Metamurphosis

Last week I went to a concert headlined by one of my favourite bands: Tortoise. I'd never managed to catch them in concert before, so I was quite excited about this and seemingly the support acts were also decent enough.

Well, the bands certainly didn't disappoint. We missed the first band unfortunately, but the second band, Efterklang - what an odd name - were very good, despite never having heard any of their songs before. Their music was kind of like Sigur Ros' - most of it was quite relaxing, and they also had the most polite front-man I've ever had the pleasure to experience at a concert.
Tortoise themselves were everything I could have hoped for. Two drum kits on stage, musicians were constantly switching between instruments even during songs, and the sound quality was absolutely fantastic. They played for an hour, and I heard most of the songs I would have asked them to play if I could have.

Since they're one of my favourite bands and I'd never seen them in concert before, they would have had to do a pretty awful job to put me off them, so they're not really the main reason I've written about the concert. Instead, the realisation struck me while I was there that...well...perhaps I'm getting old.
The average age in the crowd was a bit above that of my own, but this didn't bother me too much as I'm not exactly au fait with most new music. Plonk me into the crowd of most of the bands playing Oxegen this year, for example, and I might not be able to even name their songs, let along sing along to them. No, the age of the crowd wasn't what inspired this realisation.

I suspect the demeanour of the crowd was the main factor. People were actually listening to the music, rather than shouting out lyrics. They weren't fighting for their lives, or fighting for fun - there was barely even any inter-crowd jostling! There were, at an estimate, around five hundred people there, and I'd be surprised if there were more than seven security men - an unbelievably small ratio compared to any concert I've been to.
In comparison to the last concert I was at - Radiohead in Marlay Park last year - the difference was unbelievable. It seems most concerts I go to these days, people barely even know the bands involved and just go for teh lulz. The atmosphere, crowd, and sound quality at the last Radiohead concert were all so awful that I didn't even bother going this year. Being a big fan, it pains me to say that I doubt I missed out on much, but say it I must.

Unfortunately, it seems I simply can't stand the young folk any more.