I'm not going to rip it apart. I will say that I don't think this has anything to do with DT - it seems to be a general thing. I was lucky enough to see Dio a few times, and each time it was a "normal" concert experience. A bit of a pit broke out at one show, but that happened at a DT GA show too. It just seems crazy to me that the Dio shows I saw wouldn't be considered a "rock concert" even though there was no lawlessness, no chairs being thrown, no one taking off their bra. I suppose I can get saying "shows just aren't like the used to be." If that's how they used to be - I guess I'm glad. 
Maybe that makes me a music nerd even though I don't actually play an instrument, but I just want to go to the show to experience live music - the music itself - and the feelings that go along with it - adrenaline rush/euphoria/etc.
It's not JUST lawlessness though, and truth be told, we'd get on grandly at a show. I'm not looking for drunken naked women, or to being hit by a chair. But there was a sort of sense of... "I can't get this from my living room". Or "this is a little different than the typical night out with the guys".
So, you don't want to be hit by a chair, but you want to think that you *could* be hit by a chair?
Just kidding - will you be at any of the shows for I&W?
For my experience - I *can't* get it from my living room - if I could, I wouldn't see as many shows as I do. I enjoy watching a concert dvd every so often, but it's not at all the same thing as seeing the show live.
I think I <sort of> get what you're trying to say, and for me it just doesn't work the same way. To merge this with El Barto:
And there are things from shows back then that I don't miss either. Being bludgeoned by a wall of 130dB un-EQed noise probably tops the list. What he described, and I certainly miss as well, contributed to a more festive atmosphere, though. That's what some of us pine for. It's not the debauchery per se, though I'm obviously a big, big fan, but the feeling that it was an event. It was something we all had in common and we all celebrated. Even if you're interest, for some strange reason, didn't include getting high in the parking lot and ogling slutty girls in fishnet stockings, you still wanted to be a part of the going's on in your own way. It was a sort of camaraderie. Nowadays it seems people just go to see a band perform their favorite song, or see some hoser sing a F#, and the atmosphere reflects that.
It's not one or the other, I don't think. Or, not for me. Maybe so for some people. But for me, I can both want to hear James nail the F# and also feel a sense of camaraderie. I can want to watch the band do what they do so well, and also feel part of something with the other people who are there. I do it in my own way though, and perhaps you'd find that sterile. I like to talk to people before and after the show - people I know, people I don't know, about their experiences with DT, other bands they like, how far back they go, how they're wrong about not liking Voices and Scarred
, whatever. There's a sense of having something in common for sure. During the show, I do watch it. But I don't sit there with my hands folded on my lap with a scorecard ticking off how many mistakes they make. It's a dynamic evening. I might sing along a bit, I might cheer. I might chant. I might laugh in amazement at something MM does. I get chills. I smile, I might even shed a tear every so often. I don't leave my spot (where I'm hopefully standing, TA aside) to get a drink, I don't chat it up with the person next to me, and maybe from a distance that would seem like I'm coldly standing there hoping that everything will be perfect and I'm ready to throw tomatoes if the F# is missed, but nothing could be further from the truth. I'm feeling emotions, and feeling alive.
I'm trying not to use the word "corporate" - especially after the only two photos of me here on this site are of me in a blue collared shirt at the Shattered Fortress show and the Maiden show (it's my lucky shirt!) - but that's as close as I can get. Put another way, shows today seem more scripted and choreographed, and that includes the lead up to the show and the parts around the show. We parked where we could. There would always be some dude with a cooler selling luke warm beers in the stairwell to New Haven Coliseum. The only "security" was a pimply dude taking your ticket (who knew not to rip it like it was toilet paper, but FOLLOW THE CREASE!) and a heavy chick with zero makeup that didn't let you on the floor unless you had a floor ticket (you had the run of the building back then, but the floor was hallowed, sacred ground). T-shirts were cash only - and it was just that: t0shirts, programs, pins and bandannas, no exceptions, and there weren't 15 people standing there debating if they were getting the hoodie or the beer couzy along with their t-shirt and autographed condom packs. I don't remember there being food at the Coliseum, though there was at the Hartford Civic Center (and the added bonus of, I kid you not, a line in one of the men's rooms where a local stripper/prostitute set up shop in one of the stalls). There were no reserved seats, no catered seats, no VIP anything (except, again, the strip bar that was across the highway in Hartford, and named "VIP") and no wristbands. You could, if you wanted, go on the floor, and collect tickets then go up to your buddies in the 200's and give them the tickets and all of you would march right back down to the floor, except we didn't do that because it wasn't cool to the people that were already there. There were no computer lights; you'd know the show was about to start when the guys (anywhere from 2 to 4, usually) would climb up the rope ladders to man the spotlights in the lighting rig.
I'm like King; I go to as many smaller club shows as I can, because you still get this vibe in some places. Gene Simmons at the Trocadero was like that. I waltzed right up to the stage, just about, and next thing you know, I'm ON stage, singing "I Love It Loud" right next to my childhood hero. 
I love going to smaller club shows as well (and have been to the Trocadero). Would never dream of getting on stage, because that's probably more of a nightmare for me. I'll leave that to the band, thanks.
Smaller club shows, general admission, do have a different vibe than a theater show, but not always *so* different.
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Topic: Sons of Apollo (feat. Portnoy & Sherinian) (Read 468030 times)