Shakira fans takes photos and video while she performs during a concert at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio. (2010/File Photo)
This story originally ran on A1 of The Press-Enterprise on Nov. 29, 2010.
BY VANESSA FRANKO
STAFF WRITER
They’re phones. They’re appointment books. They’re calculators. They’re even glow sticks.
The rise of high-tech gadgets allows concert attendees to disengage from the experience to record shaky memories for posterity – and for posting on YouTube, much to some artists’ chagrin and to others’ promotional delight.
“The cell phone is the modern-day equivalent to a cigarette lighter,” said Robert Bledsoe, spokesman for Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula.
But, for fans who’d rather enjoy the music than snap a photo, they can be a royal pain.
“How can you get into it if you’re holding the phone?” asked Alphonso Jimenez, of Fontana, a music fan and member of Inland metal band Ana Kefr.
Ditto from artists who resent having their work collected illicitly and shared via YouTube and other Web megasites while their fans turn into zombies under the spell of a viewfinder.
“It’s one of those things that anybody you talk to in any band talks about it, like ‘Wow, wasn’t it great when everybody wasn’t on their phone during the show?'” said Steve Gorman, drummer for The Black Crowes, a band that has asked fans to stop using their phones at concerts.
The band took its cues after seeing fellow rockers Wilco ask its audience to refrain from using the gadgets during shows. Other artists, including Prince, have gone further, removing amateurs’ work from YouTube.
“It’s extraordinarily irritating,” Roger Waters of Pink Floyd told the Dallas Morning News. “All these people holding up these horrid little squares of bright light.”
“If you’re sitting there and yapping on the phone, you’re way out of line,” said Bill Gould, promoter for Live at the Merc in Temecula and a musician himself. He said that a quiet, intimate show has different rules than a loud rock concert.
But Gould said that, increasingly, fans are establishing widely accepted etiquette for phones at shows. An intimate show? Shhhhh. But a 100-decibel arena show? No harm, no foul.
Like it or not, the cell phone is reshaping the live music experience.
“For years and years there was a ban on cameras at shows,” said Dave Brooks, senior writer of the venue trade publication, “Venues Today.” Now, clubs and concert halls are taking a different tack.
“I see venues embracing it,” Brooks said. Facilities such as The Wiltern in Los Angeles, Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas and Yankee Stadium in New York have installed wireless receivers to make it easier for fans to share their files.
Other venues, such as The Roxy in Hollywood, which were traditionally very anti-camera, have completely flipped, offering incentives for patrons who post photos and videos to the Internet.
The Internet videos have amped up the profile for some sites. Ciara Green, spokeswoman for Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, said she still receives search engine alerts for videos posted by Adam Lambert fans when the former “American Idol” contestant performed at the complex in February.
“Every person at that show whipped out their phone,” Green said.
The policy at both Pechanga and Fantasy Springs is that professional cameras are not allowed without a photo pass.
At Pechanga, videotaping policies are determined by the acts themselves, Bledsoe said, but sometimes cell phone taping is stopped by security when it is obvious. It was more strictly enforced when comedian Kathy Griffin filmed a television special at the complex this September.
Bledsoe has noticed that the activity depends on an artist’s demographic. There are pages and pages of videos of “American Idol” winner David Cook at Pechanga from New Year’s Eve in 2009 on YouTube, but few of Johnny Mathis’ Christmas show at the venue.
Some artists are asking fans to give it a rest, including rock band The Black Crowes, who will perform at Spotlight 29 Casino in Coachella on Dec. 8. The band asks fans to not take pictures or record video during their sets.
“If you remove people’s ability to text and take pictures they actually tune into the show a lot more,” Gorman said from a recent tour stop in Baltimore. “I understand it; I go to things and take pictures. We all have phones that we use, but just by simply saying ‘Please don’t take pictures,’ it gives everyone the freedom to not have to feel like they’re sharing what they’re doing with everyone.”
The band has received a positive response in talking to fans after the show, as they note how much more enjoyable the concert experience was. The band also feels a better vibe during the show, Gorman said.
“It almost can sound silly to talk about it, but the fact is it just makes it more enjoyable for everybody,” he said.