weeknight concerts

photo by chad wadsworth

i used to think that austin could schedule a concert any night of the week and still have great crowds. now, i'm not so sure. the first red flag for me was spoon at scoot inn a couple of weeks ago. the crowd was very low energy and the only thing i could think to blame it on was the fact that it was a tuesday night. 

last night, for elvis perkins in dearland, the parish decided to up the ante on mellow crowds by putting CHAIRS on the floor in front of the stage. as if a monday night crowd wasn't going to be mellow enough? everyone sitting in the chairs looked like they were either asleep or half asleep for most of the show, despite the fact that most of the songs they played were rather upbeat. i hate when people use the term "fail" but this is the prime time to use it. the "seated" tickets were the same price as regular GA tickets but since i had NO idea what "seated" meant for the parish, i didn't buy one. a few people with seats ended up standing in front of the stage but for the most part, the area in front of the stage was deadsville. 

another awful side effect of the chairs was that we all had to stand around the perimeter of the venue...where all the talkers hang out. a couple songs in they played my favorite e.p. song called "emile's vietnam in the sky" and the two old dudes in front of me talked the entire way through it. i was already planning to ask them to either be quiet or move to the back when carlos told me he would buy me a drink if i confronted them about the talking. score! i was very polite to them and one of them was really apologetic but the other one was kind of a dick. they ended up moving a few minutes later. i was relieved until...the bros took over their spot. a bunch of fratty, douchey guys stood right in front of us and talked a lot. about stupid shit. they were so super annoying so we ended up having to move. so that's another reason why chairs at the parish sucks: real fans are forced to stand to the side with the talkers. booo.

other than the talkers, there was NOTHING happening in the crowd. no dancing, or head bobbing, or anything. it was really off-putting. it just makes me wonder what that show would have been like on a saturday night? austin is supposed to be the "live music capital of the world" but recently it hasn't felt like the residents are living up to it.