Hello readers!
I can not believe that this journey is even relatively close to coming to an end. Despite our classes concluding in February, school never felt like it was truly over, probably because I had to post on this blog every week. This project has been my lifeline, tying me back to the school that has been the center of my world for the past seven years. And with the conclusion of this project, that lifeline will be severed once and for all.
Regardless, the show must go on and I must complete this project. In five days I will be submitting my final paper. My findings isolated the most important aspects of a concert environment, related to the mob mentality and aggression, are the amount of space dedicated to each person and the disconnect in understanding of the roles each person must fulfill between the attendee and the security officers. In this blog post I'll be talking about the latter of these two options.
I first noticed this phenomenon at the first concert I attended for my research. At this concert (The Neighborhood), which was primarily populated by twelve to fourteen year old girls, many individuals in the crowd were pressed together at the front section of the crowd from early on. Based on my observations of their behavior, it was clear that most of these kids had not attended many general admission concerts before. And though I had probably been exposed to these behaviors before, I had never gone to a concert looking for them, and as a result overlooked them. The attendees were shouting for the attention of security endlessly and when the guards would finally make their way over to see why these individuals were calling for them, the individual would stop shouting and simply complain to the security officer about discomfort. The complaining individual did not even have any suggestions or requests to make. He or she simply wanted someone to listen to his complaints. It was very strange.
This behavior is especially problematic because in distracting security officers with problems that they are not required or expected to resolve, they are less able to attend to focus their efforts on actual problems that require their attention. In addition to that, this behavior creates a "boy who cried wolf" effect that will prove detrimental when the security officers show a delayed response time to an actual issue that requires their attention.
If theres one thing I learned about myself from this research, its that sometimes people outgrow certain artists. For example, Fall Out Boy played a show in Phoenix last night. Since fourth grade, I have been a fan of fall out boy. I remember choreographing dances with my friends to Dance Dance (also in 4th grade), I remember crying my little pop punk heart out when I found out they were going on hiatus in 2009 and I remember jumping out of my chair in my ninth grade biology class when I found out they were getting back together. But, after a weak revival album I was pretty turned off to the band and my taste for them began to fade. I have been to every fall out boy concert in Arizona since 2012, but I did not attend last night. Sometimes you're just too old. I did not like being the only 18 year old at The Neighborhood concert. I can only wait and see if I'll be in that position again.
Keep on keeping on readers!
Word count: 585
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Saturday, March 19, 2016
Too Close for Comfort
Hello readers!
Exciting news, my final research paper has been completed and submitted! Basically this means that I know have tangible results for my study. From my experience at the five concerts I attended, I found that the component that had the largest impact on the development of aggression at concerts was the amount of space designated to each individual within the venue.
What this means is that it when the venue is being built, the architect should take into account the capacity to size ratio. For example at the Marquee, the venue is built to accommodate a maximum of 2,500 people. Based on my experiences at the concerts, specifically at the Neighbourhood and Hoodie Allen, it was made apparent to me that the Marquee did not provide enough space for each individual. The crowd at Guster, which had maybe 700 people in attendance proved to me that an increased amount of space would indeed make a difference and minimize risk at concerts.
The lack of space at concerts has even had a literal impact in my life. In April 2015, I attended a small one day music festival hosted by a local radio station, alt az 93.3. The festival featured Panic! at the Disco, Death Cab for Cutie, Glass Animals, and Family of the Year. I attended with a few friends and we got into the crowd halfway through the second band's set. In front of us was a group of three women who had all clearly had several drinks. They were also relatively very large, so they took up a lot of space. It wasn't long before the biggest one tripped and fell on me. I caught us before we hit the ground though and it was alright. She apologized and I said it was okay and we went back to enjoying the concert. Not ten minutes later, the same lady turned around, looked at me, and angrily shouted, "Do you have some kind of problem?!" Everyone around me and I were confused. She continued to yell at me, stating that she could see through my disguise, and that she knew I was trying to push her, and maybe even steal her wallet or touch her inappropriately. I was completely blown away by this lady's shouting and told her that we were all standing in a crowd pressed together and that I had no special interest in her. She then looked me the eye and literally said, "just back off, or else." I literally couldn't believe it. I asked her what she meant by or else and she responded, I kid you not, by taking one step closer, pressing her nose against mine, blowing air out of her nose (much like an angry bull), and in a more breathy tone whispering "or. else." I started laughing. To me the idea that this lady would hurt me intentionally was ridiculous. Through my laughter I asked her if she was implying she was going to harm me. She nodded vigorously. This only made me laugh harder. I told her that would probably result in a lot of negative legal consequences for her. At this point everyone around us had noticed what was going on and one of the lady's friends pulled her out of the crowd. So I did not get fought. But clearly I was too close for comfort.
