The Roar Of The Crowd

I was thinking about some of the different national bands I’ve seen over the years, and how the crowd at each show reflected the personality of the music. Here’s what I remember:

Flogging Molly – The crowd was friendly. For a relatively punky band, there were a surprising number of adults mixed in with the kids. Of course, FM writes thoughtful songs with adult themes that are still very slam-danceable. The band has a very warm stage persona—it’s like you’re partying in Dave King’s living room. A real fun concert. One of the best show I’ve ever seen, if not the best.

Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica – This was a long time ago when I was, uh, younger. The crowd was hostile. To whom? Mostly each other. Beer bottles were flying around the parking lot like bombs. Everyone had an attitude the size of a monolith. If someone had blown up the building very few intelligent people would have died. But I can’t deny it was fun.

Cake – Pretty mellow crowd. Everyone was pleasant enough, united under one large, culty banner of CAKE.

Iron Maiden – Supposedly, Iron Maiden’s music is more “cerebral” than typical metal—but glancing around The Garden State Arts Center, I didn’t see too many atom-splitters hanging around. Mostly, I remember one guy screaming at the top of his lungs, “IRON MAIDEN, IRON MAIDEN.” Then a blurry-eyed girl who’d obviously sucked down more than a few fermented beverages interrupted him and said, “It’s Iron FUCKING Maiden.” And then she puked all over the lawn. At $7.00 per beer, that was pretty expensive vomit. The band was real good, though, and played a fun show that didn’t coincide with the vibe of their moronic audience.

Motorhead – The audience is rowdy but not hostile—just people having fun. They draw more young people than you might think, I mean for a bunch of guys who’ve tasted dinosaur eggs for breakfast. There’s a lot of slam dancing and just plain slamming. Lemmy is a blast, and his warts are fookin’ amazin’.

The Kings Of Leon – Jill wanted to go to this show, and like a fool I obliged. The crowd was composed of kids who were thrilled to be at their first concert. They cleverly spent most of the night texting their friends to brag about it. They tossed a lot of beer and soda into the air while the band tried to look interested. The band failed, but few seemed to notice. It was a real dopey night.