David Emery Online

Greatness Happening Somewhere

13 August 2009

Is it them or is it me?

That’s the question I asked myself during The National show at Royal Festival Hall on Monday. The aforementioned ‘them’ is not the band, but the rest of the audience, who were having a great time.

I was not.

Now, that’s not to say that the band weren’t good, or put on a bad show or anything like that because they didn’t – they were on great form, played pretty much all the songs I was after and generally ticked all the boxes (including the ‘witty banter’ box). But it just didn’t ‘click’ and there’s only one reason for that: the venue.

Royal Festival Hall is, of course, a stunning place with amazing acoustics but the key problem for me was the seats – surprisingly enough, I’ve never actually been to a seated gig before (short of a couple of shows in assorted churches, but that’s different), and boy does it suck. I’ve avoided them like the plague previously because I like nothing more then getting down the front at a gig, getting as close as possible and getting a real connection with not only the performers, but also the fans that are into it – and ‘connected’ – as well.

Instead at a seated gig you get none of that. No connection to the band, who are 50 odd meters away due to being stuck in your allocated seat with no hope of moving, and no connection with the audience short of being forced to alternate sitting down and standing up along with the people in front of us in a desperate attempt to see something.

It felt like there was a great gig happening in the room, but by the time it had reached where we were watching it from it had diminished significantly, like a radio station whose transmitter needs just a little bit more power.

So, seated gigs are firmly back on the “don’t bother” list, where they sit very nicely next to “big gigs” for very similar reasons. When I say “big gigs” I’m referring to your stadium or outside gig, to which Radiohead at Victoria Park was the last one I went to and will ever go to. Shows like that, and The National show this week, aren’t why I see live music.

It needs to be loud. It needs to be intimate enough so that you can see the slight smile from the bassist when he plays a duff note. It needs to be about listening and appreciating, not getting pissed with some background music.

Anything less just isn’t worth bothering with.