Keep on keeping on,
Sabrina
Count: 565
Exciting news, my final research paper has been completed and submitted! Basically this means that I know have tangible results for my study. From my experience at the five concerts I attended, I found that the component that had the largest impact on the development of aggression at concerts was the amount of space designated to each individual within the venue.
What this means is that it when the venue is being built, the architect should take into account the capacity to size ratio. For example at the Marquee, the venue is built to accommodate a maximum of 2,500 people. Based on my experiences at the concerts, specifically at the Neighbourhood and Hoodie Allen, it was made apparent to me that the Marquee did not provide enough space for each individual. The crowd at Guster, which had maybe 700 people in attendance proved to me that an increased amount of space would indeed make a difference and minimize risk at concerts.
The lack of space at concerts has even had a literal impact in my life. In April 2015, I attended a small one day music festival hosted by a local radio station, alt az 93.3. The festival featured Panic! at the Disco, Death Cab for Cutie, Glass Animals, and Family of the Year. I attended with a few friends and we got into the crowd halfway through the second band's set. In front of us was a group of three women who had all clearly had several drinks. They were also relatively very large, so they took up a lot of space. It wasn't long before the biggest one tripped and fell on me. I caught us before we hit the ground though and it was alright. She apologized and I said it was okay and we went back to enjoying the concert. Not ten minutes later, the same lady turned around, looked at me, and angrily shouted, "Do you have some kind of problem?!" Everyone around me and I were confused. She continued to yell at me, stating that she could see through my disguise, and that she knew I was trying to push her, and maybe even steal her wallet or touch her inappropriately. I was completely blown away by this lady's shouting and told her that we were all standing in a crowd pressed together and that I had no special interest in her. She then looked me the eye and literally said, "just back off, or else." I literally couldn't believe it. I asked her what she meant by or else and she responded, I kid you not, by taking one step closer, pressing her nose against mine, blowing air out of her nose (much like an angry bull), and in a more breathy tone whispering "or. else." I started laughing. To me the idea that this lady would hurt me intentionally was ridiculous. Through my laughter I asked her if she was implying she was going to harm me. She nodded vigorously. This only made me laugh harder. I told her that would probably result in a lot of negative legal consequences for her. At this point everyone around us had noticed what was going on and one of the lady's friends pulled her out of the crowd. So I did not get fought. But clearly I was too close for comfort.
Keep on keeping on,
Sabrina
Count: 565
Friday, March 4, 2016
Hello readers!
On Tuesday February 17th, I headed over to the Marquee for maybe the most ridiculous concert of the month. A tour headlining Swedish death metal bands, At The Gates and Decapitated made its stop at the Marquee that evening. There was no line outside the venue before the event.
At the Gates is a Swedish death metal band from Gothenburg, and a major progenitor of the Gothenburg Sound. Initially active from 1990 to 1996, the band reformed in 2007 for a reunion tour before breaking up once again in 2008. However, they reformed for a second time in December 2010, and have since continued to perform live. The band released At War with Reality, their first album in 19 years, in late 2014.
Decapitated is a Polish death metal band formed in Krosno in 1996. The group comprises guitarist, founder and composer Wacław "Vogg" Kiełtyka, vocalist Rafał Piotrowski, bassist Paweł Pasek, and drummer Michał Łysejko. Decapitated have gained recognition as one of the genre's most widely respected bands and one of the finest exponents of technical death metal. The band earned an international fan base in the underground music community, and became an innovating act in the modern death metal genre.
Vogg and his younger brother, drummer Witold "Vitek" Kiełtyka, founded Decapitated along with vocalist Wojciech "Sauron" Wąsowicz in their mid-teens, joined by bassist Marcin "Martin" Rygiel a year later. The band's ambitious fourth album, Organic Hallucinosis, was released in 2006 with a new vocalist, Adrian "Covan" Kowanek.
In late 2007, the band was involved in an automobile accident. Vitek died at the age of 23 on November 2, 2007 of the injuries he suffered from the accident and Covan survived, but he slipped into a coma as a result. After a period of disbandment, Vogg reformed Decapitated and in 2011 released the fifth album, Carnival Is Forever. The latest album, Blood Mantra, was released in 2014.
