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Local Natives’ concert obscured by cell phones

This is what it looks like if you were lucky enough to focus past the phones and see Taylor Rice and his glorious mustache. Photo by Randy Rataj.
This is what it looks like if you were lucky enough to focus past the phones and see Taylor Rice and his glorious mustache. Photo by Randy Rataj.

Local Natives’ sold-out concert Thursday April 17th at Freebird Live was certainly a huge success. The lights were bright, the music was intoxicating, and the several brace-faced teens in the crowd added a new angle to the whole experience.

The fog, alcohol, and constant movement of the crowd blurred the performers on stage. And through the mist, a crisp and clear iPhone 5S funneled the performance into a pile of pixels. Though this digital recording held overhead might have helped the shorties in the audience see the stage, it defeated the purpose of a live show.

Not too long ago, people enjoyed concerts with their hands in the air, jumping up and down, bobbing their heads, and most importantly, experiencing the music in the present. The Local Natives concert was not this.

Tickets sold for $20 and, as the show sold out, prices increased to $60 on the black market. This didn’t seem to deter the onlookers from completely ignoring the show to record it on their phones or send Snapchats to their envious friends.

Concerts in 2014 have become more about sharing with your friends via the interweb, rather than experiencing the concert as it happens. It was difficult to see the stage through the 3-inch LCD screens.

Even after all that hassle — jostling for a good position in the crowd and struggling to keep your phone aloft, there is no point to the low-quality video segment you so desperately reach to capture. The sound always ends up being horrible, and the lighting is all wrong. Your friends will mostly likely tap to pass it in your snap story, or like the Instagram clip they didn’t bother watching.

Next time you step into a concert hall remember you don’t have to record every song on your phone (actually don’t record any of the songs). Musicians sell albums and publish their music online for fans to indulge in crisp, full Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Enjoy the show, dance a bit, hold a cold beer, and keep the cell phone in your pocket.

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