Comment Archives: Stories: Arts+Movies
Re: “Local audiences need a lesson in etiquette”
Agree with the article, and most of the responses, but one correction. Iron & Wine is just Sam. Like Prince, Lenny Kravitz, and a few other highly talented musicians, they play all the instruments on their recordings, but have a band for live performances.
Re: “CIFF Night Two: Shorts”
Thanks so much for the thoughtful review folks! I am so grateful!
It's barely Monday morning here in Australia - but that's just made my week!
I'm glad you enjoyed the film :)
With kind regards,
Kim - writer/director - The Boy Who'd Never Seen Rain
Re: “Local audiences need a lesson in etiquette”
I went to a show once and it was terrible. It was in a dank basement. There was no PA system. Just four dirty kids banging on pawn shop instruments through horrible amps. Noise, noise, noise. People were pushing and shoving and there was no personal space at all! And there was smoke and beer being spilled everywhere and people were shouting and screaming and basically just making the whole thing very messy.
And it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
And we did it every weekend.
Re: “Local audiences need a lesson in etiquette”
Nice article on CNN about the phenomenon of people preferring to cell-video live events when they could be actually watching them:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/26/tech/social-…
Re: “Local audiences need a lesson in etiquette”
This is a nationwide problem not a local one. Piss poor manners or no manners is a national coast to coast epidemic. Local has nothing to do with this. I experienced this recently at the Met in NYC for a opera. Perhaps this is upbringing or peer pressure mob mentality, who knows. Do what I do, call them out on it. It makes me feel better and many times other people pipe in once its out there.
Re: “Local audiences need a lesson in etiquette”
Thanks for writing this.
Re: “Local audiences need a lesson in etiquette”
Dear Ms. Rhyne,
I've noticed this, too. For years. It does suck. My biggest peeve with Charleston audiences (especially theatre ones) - they are LATE. Always late. I've even heard angry patrons scream "Everyone in Charleston is late!" at the ticket sellers because they arrived to a show late and no late seating was allowed. The latest example I saw of this was when my husband bought us tickets to see Les Miserables at NPAC for my birthday. We arrived in plenty of time and the show began promptly at 7:30. However, 20-30% of the audience arrived after the show had begun and caused such a commotion when let into the theatre that my husband (who has never seen the show) missed part of the opening number as rude late people came in who had tickets in the middle of our aisle. If anything, your article was too nice towards these offending people. Still a great article, and I'm glad someone wrote about this.
Re: “Local audiences need a lesson in etiquette”
Leah's article gives three examples but ignores their common threads: the offending parties were drinking heavily, and our cultural view of performing art has shifted greatly in the last 10-20 years so that we view the event as being about ourselves instead of about the art.
We have a local culture that embraces drinking as essential to having fun on a night out. A drunk crowd is a rowdier, noisier crowd. I see fewer pop music concerts than I used to, since a Vince Gill concert I took a family member to was ruined by two drunk women in front of us screaming "WOO" during the quietest songs. Oddly, I did not see that behavior in a Beyoncé arena show on her last tour, maybe because she has more consistently loud, heavily produced sound that grabs attention (and drowns out distractions). I did see it in a Rufus Wainwright show. Maybe the contemporary music crowd is different, but I've seen the same loutish behavior creeping into more formal classical music events and theater. I once had a 30ish couple in front of me at an expensive Spoleto opera chitchatting constantly. After I gave them several dirty looks, they finally spoke up and asked if I had a problem. I suggested they consider staying home and watching a DVD. She huffed; he was embarrassed; they moved to other seats; the soprano sang on so at least I got to hear a little of a gorgeous aria. Since that experience, I have been attending fewer Spoleto events. Maybe it's like Gresham's Law and the bad audience always drives out the good.
Our culture is changed compared to a decade or two ago. Punk aside, good art might be quiet and less commanding of an ADD-afflicted audience's attention than loud art. An audience has to make the commitment to concentrate or take their Adderall or whatever they need to do. People are less likely to view going to a cultural event as a reason to focus, or even to dress formally. Instead, we view it narcissistically as a great occasion to party, with the live performance as our personal party soundtrack.
Re: “Local audiences need a lesson in etiquette”
"Can we drop the whole Local/Southern people are raised to have manners/Go back home Yankee shit, please?"
Maybe when we drop this shit:
"OK, Charleston. I've noticed a really annoying trend since moving here 10 years ago... Will you kindly remember your genteel Southern manners and let the rest of us enjoy the show?"
Re: “ArtFields takes over Lake City”
I too enjoyed a delightful trip to Lake City, and Art Fields yesterday!
A group of twelve friends traveled from Columbia to Lake City to enjoy Art Fields.