Only 400 tickets had been sold to this show by the time doors opened at 6:00 p.m.. The majority of the audience at this point was composed of people in their early 20’s wearing dark eye makeup and dark clothes. Despite this, there was also a decent number of older men that looked in their 40s, likely a result of the band’s popularity in the early 1990s.
The venue had hung up curtains halfway across the general admission floor, which was something I had never seen them do before. I inquired about the change to a security guard who was standing by. After congratulating me for asking such a thoughtful question (I could tell he liked the attention), the officer told me that the venue often brings out the curtain when less than 500 tickets are sold to a show. This is in order to herd the majority of attendees into one area so that they are easier to handle for security officers, as less security will work an event with less attendees.
No one was surprised (except maybe my exclusively Bruce Springsteen/David Bowie loving friend who I dragged along to the concert) when a mosh pit formed two songs into the first band’s set. It was a gaping hole in the crowd with no more than fifteen people participating, but nonetheless it was a mosh pit. It only got more intense as the night went on. All night, officers stood on multiple ends of the circle, waiting for a need to intervene. There were some minor injuries, but overall I felt like the security was doing a phenomenal job of keeping guests safe.
My concerting is quickly coming to an end, and I feel this concert was an instrumental experience in the diversity of my research.
Until Next Time,
Sabrina
Word Count: 623
On Tuesday February 17th, I headed over to the Marquee for maybe the most ridiculous concert of the month. A tour headlining Swedish death metal bands, At The Gates and Decapitated made its stop at the Marquee that evening. There was no line outside the venue before the event.
At the Gates is a Swedish death metal band from Gothenburg, and a major progenitor of the Gothenburg Sound. Initially active from 1990 to 1996, the band reformed in 2007 for a reunion tour before breaking up once again in 2008. However, they reformed for a second time in December 2010, and have since continued to perform live. The band released At War with Reality, their first album in 19 years, in late 2014.
Decapitated is a Polish death metal band formed in Krosno in 1996. The group comprises guitarist, founder and composer Wacław "Vogg" Kiełtyka, vocalist Rafał Piotrowski, bassist Paweł Pasek, and drummer Michał Łysejko. Decapitated have gained recognition as one of the genre's most widely respected bands and one of the finest exponents of technical death metal. The band earned an international fan base in the underground music community, and became an innovating act in the modern death metal genre.
Vogg and his younger brother, drummer Witold "Vitek" Kiełtyka, founded Decapitated along with vocalist Wojciech "Sauron" Wąsowicz in their mid-teens, joined by bassist Marcin "Martin" Rygiel a year later. The band's ambitious fourth album, Organic Hallucinosis, was released in 2006 with a new vocalist, Adrian "Covan" Kowanek.
In late 2007, the band was involved in an automobile accident. Vitek died at the age of 23 on November 2, 2007 of the injuries he suffered from the accident and Covan survived, but he slipped into a coma as a result. After a period of disbandment, Vogg reformed Decapitated and in 2011 released the fifth album, Carnival Is Forever. The latest album, Blood Mantra, was released in 2014.
Only 400 tickets had been sold to this show by the time doors opened at 6:00 p.m.. The majority of the audience at this point was composed of people in their early 20’s wearing dark eye makeup and dark clothes. Despite this, there was also a decent number of older men that looked in their 40s, likely a result of the band’s popularity in the early 1990s.
The venue had hung up curtains halfway across the general admission floor, which was something I had never seen them do before. I inquired about the change to a security guard who was standing by. After congratulating me for asking such a thoughtful question (I could tell he liked the attention), the officer told me that the venue often brings out the curtain when less than 500 tickets are sold to a show. This is in order to herd the majority of attendees into one area so that they are easier to handle for security officers, as less security will work an event with less attendees.
No one was surprised (except maybe my exclusively Bruce Springsteen/David Bowie loving friend who I dragged along to the concert) when a mosh pit formed two songs into the first band’s set. It was a gaping hole in the crowd with no more than fifteen people participating, but nonetheless it was a mosh pit. It only got more intense as the night went on. All night, officers stood on multiple ends of the circle, waiting for a need to intervene. There were some minor injuries, but overall I felt like the security was doing a phenomenal job of keeping guests safe.
My concerting is quickly coming to an end, and I feel this concert was an instrumental experience in the diversity of my research.
Until Next Time,
Sabrina
Word Count: 623
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