I'm talking about the type where a band/singer pauses and encourages the audience to sing a segment of what is usually one of their most memorable songs. I always tend to think, I've paid a lot of money to see you, I'm not interested in some horrible mangling of your big hit, just play the damn thing please.
Singalongs at gigs... love/hate?
- Thread starter nightowl
- Start date
ska invita
back on the other side
yes basically terrible but hard not to singalong sometimes
ska invita
back on the other side
just realised i misread the OP - I object to people singing along even when not asked 
dont think i've ever experienced anyone asking the audience to sing along, though in general i hate any instructions from the stage: stand up (no), hands in the air (no), everybody clap (no), call and response (no)....
dont think i've ever experienced anyone asking the audience to sing along, though in general i hate any instructions from the stage: stand up (no), hands in the air (no), everybody clap (no), call and response (no)....
BristolEcho
Well-Known Member
Ha! Thank you so much. I only ever see this when I come by some live performance on TV and some huge band is hardly singing as they are constantly putting the mic out to the crowd. I always think the exact same thing "Fuck off the paid £100's for this ticket sing yourself."
kalidarkone
Bringing YOU round.....
HATE it. So fucking cringe.
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
Kind of thing you expect at a Coldplay gig.
That's not the problem. It's those orchestrated moments when a band breaks up one of its best songs and gets the crowd to sing it instead
Sweet FA
✪ Three rounds Lord, in my .44 ✪
I've got mixed opinions. Sometimes it's a beautiful communal celebration, echoing a tradition as old as humanity. Other times it's a drunken pillock, honking like a pissed goose, ruining a transcendental moment.
My nephew, whose singing skills could at best be called enthusiastic, got told in no uncertain terms, to stffu at a Michael Kiwaknacker gig a few years ago. I love the boy with all my heart and I'm not a mad fan of Kiwaknacker but I agreed wholeheartedly with the complainant.
Otoh, I've been party to some excellent, uplifting singalongs; Stiff Little Fingers' At the Edge is always a beautiful choral thing, despite/due to being usually shouted by hundreds of pissed old punks; Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah sung by thousands of us on a warm summer evening; Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone rendered perfectly by a festival crowd while the curmudgeon did his own croaking version which we rightly ignored; Macca sending tens of thousands of us into the night at Glastonbury, all still doing the la la las from Hey Jude (simultaneously toecurling and gorgeous); Resurrection being sung broadly in tune by loads of mashed up 50+ dads, correcting Ian Brown's braying...
My nephew, whose singing skills could at best be called enthusiastic, got told in no uncertain terms, to stffu at a Michael Kiwaknacker gig a few years ago. I love the boy with all my heart and I'm not a mad fan of Kiwaknacker but I agreed wholeheartedly with the complainant.
Otoh, I've been party to some excellent, uplifting singalongs; Stiff Little Fingers' At the Edge is always a beautiful choral thing, despite/due to being usually shouted by hundreds of pissed old punks; Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah sung by thousands of us on a warm summer evening; Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone rendered perfectly by a festival crowd while the curmudgeon did his own croaking version which we rightly ignored; Macca sending tens of thousands of us into the night at Glastonbury, all still doing the la la las from Hey Jude (simultaneously toecurling and gorgeous); Resurrection being sung broadly in tune by loads of mashed up 50+ dads, correcting Ian Brown's braying...
seeformiles
Lost in the wood
The thread title instantly made me think about the fucking irritating Freddie Mercury “Day-Oh” call-and-response at Live Aid. Just really shit and a waste of everyone’s time and energy. (I’m sure this is a marmite POV).
If audiences at gigs want to sing then that’s OK but it depends on the band and the songs. I have/have not joined in over the years depending on my feelings about the same so always subjective. One person’s singalong is another’s desecration of art
If audiences at gigs want to sing then that’s OK but it depends on the band and the songs. I have/have not joined in over the years depending on my feelings about the same so always subjective. One person’s singalong is another’s desecration of art
Chemical needs
stirring
I was once singled out by the mc in a crowd of about 10 people for not holding up a lighter to pay respects to tenor fly. I had no phone and no lighter. So that was a bit awkward
Gromit
International Man of Misery
My fav Glasto moment was when the crowd started singing to Newton Faulkner and he just sat back stunned, deeply touched and just left us to it.
