Of the many things that make Music Connection a cool magazine, our Club Reviews section ranks at the top. For years we’ve regularly checked out unsigned bands in their element –– absolutely live on a nightclub stage –– and written reviews of what we saw and heard. We’ve put in many late hours at a lot of clubs over the years, from mold-encrusted rat-holes to swanky supper clubs. We plan to visit plenty more all across the country. Which, now that we’re on the subject of clubs, will allow me to vent a little.

See, once upon a time, clubs were filled with tables & chairs. That’s right. Row upon row, neatly arranged ranks of them. As a clubgoer it wasn’t a privilege –– it was your right –– to pop a squat. One club in Southern California even had wooden pews, as if you were attending church, as if attending a show was something akin to a religious experience!

There was something special, a whiff of sophistication, about the tables & chairs setup, with the cocktail waitress coming by to take your drink order, serve you some food, and maybe make a run for you to buy a pack of smokes at the vending machine. The message was clear: The club and the performers were there to work for YOU.

Even CBGB, the ground zero of the punk rock revolution, was initially a tables & chairs venue. That’s right, kids; people used to Beat on the Brat and Blitzkrieg Bop right from the comfort of their tables & chairs.

Ah, but the good times were not to last.

One of the side-effects of ‘70s/‘80s punk rock –– specifically the British and hardcore punk versions–– was that it suddenly became imperative for audiences to stand up to truly appreciate live music. Punk rock brought down the barrier between performer and audience. At least that’s what the books tell us. Audacious audience members executing half-gainers off a Marshall stack became part of a band’s performance. In this context, standing up made perfect sense. If you were there to pogo, mosh or gobsmack the guy next to you, tables & chairs would certainly get in the way –– or be repurposed as lethal weapons. “Standing Room Only” was the order of the day, and understandably so.

At the same time, however, a new message became clear: The audience members no longer deserved to be treated special. They were cattle to be herded into a holding pen, left to wander to the cocktail trough where they’d await their turn.

But for some reason, after the initial waves of punk had passed, no one, least of all the club owners, thought to restore the classic tables & chairs setup, even for audiences who came to see acts whose music was anything but visceral, high-decibel and amphetamine-fueled. Let’s be honest, the only thing today’s average rock fan wants to stir up is an iced mocha latte.

But, getting back to the point: after the initial punk movement morphed into new wave and other less belligerent permutations, after all the dust had settled, the intrepid clubgoer could see that a paradigm shift had occurred. The powers that be, having been relieved of their responsibility of wrangling pesky pieces of furniture, now kept their backs turned on the audience and the once-indispensable table & chair. “Why bother?,” they figured. “Who needs the headache? Let ‘em stand up.”

And so it has gone for decades; not all, but many nightclubs, particularly the larger top-drawer, top-dollar club venues, like The Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, expecting most of their patrons to stand…and stand…and stand some more. I don’t know about you, but for me, standing for three/four hours to see a couple bands is a flat-out drag. It sucked when I was eighteen and it sucks now.

Here’s the thing, though. Have you noticed that whenever limited seating IS offered at these places, those seats/couches are ALWAYS filled?

Clubs should take note –– PEOPLE LIKE TO SIT DOWN. And why wouldn’t they? Isn’t this the age of the couch potato? Considering how many potential clubgoers are choosing instead to sit at home in front of their flat-screens, maybe club owners –– and bands –– would do better business if they offered the audience a place to sit.

Expecting the audience to stand at a concert is like requiring them to get naked at a strip club. (Okay, while some of you might WELCOME THAT opportunity, I think the majority of us would be more than happy to leave the artistry up to the pro’s.) The time has come to, well, take a stand! I mean, if the folks at the International Red Cross –– experts on man’s inhumanity to man –– consider standing for lengths of time a form of torture, why are we all paying good money to willingly endure such cruel and unusual punishment? It’s not just unacceptable. It’s indefensible.

Tags: live shows

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 at 8:47 am and is filed under Blogs, Mark Nardone's Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.