picture the modern gig, if you will.
be it an up-and-coming indie band, chart topping guitar rock, eye-liner heavy emo-punks or dank haired metal fans at the latest post-hardcore offering.
I put it to you that we have three ingredients here. Three items that will accompany each other, generally hand-in-hand-in-hand. Take a smatterring of uncomfortable heat, splice it with an unhealthy dose of testosterone and watch our third part materialise itself in a swift masculine action: protection.
Mixed together this can be a lethal concoction of true male emotions brought out by the occasional seasoning of alcohol. It, like many good dishes, can be accentuated by a small dose of booze, but I’d like to argue it isn’t a necessary addition for the ultimate result.
Our first base, heat, is a given in any tight-packed environment where a mass of people are made to stand for hours on end in close-proximity getting slowly more and more irate at the prolonged absence on stage of their new-favourite band.
The second seems to unmask itself often as an accompaniment with the third. I feel it’s fair to say in such circumstances that the two can go together. Where we see protection of those close to us, we often see a heightened sense of testosterone (or ‘masculinity’ in this sense).
The close proximity and ‘on-edge’ atmosphere can lead things a little closer to that edge than normal.
It’s when all 3 are dealt out, with the (un)healthy side plate of alcohol, that an unwanted food poisoning can occur.
This long-winded introduction is a mere starter for my main course of a tale from the pit.
The scene: roughly 2000 people on the dance floor of Leeds’ O2 Academy awaiting the arrival of one ‘Jimmy Eat World’ on stage. Not known for their aggressive fans, nor even idiotic behaviour. In fact more known as a band that creates beautiful, emotion driven music to be enjoyed by listeners.
The actors: Here we have the main protagonist, M, the lead female, S, and their co-stars D and N. Other players skirted on edges.
Synopsis: Prior to the band’s arrival M and S had overheard friends of N and D laughing at how one of said friends had apparently urinated into a cup. Since such an act would be base and disgusting our leads dismissed it as drunken student stupidity and let it be. Fast-forward 7 minutes and Jimmy Eat World have descended onto the stage to deliver their opening song and are beginning their second, one of M’s favourites, A Praise Chorus. As the song begins S notices something disturbing and unprecedented in such surroundings. N has opened his trousers and is indeed peeing into a plastic cup. He procedes to put the cup on the floor and kick it over, thus soaking the floor that he, his friends, and M and S are standing in. Unhappy at his actions S challenges him as to what exactly he thinks he’s doing. Upon realising what has happened M too pipes up that such behaviour is unacceptable in current surroundings. N quickly scarpers only for D to appear to ‘stand up’ for his friend. What happened next consisted of a heated, testosterone filled moment that ended in M being reminded to enjoy the music by the supporting cast and the sheer disbelief in return when they were told of what exactly had played through only moments before.
I’ve trivialised this whole incident really by taking this style of approach here but the message I want to put out is here:
Yes, such ingredients can create a tense environment but when accompanied by glorious music like here there should be no distraction from the main focus of the evening. We can all be guilty of failure at certain times but at no point is it acceptable to break the boundaries and morals (yes, it is about morals) of the situation. We were quite disgusted that, even in an inebriated and immature state, someone could do such a thing.
It leads me to other questions where phrases like moral fabric and attitude of youth come to mind.
What we should have done is told the security straight away. But then would this have resolved the situation? Would they have been dealt with?
The gig turned out to be fantastic, if not a little wet around the shoes.