I think people also like that Lewis Capaldi incident where he struggled so people just sang it for him.
As for those saying you just want to hear the artist sing. You can stay at home and put on your Spotify for that.
People want to interact / connect with their idols. It’s half the reason people are there, not because they expect a studio quality performance.
I think people also like that Lewis Capaldi incident where he struggled so people just sang it for him.
As for those saying you just want to hear the artist sing. You can stay at home and put on your Spotify for that.
People want to interact / connect with their idols. It’s half the reason people are there, not because they expect a studio quality performance.
Kaka Tim
Half Arsed and Slapdash till I Die
generally - no. ditto singer shouting "c'mon!" and getting everyone to clap along with arms above their heads. Actaully- I dont like it when the audience clap along at my own gigs - they cant fucking keep time - im not going to encourge them ffs. (In a previous band our (usually angry) drummer once leapt into the crown to confiscate a tamborine from an audience member - telling him "I cant fooking play with you bashing that you arythmic cunt!").
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Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
Projection, innit
krtek a houby
Sail hatin'
De la Soul kinda fucked their gig at Shepherds Bush doing that kind of thing. It really interrupts the flow of a concert.
My late mother took her abhorrence of audience participation to extremes. She took me to a concert when I was a wee thing and then walked us out 15 minutes into the performance. Why? Because the audience were clapping along...
My late mother took her abhorrence of audience participation to extremes. She took me to a concert when I was a wee thing and then walked us out 15 minutes into the performance. Why? Because the audience were clapping along...
zedr
Well-Known Member
depends on the context really. when its forced and done along side a lot of planned #audienceparticipation then yeah its embarrassing and annoying. or when its someone who's had too much to drink or got a but over excited and pulls everyone out of the communal enjoyment of the music then thats also annoying.
but ppl spontaneously singing along to songs they love with or without the encouragement of the band is usually great. a lot of the shows I go to will be punk or hardcore and its kind of a standard fare there. random ppl or mates of the band singing along or snatching the mic (and maybe fighting the singer if they dont want to give it away). its all part of the fun.
but then again, I dont go to shows which are expensive and I dont care about musicians perfectly reproducing their studio material cos i could just listen at home!
one example I remember was going to see neutral milk hotel at the roundhouse in like 2014. now, to me and pretty much everyone I know, nmh are a silly drunken singalong band. you put it on at a party or in the park and everyone knows the words and sings along. so we did the same seeing them live we got so many dirty looks and were confused because wed assumed everyone else was there to sing along to a noisy chaotic band too?
but ppl spontaneously singing along to songs they love with or without the encouragement of the band is usually great. a lot of the shows I go to will be punk or hardcore and its kind of a standard fare there. random ppl or mates of the band singing along or snatching the mic (and maybe fighting the singer if they dont want to give it away). its all part of the fun.
but then again, I dont go to shows which are expensive and I dont care about musicians perfectly reproducing their studio material cos i could just listen at home!
one example I remember was going to see neutral milk hotel at the roundhouse in like 2014. now, to me and pretty much everyone I know, nmh are a silly drunken singalong band. you put it on at a party or in the park and everyone knows the words and sings along. so we did the same seeing them live we got so many dirty looks and were confused because wed assumed everyone else was there to sing along to a noisy chaotic band too?
Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
Hate it. Don't do it and never have.
Also hate it when band refer to the audence as a city when egging on audiences to join in - "Let me hear you, Birmingham' - yeah, whatever mate.
Also hate it when band refer to the audence as a city when egging on audiences to join in - "Let me hear you, Birmingham' - yeah, whatever mate.
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This week the score draws are plentiful
Says something about me - probably that I have impeccable taste and I'm really cool - that I've been to hundreds and hundreds of gigs played by loads of different bands and I've never experienced this.
There was that time Mark E Smith shouted 'WOO! SINGALONG EXETER - YOU KNOW THE WORDS!!' and jumped into the crowd at the Phoenix for New Big Prinz, but I've just made that up.
There was that time Mark E Smith shouted 'WOO! SINGALONG EXETER - YOU KNOW THE WORDS!!' and jumped into the crowd at the Phoenix for New Big Prinz, but I've just made that up.
I’m not normally a fan of audience participation but I got well involved singing along when we went to see S Club. I enjoyed it far more than my daughter.
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
Usually a bit crap. But try telling me this isn’t simply wonderful…
