games or watch sports (at their kid’s school play no less), too often for adhd. And many times it’s a boomer, so the screen goes on max brightness for visibility.
I’m thankful I’m always inattentive while listening so everyone just kinda knows from the start.
I'm sorry. Squeeze is such a fun show! Sometimes shit happens - this was my view at Weezer in 2010.
I don't mind someone doing whatever on their phone out of sight. But this shit drives me insane. You won't watch that damn video ever again in your life, stop ruining it for everyone else!
And he will never really watch those videos more than one time. Which means it would have been better not filming and enjoying the performance right there, in better quality.
That would have pissed me off so much if it was last night because Squeeze is one of my favorite bands and I've wanted to see them since I was in elementary school.
There was another guy a few rows down capturing video with his lights on. Thankfully, he only did it a couple of times for about 30 seconds, but I felt bad for all the people he was shining that light on, and another lady who thought no one could see or smell the huge cloud from the vape she was "secretly" bending down and hitting every few minutes. This was in an indoor theater. I'm glad there were no kids around.
Why are people so damn inconsiderate of others?
Infuriating. I'm thankful honestly when I've been to shows that force you to put your phone in a secured container that you cannot access during the show. Makes it a million times better
Don't ruin your own experience because someone else is enjoying it differently than you like to
Kind of hard to have as good an experience as I otherwise might have had without a guy’s bright phone shining in my field of view.
Squeeze is great, sucks that you were distracted
In terms of concert distractions that was pretty good, asocial vs hostile. One concert I went to before COVID, some jerk literally elbowed his way to the front.
He took a few punches before getting hoisted over the barrier so w/e
Theaters here ask people not to text during the movie. It's not about sound distraction, it's a bright, visual distraction.
I saw a woman use her phone constantly for a comedy show that she was also more than 30 minutes late for. I couldn't understand why she even came and it was incredibly distracting for me.
You know what you need to do with that guy's phone.
Take it to the bridge...
Throw it overboard...
See if it can swim...
Probably because of friends and family
Nope, he was by himself. I don't know why he went.
Anyone who says the guy was "enjoying the show differently" is an idiot. They were just screwing up the show for the people behind them, and they're probably a sociopath.
As for possible reasons he was on his phone;
- Argument with partner/friend - possibility resulting in them not going - spilled into the show via text (should have left)
- Planted security, already seen the show a dozen times, just waiting for something rowdy enough to require intervention
- Music/event/venue reviewer (seen all kinds of reviewers who apparently have a 5 second memory insist on taking notes in-situ. Movie critics are the fucking worst about this.)
- Work "emergency", fixing from phone
Could probably come up with more, but it would be along these lines.
Like I said, he was playing games on his phone, so there was no emergency. We watched him do a crossword puzzle while we were trying to not be distracted.
Oh jeez. Missed that part.
Okay, yeah, either the security guard thing, or maybe their group was elsewhere and they were the designated driver or something? I dunno, totally dumb that they we in the middle of the audience and not in the back row or in their car.
Did they at least play Cool for Cats?
(This is the only song of theirs I know)
They did. It’s one of the few songs sung by Chris Difford instead of Glenn Tilbrook even though they almost always get co-writing credits and rarely do other band members (who rotate in and out all the time anyway). Unfortunately, his voice is not what it used to be. Tilbrook, on the other hand, sounded almost as good as he did 50 years ago.
The really funny thing about Difford is that I always heard he was shy, but he spent most of the show so that the lights weren’t on him. Which is fine with me. I could still see him play.
I’m curious why it mildly infuriated you. Why do you care in an emotionally charged way?
Because having a light shining in my face while watching a band I've waited to see since I was 10 makes me care.
Sort of like I'm guessing you would care if you were in a movie theater and the person in front of you directly in your field of vision was looking at their bright phone the whole time.