Hello all!
Well, I've had one hell of a week. I was very sick - basically paralyzingly (is that a word?!) sick. Anyway, this post is not about THAT. This post is about the Sia Concert that I went to last night! And in fact, it's more about the people at the concert than the concert itself. Let me explain. The concert was great. I wasn't a huge fan of the opening act (Miguel), it's just not my kind of music. I also wasn't a fan of the long, long pauses between the start of the concert and between Miguel and Sia coming on. It kind of killed the vibe. Anyway, for anyone who knows Sia, this is not the kind of concert where you expect to see frills and a crazy show. No. Sia stands in a corner, hidden under her signature wig with a giant bow on her head and she belts out her wonderful songs. The stage is left for the performers who deliver strange, sometimes incomprehensible to me, interpretations of the songs. My husband said it best : "This was a theatrical performance to the songs of Sia." And I am definitely not saying this in a negative way at all, it was great. Very interesting, and she sounded amazing, as I knew she would.
Now, on to what this post is REALLY about. It's the people who attended the concert. I am going to make a social commentary on our use of phones. I admit, I am on my phone a lot and I use if often and sometimes I have to force myself to just put the damn things down. The way people use their phones, reminds me of when I first got my SLR Camera. I stopped enjoying things because I just wanted to capture it all. Capture the best picture. I would miss the whole night of fireworks trying to get a few good shots of those colourful lights in the sky. I eventually started planning specific events for photo taking and leaving my camera at home other times. The problem now is, our phones are always with us. And look at the photo attached to this post - we went to dinner before the concert and I took photos of our food and the menu. I am not above this whole phone phase, and I'm not trying to pretend that I am. However, I did start to get very frustrated with people yesterday, and then especially upset with the person next to me. Here's why...
Before the concert started, and between Miguel's set and Sia coming on, everyone was on their phone! All you saw around the Air Canada Centre was phone screens. Instead of chatting with the person you came to the concert with, people were playing game son their phones to pass the time. Fine, in itself perhaps that isn't so bad, but there are 2 specific moments where I lost it.
First, as soon as Sia came on stage, the girl next to me proceeded to open her phone to google the concert set list. Why? Why do you NEED to know which songs are coming up? If you like her music, if you are a fan, if you paid to come see her, why do you need to know in advance? Just sit back and enjoy the show, enjoy the surprise of not knowing exactly which songs she will perform and in which order. And please, don't ruin it for me, the person sitting next to you who is constantly being blinded and distracted by your phone screen. You are impeding on my enjoyment of the show.
Second moment is those people who want to capture EVERYTHING on their phone to share it with friends. So desperately that you miss the concert because you are trying to get the perfect (non-blurry, non distorted, not too bright but not too dark) picture to share on social media. You want to take a picture here and there, fine, those are good memories. But tinkering on your phone for the entire concert trying to get pictures and sound clips and blocking my view because you want a better angle and all in all ruining my experience of the show - that's not fine. I'm not okay with that.
We need to remember to enjoy things in the moment. Not everything is meant to be captured on screen, and I saw that with difficulty because I am one of those people who tries to capture a lot on camera and on my phone. But there are times when we need to just put it down and enjoy the experience.
Happy Sunday everyone ❣
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