And Yet, It Would Be Unlike Me Not To Find Some Fault With Last Night's Show
I think that there ought to be a Rotten Tomatoes type site that aggregates ratings for just every day things. People could provide short reviews of a given topic, and you could then come up with a collective "rating" for what the public opinion is of something. It would be interesting to see the issues, that despite the atmosphere of devisiveness in the country caused by politics, religion, the anonymity of the internet, people still agree on. The first thing that comes to mind to me would be babies crying on an airplane. This would likely get a very high rating. It would not be unanimously despised though, because there are still people out there who can empathize with the difficulty of travelling with a baby. The fact that this horrible, onerous social situation would likely only get a 80-90% disapproval rating makes the following item even more shocking to me. The one item that I am sure that every person would agree on, no matter who you are, is that advertisements in movie theatres before the movie starts are stupid and irritating.
A quick internet search turns up several essays by like minded people: One, Two, Three. That took thirty seconds. Reading these sites, the main themes seem to be that you paid for the main attraction, that the main attraction is what you are there to see and that it is unfair and discourteous to subject you to something unrelated that you likely have no interest in. This post specifically objected to theatres that were unwilling to specify at what time the actual main attraction would start, so that those who wished to avoid the unwelcome ads could do so. Pretty much, there isn't a single person out there who likes the idea of paying for something you want to see, only to be inevitably trapped in situation you don't want to be in while you are subjected to entertainment you don't like.
Swearing At Motorists know the difficult role of Opening Band
Which brings me to the subject of opening bands. If I could change one thing about the process of live concert attendence, it would be to have some sort of schedule posted ahead of time. It wouldn't have to be set in stone, but it could go a little like this:
-Doors open at 8:30
-Local Amatuerish Opening Band will go on from around 9:30 to 10:00
-Tour Partner who is likely here because of label politics from 10:30 to 11:15
-The only band you're interested in and the only one you would conceivably pay money for will start at around 11:45
But instead we only get the ultra-vague first line. Now, I am all for supporting the arts. Up and coming bands need face time in front of a real audience, and it is true that occasionally you will catch a gem with an opening act. But for shows like last nights at the Casbah, it becomes less about enduring two additional average bands, and more about spending more time in a tiny hot room than it would take to rent, watch, and return The Deer Hunter. We didn't pay for these opening bands, we don't like the opening bands, and for the majority of us, we'd consider the experience to be far better with some of our favorite songs pumped through the house stereo at an enjoyable volume instead of these opening bands. Say what you will about the Coca-Cola movie trivia before movies, but at no point during it do you ever say to the people you came with, "Oh my god. This is really, really terrible. This is just horrible." With opening bands, there's unfortunately about a 40% chance of some variation of this being said.
Now the reason why my alternative scheduling will likely never happen is obvious. If you say the band is coming on at 11:45, I show up at 11:30. Last night i was at the Casbah at 9:30, and that is obviously two extra hours for me to be tempted by the infamous two dollar cans of PBR. But it is also time for me to sit and grow more and more exhausted and exaggerate more and more in my head how terrible the opening bands are. Fortunately, The Hold Steady performed the redemptive kind of Rock and Roll that made you forget about the two and a half hours you spent waiting for them.
The solution, as far as I can tell is an inadequate one. Try to call the venue and find out what their tentative schedule is. This is next to impossible, since the Casbah evidently only answers the phone for an hour, one day a week. They've also never responded to my emails inquiring about the schedule. Other times I've had more luck at other venues. If you can't get a time, you're going to have to play the guessing game, and unfortunately, it's always better to get there a bit early rather than mid-set. The only real way to get an advantage with your arrival time is to do some research into the opening bands. Read some reviews, see if there are any MP3s available, and adjust your arrival time accordingly. Just remember that there is always that small chance that you see an opening band that really speaks to you. And if you do arrive a few hours early, god forbid the Casbah be out of PBR.
