Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Why won't you play in Timbuktu? Or why that's kind of annoying

It's something that happens over and over and over again. A band announces a tour, a festival, a gig. They give the place, the town, the places, the towns. Great of course. But what's the most frequent reaction? Wrong. It's not 'how cool' or 'I'll be there'. It's 'Please play/come to whereveritisimliving!'. Actually, scratch the please, most people are quite demanding and forcing.

In my life I've asked a band twice. But never as a responds to a tour announcement. The last time I asked was rather carefully whether the band would consider playing in Europe as well at some point. It took me days to get myself to ask this. Because I think it's rude. "Tonight we're playing in Bristol!" the band posts happily on twitter or facebook. "Play Istanbul!" "When you're coming to Vancouver" "CHICAGOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" "What about Berlin?" "Come to Ahmedabad*!" "Newcastle!!" are the most frequent type of responses. Never mind the played Newcastle two days ago. It's just rude. The band is happy to play somewhere, the people who are in fact going are happy they play there, so why go nag and whine?

It's not that I don't understand. Despite living in the big city of Amsterdam, it's not that my favourite bands are filling the venues every weekend. Or every month even. And yes I do think 'Man, if you play in that shithole, why can't you play in Amsterdam too' as well. But the difference is, I don't go whine and moan about it to the band on a public and unpersonal place such as facebook and twitter. And if you really love the band so much, try and make a nice roadtrip around it. Yes, it costs money, then you don't drink yourself silly at the gig, you might actually enjoy the show (or not, it's a gamble).

It's utterly and utterly annoying when your favourite band doesn't play the shithole you live in or isn't big enough to tour across the ocean. But nagging under a happy blogpost about a show by the band? That should be a not-done.

* Ahmedabad is a city in India