We first enjoyed a side trip to Darla Moore's grounds and a fantastic tour of the gardens. Following our tour, we continued on to Lake City where we thoroughly enjoyed Lake City and all the wonderful art. We dined, shopped and visited with locals and merchants throughout the afternoon. Our day from beginning to end was a delight.
We had one annoying experience with an artist couple that basically attacked everyone that walked into the store that their particular art was being displayed. Their approach was more then annoying and I later found out that they had not only approached every customer coming and going in the store their art was displayed, but even went into other shops and solicited votes, even in front of the artists in the other shops.
I understand they must be very excited and thrilled to be one of the artists chosen to participate, but I found it obnoxious and it turned me off completely from them, and their work. None of the other artists in that store or the other stores I visited displayed the same type of behavior.
Next year we may consider staying overnight in order to enjoy even more of Art Fields and Lake City. Hopefully next year, all the artists will allow their work to promote them, rather then the artist promoting themselves in the aggressive way this couple choose to do it.
Re: “Local audiences need a lesson in etiquette”
Derek Cohen: that's exactly what I am saying....an audience going freaking nuts is far better than a quiet audience.
Re: “Local audiences need a lesson in etiquette”
Can we drop the whole Local/Southern people are raised to have manners/Go back home Yankee shit, please? It is an overused, inaccurate, and lazy argument. There are assholes from everywhere. There are people that grew up in Charleston that are assholes, too. And there are great people from all over the place living here. I live in Charleston, and I grew up here, but I have lived in other cities, too. And I don't care at all about a person's place of origin, nor do I see a consistent link between behavior and "local" status.
Regarding the article, I have seen hundreds of shows at bars and at least 50 or 60 stadium/amphitheater concerts in Charleston and around the country, and I have trouble imaging a band playing so quietly throughout their set that you can't hear them because of people talking loudly. It might be because I see bands that tend to be loud. But, I understand that it is frustrating to see a band you're excited about and not be able to enjoy it because of those around you.
It it isn't the talking or drunk behavior that I find problematic. It is the lack of audience participation or engagement. When I see a band that is rocking out or getting funky and I look around to see people just standing or sitting there staring forward, it baffles me. I see that behavior far more often than rude loud talking.
I don't think you can compare the audiences at plays and concerts. It is a different set of rules. Plays definitely demand behavior that doesn't disturb the actors or other attendees. But shows at bars, clubs, arenas, etc. are fair game for talking and dancing and drinking.
Re: “Local Bravo reality show will star T-Rav, other 'Southern aristocracy'”
I think it's abhorrent that our fine city will be stained by a crap reality tv show. It's exploitive. BTW, nothing against the aristocracies of Charleston as they are our roots, but that part of Charleston's culture is NOT what has currently put Charleston on the Global map. Charleston has evolved and come so far in the past 10 years to establish ourselves as the #1 city in the world for PROGRESSIVE culture, dining, fashion, art, technology, etc. All this does is cheapen who we are and sets everything back. SERIOUSLY? So we really want to be associated with a hyper-reality produced TV show? We fail if it bombs and we fail if it's successful. When are we all going to stop thinking it's ok to "live vicariously" through these reality tv shows?
Re: “Local audiences need a lesson in etiquette”
This is a business problem which can be solved by business means. Problem: ticket sales are being affected by rude patrons at events. Solution: hire one person, introduced at the beginning of the show, to be the quiet enforcer or some other more upbeat name. Tell the audience to be quiet during the performance. The enforcer tells people to be quiet if they are being loud or get reported by other patrons. The issue is, by doing nothing, the venue is asking its customers to enforce policy, and most people are not gutsy enough to do this.
Re: “Jail Break frees artists from the chains of boring venues”
That might be hard to do.
Re: “Local audiences need a lesson in etiquette”
Maybe you are going deaf? Did you ever have your hearing checked. Uncouth behavior of drunken fools is one reason I have such a limited social life. They are everywhere you go. You can't possibly enjoy yourself. I realize they are self medicating because of the extreme stress of living in a country with such pathetic leadership, but my gosh. They should just hang a large poster of you and your lovely smile in their den, turn on some music and booze at home. A few places, like Jack's in Ladson, have a normally restrained croud; a great Karoke venue thanks to the Bear; and a good sound system. But that crowd is mostly and community based. The places you are going to has mostly tourist, transplants, college students who could care less about manners. Anywho, without these clowns, CCP would be out of business and you know it.
Re: “Local audiences need a lesson in etiquette”
$10 says the drunk couple aren't from here.
Re: “Jail Break frees artists from the chains of boring venues”
Next time you might want to post a pic where at least a couple people look like they are enjoying the band ;)
Re: “Local audiences need a lesson in etiquette”
This needed to be said. There's nothing worse than hecklers and inconsiderate people.
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Re: “Kathie Lee and Hoda taking over the Cistern Thursday”
Because of the amount of people going, what time should locals show up?