Have you been to a live performance in a large venue lately, and if so, do all of the cell phones in the audience annoy you?

That would seriously perturb me at Radio City. Those tickets are expensive, and it’s a theatrical performance – not a concert.

At a concert I don’t mind as much. Of course, most of the shows I go to have general admission/floor seating, and I just get to the front. The pit is too crazy to allow for recording for any length of time.

I have found the mindless recording of planned public events annoying all my life. From people rudely taking flash pictures (just buy a freaking postcard in the gift shop!) to cell phones in the day of You Tube.

Folks, if you want something to remember the event by, there are professionals that have already done the job 100’s of times better than you can hope to do.

All it does is lessen the experience for everyone else.

I go to a lot of concerts, in all kinds of venues from houses to 10,000 seat outdoor theaters. At most of them, it isn’t annoying that people are taking pictures. And almost always, people put their phones away after a couple of pictures.

Once in a while it can be a bit distracting if someone right in front of me decides to film extensively. But that isn’t all that bad.

Everything about damn cell phones annoy me, people seem unable to function at all unless the damn thing is in their hand.
A few friends lately have been giving me heck about having a flip phone instead of a smart phone, you can’t text or go online as easy with a flip, they get shocked when I say I don’t want to do either of those from my damn phone.

I try to be as close to the stage anyway, so there’s seldom anyone in front of me with a device. But yes, this is a constant thing now, and when it’s in my field of vision, it’s distracting and irritating. It would be great if show venues could switch on a dampening field to just shut all that down.

We took our daughter to see One Direction at Soldier Field in Chicago last summer. There were 40,000 people in attendance. The phones didn’t bother me at all. I enjoyed seeing all the flashlights turned on when the lights dimmed for a love song.

I attend live performances of opera in a downtown theatre. Damned right it annoys me. I want to hear the beautiful music, with all its tone and texture and subtlety, and see the singers and sets and costumes, without little blinks and pings and glowing screens around me. If you want to text or tweet or keep in minute-by-minute contact with your four thousand little friendies, for cripes sake stay home.

Haven’t experienced it much. Generally when I go to a live performance I go to see artists who have fan bases who like to take in the performance and respect the performers, rather than the usual rock concert shitheads who are just there to get drunk and hear a bunch of drunk/high morons on stage butcher their own material. I also tend to not go to large venues anymore (though I’m not sure exactly what the TC has in mind by “large”).

I hate when in watching a live performance of an artist on YouTube and every single person in the audience has their phone up recording it.
Like, seriously people…the fact that I’m watching the thing on video means someone else recorded it already. No need to sit there and record your own version.
If you’re there then you should really BE THERE. See the experience with your own eyes.

It honestly doesn’t bother me. I’m usually focused on what’s happening on the stage or looking at the big screen. What does annoy me is if people take photos with their phone and don’t turn the ‘click’ noise off. I went to see Sting when he was doing his lute thing and the person behind me took photos through the whole performance. Click, click, click… I wanted to grab it and shove it somewhere. That noise was distracting.

@Jeruba brings up a good point. A phone held up at a rock concert is pretty easy to ignore. But it is an absolute no no at the opera, or the symphony, or a Broadway’s play.

I saw Suzanne Vega a week ago at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley CA. At the beginning of the performance, they announced no photography, and if any one took out a phone they would be asked to put it away or be asked to leave.

I’m not bothered by people using cell phones to record anything. The only things that annoy me is the flash lights of the camera when people take photos. The lights can be so bright they distract me from the action. The lights can even blind my eyes and I can’t see anything for a while, especially when the person is too close.

@Earthbound_Misfit: I think in that case (the case of the clicking), I would have turned around and said something. I would have said “Can you stop with the clicking?”