I love going to concerts, but it's not always easy to get to them, either because they're held in another country or they're not financially feasible for me. A lot of my favorite bands are European metal, and they tend to mostly play in Europe and Latin America because there's sadly not a huge market for them in the US. Enter the internet. I try to catch my favorite bands when they come to the US, but in the meantime I'm grateful for live streams and uploaded concerts from official sources! Two of my favorite YouTube channels for this are ARTE Concert and WackenTV. I also love Magenta Musik, which is how I watched Lacuna Coil's amazing recent set from Wacken. I rarely watch unofficial fan-uploaded videos of shows. I have mixed feelings about them. On one hand, it's nice to be able to get a glimpse into a show I have no way of going to, especially if it's a huge band like Evanescence, whose tickets cost hundreds and sometimes even thousands of dollars. On the other hand, I've seen how prevalent phones are at concerts, and they kind of defeat the purpose of experiencing live music. Bands sell tickets so that people will come to their concerts and support them, not watch them on recordings from people's phones. Phoebe Bridgers has famously instituted a phone ban on her upcoming tour, which has fans divided in opinion, but I think it's overall a positive thing. Obviously, there are exceptions for people who need access to their phones for medical reasons, but I think generally people should forego their phones at a concert and immerse themselves in the experience. Isn't that what concerts are for? It's fine to take one or two small videos to relive the moments, and I've seen bands repost short videos from fans on their social media as a way of promoting their concerts. But recording an entire show on a phone is a bit much, in my opinion, and the quality is usually not going to be great anyway. I've seen people stand at the barrier and just record the whole show without putting down their phone, with no reactions to the music. I couldn't imagine holding my phone up during an entire concert. I like to move around, jump, dance, wave my arms, and headbang. I don't want my phone getting in the way of all that! Still, I am grateful that professionally recorded and mixed shows exist online so I can watch special performances from my favorite bands and musicians. I'll leave you with one of my favorite recently uploaded concerts from ARTE: Ad Infinitum at Sternenklang Festival. They're a criminally underrated band, and this show was so fun because the crowd was super into it. It took place at a medieval-themed festival, so it's also really funny to see random dragon heads in the crowd headbanging along. 🤘🐲 Reply via email