# Forced Participation



## Lethe (Dec 17, 2009)

So what do you think of bands/acts that force the audience to participate?

I was at our company's christmas dinner on tuesday, we went to a fully booked restaurant with about 100 seats (we were like 25 of them). After lunch there was an a-capella group that didn't sing too bad, but somehow got it into their heads that they need to be funny aswell, and the material they used was stale, recycled and for the most part plain stupid. I unfortunately sat in first row, not being a heckler or anything, just waiting for it to be over and politely clapping between the songs.

Before they started to do a rendition of "the lion sleeps tonight", they asked the women to "zzzzzz" like mosquitoes and the men to whistle like birds. Almost everyone joined in, I just sat there and watched the show, seriously considering getting up and leaving (which of course would have meant that every colleague would have asked me why the next day). One of them saw that I did not participate, pointed at me and loudly asked me to join in. I smiled and slowly shook my head, at which point he came over and announced "this young gentleman wants to join in ON STAGE, put your hands together!" (he had this annoying habit of over-emphasizing random words when he spoke)

Needless to say, everyone cheered, and I said to him in a soft voice "time is on my side" while smiling and remaining seated. He repeated his question, everyone clapped, and he actually grabbed my hand and tried pull me out of my chair. I just sat there, still smiling calmly, figuring if I don't give into his powerplay there's really not much he can do after this. He finally gave up and they returned to their hackjob of "the lion sleeps tonight".

After this I was quite happy with the fact that now I was the only one in the room who is safe from any further forced participation/interaction. 

After it was finished, we sat around some more, and when it was time to go, that guy came up to me and said "Oh, I have to APOLOGIZE to you!" 

"Why?", I asked. 

"Because I tried to get you ON STAGE!"

"Well, it's okay to try everything once", I said, smiled, and left.


What do you think about bands that try really hard to get everyone to comply? Slipknot's "on your knees / now jumpdafuckup" - routine during "Spit It Out" comes to mind.


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## raximkoron (Dec 23, 2009)

It has varying degrees of annoyance for me. I get really irritated when a band demands a circle pit twice per song... I realize they feel the need to say something when they're not delivering lyrics, but there's nothing wrong with just getting into the music and putting on a show. I'm not immune from randomly telling people to bang their head whilst on stage, but it's more of a heads up that things are gonna get heavy rather than a power trip or self-gratification.

In a circumstance where I would be forced to participate in something I wasn't interested in, things would get ugly. I'm usually of the mindset that if I spent a good deal of money on something, I should be able to participate in any way I feel like.

On the other hand, when being in the right mood, audience participation can be an entertaining extra thing on top of a great performance (like Opeth). A lot probably lies in execution.


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## JesseTheMachine (Dec 23, 2009)

I hate that when they try and single you out for not participating, especially when it's by throwing insults or telling the crowd to beat you up haha!


(this has never happened to me)


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## Winspear (Dec 23, 2009)

I think it's ok for big bands for the most part, but not small local ones that just make you feel uncomfortable.
For those I think the line should be drawn at trying to get atleast 5 of the 30 people in a room to stand at the front


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## jymellis (Dec 23, 2009)

i woulda got up there and did the "curly shuffle"


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## alexander12014 (Dec 23, 2009)

curly shuffle FTW


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## NickDowe (Jan 6, 2010)

our singer normally just yells inane shit at the crowd like a random direction. he yelled "up" at the crowd and pointed to what i believe was the restroom in the rear of the building, as if to say "everyone go to the bathroom now!"

another great story...
he is bi-polar and we had a real shitty booking one night and we got screwed by the promoter 6 ways from sunday... we never announce who we are or what the name of the song is when we first come out we just open up with something terribly long with a lot of tempo and mood changes and then address the crowd. so he starts off by saying "hey....... how is everybody doing tonight?" giving the crowd ample time to respond but the room was like a middle school prom with all the boys on one side and the girls on the other no one making the first move to acknowledge that they just paid money to come to a concert. in utter disbelief my other guitar player looks at the crowd and says " Fantastic ". to which my vocalist, thinking it came from the crowd replies "fantastic.... sounds good [email protected]#$ it we will go with that. this next song is called I WENT TO A METAL SHOW AND I LEFT MY HEART AT HOME" and we just opened up into one of our heaviest tracks.....suprisingly enough after telling the audience that they lacked heart they went completely ape shit for the remainder of our set and things turned out great.

to be honest the guy makes me nervous cuz i never know what he is gonna say to the crowd. sometimes its an inside joke that only the guys on stage know and we are the only people laughing and sometimes its an insult wrapped in sarcasm. i have footage of some of his wild ass monologue i should stream them all together and post it. we should make that a new topic and we can all add crazy lead singer moments lol


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## SargeantVomit (Jan 6, 2010)

I typed out a huge post and then deleted it, It's so hard to word it the way I feel about the subject. 

There's putting on a show, and then there is acting like you're a God to these kids. It's hard for me to explain, even if I'm pissing off people in the audience I know I'm just one of them and am just getting into the music. 

When I was a frontman I would punch people, puke on them, all sorts of things. Of course that's forced, but you can tell who's into it and who isn't. People up front going nuts think it's rad, the people 20 feet away with their arms crossed are not. 

If there is nobody there that's enjoying it, I'll smash a beer on my forehead, or puke on the drummer or punch the guitarist. The show is going to happen, it's my outlet and it's our music/entertainment, but I'm not going to tell kids how to feel about it or how to react. 

If you have to force audience participation, it's most likely because you aren't pumped from your own songs/music. It's never going to make other people excited if you are relying on their energy to make the band rip up the stage. If YOU aren't stoked on the songs, you should hang it up. If you ARE stoked on the songs, get into it and let the crowd react however they see fit.


I also fucking hate those slow repeating bridges where the singer teaches the crowd a line to "sing along" FUCK THOSE ARE ALWAYS ANOYING. If people want to sing along, they'll already know it.


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## DavyH (Jan 6, 2010)

"Scream for me SS.org, SCREAM FOR ME!"

Ok, that's different. Since Bruce = God, he's exempt from being a twat for doing this.


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## AySay (Jan 6, 2010)

I'd prefer if they didn't.
For example a couple of years back i really liked Lamb of God. Now with most music I'm really a fan of the musicianship, so If I ever went to (probably never) a LoG concert and they did that wall of death thing it would suck. I would much rather watch them kick ass on their instruments than get kicked in the face but some ass who would probably run off before i could kick him back.


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## Ben.Last (Jan 7, 2010)

I'm not a fan of it at all. When I go to a show I want to watch/listen to the band play their songs, not watch the band attempt to create false audience interaction. A mention here and there of things like "we want to see you fuckers go crazy" doesn't bother me but doing it continually, telling people to sing along(fuck do I hate audience singing at concerts) or bitching at the people in the back to stand up(fuck you, I'm watching you play music, if I want to do that while sitting that's my choice) just bugs the shit out of me. A band should be able to create a natural vibe without having to do things like this to force one.


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## I_infect (Jan 7, 2010)

AySay said:


> If I ever went to (probably never) a LoG concert and they did that wall of death thing it would suck. I would much rather watch them kick ass on their instruments than get kicked in the face but some ass who would probably run off before i could kick him back.



I'm too old for that shite anymore  I'll just hang in the back with a beer or something. I was never a fan of forced participation; if i want to sing along or mosh I'll do it myself

My kids and wife "volunteered" me as an assistant at a magic show once; I hated it but my kids loved it. Some things you just gotta suck up I guess.


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