Melodic Monday: Are Smart Phones Killng the Live Music Scene?

In the past couple of days I've had the pleasure of attending a number of live performances. Whether it be Smokey Hormel masterfully laying down African/Brazilian cover songs down at Sunny's Bar inside of Brooklyn, New York, catching a trio of aging rockers at some college student infested dive in Coram, or a funky upright bass and guitar ensemble in the back of The Tap Room in Patchogue, each performance had been plagued by an unfathomable amount of smart phone usage.


Several times within the events of those evenings I stopped myself. Just paused, stared around, and counted each and every pair of eyes and ears that rather than enjoying the sounds and conversing with friends were glued to their phones, their attentions fastened to Facebook, their RSS feeds, emails, and word games. Most bands get paid next to nothing for their efforts to play for several hours during the course of the evening, with nothing to look forward to except maybe a few free stock beers and the uphill battle of competing for your attention. So now, not only does the music have to grab and entertain you, but live music now has to fight against the entire internet.

Now, not that I haven't been the culprit of using my Droid to tell the world that I was taking in a show while enjoying a beer, but I do make an effort to keep the time spent on my phone to a minimum. What I don't understand is how people can pay somewhat up to $65 + fees for a concert ticket and spend almost the entire night surfing the internet when you have live art being performed right in front of your eyes. This is not your stereo turned up to an absurd volume at some party. These are real live human beings who've clocked in countless hours of preparation and quelled many an upset stomach in order to perform for your entertainment. In theory, if you're one of these people who is just too busy playing Angry Birds to be bothered with what is happening on stage please do us all a favor and just go home.

This epidemic of increasingly short attention spans is not good for the music business. Gone are the days where when waiting for a band to take the stage, concert goers would stand around, shifting from side to side in anticipation and talk of the great things about to unfold. Will they perform that one song you've been dying to hear? Will there be any surprise guests? What was the set like last night, anyone know? Well, the internet does! And thus begins the decline of communication amongst friends and patrons of our most beloved music venues.


Take these words as an "awareness" piece if you will. Musicians and entertainers bust their asses in attempts to thrill you with their art each and every night. It wouldn't kill you pull yourselves away from the world wide web for just a few sacred hours where in which you can enrich your soul and move your bones to the rhythms of the world. So the next time you find yourself in a crowded room, a live band doing what they do, make a concentrated effort to be respectful and give them their due. Walk over to the bar, buy a round, and slip your phone deep into your pocket and forget about it for awhile. Live performance artists deserve your attention and respect while they are performing, make sure you don't disrespect them by ceaselessly having your attentions glued to your phone ... unless of course they really suck.