Patron's Etiquette

Back in August of 2006, I wrote a piece called "Musician's Etiquette." It mainly talked about the way that musicians should treat other musicians when they're on stage performing.
This is the mirror to that post, in that now I'm talking about the folks who come to listen to music.
Let me say at the onset that I have had my days of falling down in inebriation, I've had my days of being boisterous, I've even had those days when I should probably have kept my mouth shut.But never, never have I ever gone to a gig, mine or anyone else's and been so disruptive that I've been asked to leave.
Here now is the patron's etiquette...
Let's start by understanding what it takes for musicians to do a show.
Most musicians not in the music industry have day jobs. They labor through the day to pay bills, have health insurance, and to simply put food on a table.
The pursuit of music may be a passion. For many of us, it's what we live for. None the less, we get off at 5pm (mostly), grab a bite to eat, then out the door we go to chase that passion.
Some of us first rehearse, then hit the stage, and do our level best to help you forget the day that you've had, and let's face it many of you have had a rough day at best.
Now the musician's are poised to entertain, and from out of nowhere comes some loud (make that screeching...) voice hollering "keep your day job," "you suck," or any number of other insults.
Now imagine trying to do a show with that in your ear...I'm not talking about just being heckled here. A fair amount of heckling is necessary, it does believe it or not, help musicians to grow. They begin to learn audiences, and how to treat them.
I'm talking about people who get so wrapped up in making you look bad that it makes everyone uncomfortable.
People, it's time that you realize that most musicians do want your money, but not at the expense of losing the other potential dollar. What do I mean by that? Some patrons get so frightened by the disruptive people that even if they thoroughly enjoyed the music, they quite frankly won't return.
So who loses out here? EVERYONE. The musician loses because they've now lost a valuble asset, an audience. The audience loses because they get stuck at home only being able to listen to recorded music. That trade off isn't necessarily a good one.

The point here is that people need to realize that alot goes into creating a vibe that helps you to feel good. Music is one of the best ways to make that come about.
So don't let your horrible day get the better of everyone, use the music to help heal the bad part of your day.
Look at it this way, if you don't go to your office and scream at your boss to play Freebird, then it's a safe bet to know that your local musicians don't need that headache either.
Just some patron's etiquette, but the bottom line is, just go and enjoy.

Support Live music today tomorrow and always.