Audience participation

**pageclot**[$] · #1 04-26-2004, 10:06 PM

I was watching the third CD of the Jeff Buckley Live at Sin-é collection, which actually isn't a CD, it's a DVD with three performances and a few interviews of Jeff. One of the performances is a cover of MC5's "Kick out the Jams", an energetic run-through of a classic. What's amazing about the performance, aside from Jeff's incredibly fast chord changes, is an audience member standing just in front of him. Sin-é was obviously not a very large cafe, because they show people milling about, dancing drinking, eating at tables all around Jeff, and he's hemmed into this little corner, against a wall, just him and a microphone. One of the audience members is this girl/woman, probably around 21, facing away from Jeff, looking back occasionally at him, completely and utterly unmoved by any of the music. She's sort of swaying to the music a bit, but that's about it. The juxtaposition of her passivity, and Jeff's aggressiveness on guitar and singing is striking, and adds a new level of enjoyment for me.

It got me to thinking about other songs with audience involvement in them. One that comes to mind immediately is Elton John's Bennie and the Jets, with some guy whistling in the middle of the song, and the audience cheering in the background. It's become part of the song for me, and I always wonder if Elton John minded giving up part of the stage to a fan.

Anyone else have a favourite audience participation moment in a song?

P

**mrisch**[$] · #2 04-27-2004, 12:11 AM

what I love about DMB shows is that they don't do audience participation, but yet the audience participates all the time on every song (with some more than others).

My favorite one was in August of 2002, during the song Everyday. The melody is the same as another song, called #36. So, during the intro, the crowd started singing #36. Here comes the cool part - the band (mostly Boyd Tinsley on violin) started playing with the crowd - a completely different riff than he was doing, but it matched what was being sung - it was really cool.

Oh well, I guess you had to be there. I have a copy of that show on CD, and you can hear the crowd - I just love reliving it.

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #3 04-27-2004, 09:29 AM

I like the George Michael/Elton John live duet of Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me. (Yeah, I like GM. So sue me.) When Elton John comes on stage signing the beginning of the second verse, the roar of recognition from the crowd gives me goosebumps.

brian_igo · #4 04-29-2004, 10:01 PM

Gotta agree with MJ on the Elton John/George Michael live duet. (I'm secure enough in mah manhood to admit I also like some of George Micheal's stuff, too. I have "Freedom '99" and "Kissing A Fool" in my collection.)

I love spontaneous audience participation but when it seems scripted (or, worse, when it obviously is) it drives me insane. Bruce Springsteen is the worst. When I saw him a few years ago on the Tracks tour, he was doing "impromptu" bits with the audience that were to-the-letter verbatim from the Live 1975-1985 set I'd bought fifteen years earlier. And, of course, all of the fans took over "Born To Run" just like they'd heard on the radio 20,000 times. I wrote in an Eps review that the concert had all of the spontaneity of a Senate hearing.

The best I've ever heard in getting the audience into the show was the late Steve Goodman, who was also a master of improvisation. The best audience participation moment I've ever had would have to be a U2 show I saw in Indianapolis in 1985 or 86. This was when "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King was a comeback hit and it played over the PA while people were coming into the arena. Everyone started to sing along, which was cool in itself, but then U2 came out on to the stage and joined us. The lights were still up, the mics were off, but they were standing up on the stage while the roadies were trying to get everything set up for the show. One of my all-time favorite concert memories.

Brian

adam35 · #5 06-07-2004, 08:21 PM

I generally like hearing the crowd on live things, whether it's spontaneous or "expected."

The "die, die, die" part of Metallica's "Creeping Death."
The sing-along on "Wide Open Spaces" on the Dixie Chicks' live one.
The sing-along on "Kid Fears" from the Indigo Girls' BACK ON THE BUS, Y'ALL.
The crowd reactions during Peter Frampton's "Do You Feel Like We Do?"
The beginning of "Cold Gin" from Kiss' ALIVE!
And the ending of "100,000 Years" from the same.

Flamepillar · #6 06-11-2004, 12:52 PM

I'll cast a third on George Michael and Elton John, but what gets me is at the end when they hug each other. With or without the video, I can still see it in my head

I also heard a live version of "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel in which he traded off with the audience on the refrain at the end.