Comments on: Home again…briefly

By: Max

Max — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:55:20 +0000

Don’t get me wrong: I love the post. It reminded my wife of her father, who we dub the grumpiest man alive.

Hemorrhoidism is really a contagious disease. You stand because the people in front of you stand. They are standing because the people in front of them are standing. And so forth, all the way to the front rows, where the people stand because they put the front seats too close to the stage or the stage too high off the ground for them to see anything but spandex or denim covered crotches and given that a lot of these concerts are featuring older artists who continue on, I don’t know that anyone really wants to see Joe Cocker’s or Steve Miller’s crotch up close. So, they stand, so they can see instruments. The cascade continues.

simple solutions: deeper bowls and steeper stadiums (like il Colliseo in Rome) or put the front row people about where the 5th row is.

The Etymotics headphones I recommended are better than the drugstore ones for reuse and for noise cancellation. They tend to block sound evenly across the spectrum, so you don’t lose the treble unevenly. If you like the guitar played by someone who ranges wide on it (like Tom Scholtz of Boston or Edward Van Halen of Van Halen), you don’t want to lose the treble. It is not an improvement (my wife might disagree, but she likes the words, I like the music).

Hey Max–

I much prefer the word ’sensible’ as opposed to ‘grumpy.’

I’m not the only one. Below is a letter to the editor that appeared in today’s paper about the same concert. In case you were wondering, I didn’t write it under a pseudonym.

Drunks at bowl rude, dangerous

P. Blanchard, Santa Maria

August 15, 2008 12:00 AM

The Santa Barbara County Bowl sells alcohol during concerts. How about limiting the amount of alcohol one can buy, or not offer it at all?

How many people there at a recent concert were drunk? How many of them got behind the wheel of a car and drove home? Do any of them realize their lives could have ended that night or they could have injured or killed someone by driving drunk? Do they even care?

Where was security? They were highly visible at the beginning but disappeared once the concert started, leaving the ushers to watch the crowd.

How many concert patrons were able to actually enjoy the Steve Miller Band and Joe Cocker? Readers, were there people in front of you who stood up the whole time chatting or dancing?

Our observation: Two people were asked to sit down; their reply was offensive. Two were groping each other — get a room. Two were standing and talking; they could have sat down to talk. Two were smoking a joint. One was yelling at the crowd for not dancing. All were drunk and making fools of themselves.

Disruptive, shameless, inappropriate, rude, disrespectful.

Cheers–

MRE

By: Lowcarb convert

Lowcarb convert — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:23:11 +0000

The annoying behaviour of other audience members is why I am more and more reluctant to go to see live music. We are jazz fans and have one small jazz club in our city. Everytime we go, there is at least one table of folks who insist on carrying on chatting. I don’t understand folks who pay a cover charge to get into the club but then pay no attention to what is happening on stage! They could go to any number of bars around town and pay no fee to listen to canned music. They are not listening anyway. After a while of this annoyance, I usually have no problem telling the chatterers to shut up and that I paid to hear the band and not them! It does usually shut them up but still my evening has been disrupted. And in the end, there are less people willing to go live music because the evening is ruined by folks who are not listening!

By: R L Stinson Jones

R L Stinson Jones — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:21:19 +0000

I was also at the James Taylor concert at the SB Bowl the other nite but unlike you I was situated very high up near the back. A woman who was probably not on a low carb diet stood and danced every song. I was so exasperated that I left early. My wife and daughter were on the stage floor where you were and had a great time. I did enjoy the SB Bowl it was quite a beautiful site. I am from Fort Worth, TX and have been on the low carb diet since I read your book in 2000. I am a pediatrician and I try very hard to motivate my parents and teenagers to change their eating habits without success. It is very frustrating to see such degree of obesity in families and be helpless. I’ll keep trying as you do and maybe one day the medical community will come around.

I believe that if we (those of us in the medical community) keep working, ultimately we’ll prevail. But, sadly, it may take a while. Sorry you had a bad time at the JT concert; hemorrhoids can really be spoilers.

Cheers–

MRE

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:03:24 +0000

Dr. Mike,

You can vent anytime you wish as far as I’m concerned. That was a great post and found myself laughing out loud several times. I feel the same way as you about concerts. I could never understand why someone would pay lots of money and deal with all the aggravation of a concert to get so bleepin drunk they not only miss the whole concert, they probably forget their name for a few days. I always hated the idea of having to wait in line for 15 minutes just to use a trough that was well… Never been much of a SMB fan, I was about 5 during their heyday. But don’t understand the lead singer thing, isn’t HE the lead singer?

Seeing JT must have been a great time. What an amazing man and performer. I saw him recently on a PBS special ( http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/jttribute/index.html ) and it was awesome. To see all those great musicians just being like little kids in front of the king still gives me chills and he stood and cheered for each one of them. What a humble wonderful man it seemed.
Karma has to be swinging your way now, good karma I mean. Football season’s starting so that’s step in the right direction. Should be an interesting season. I’ll take that big ole rib eye you showed with a nice salad , Belgian or German beer and my Steelers over most any concert.
It really was an enjoyable post, not cause we take pleasure in another’s misfortune but we totally empathize to some degree. The comments are pretty darn funny too. “Joe Cocker sounds not entirely unlike the Cookie Monster now. I kept expecting him to do a soulful rendition of �C is for Cookie�. Now THAT was funny!

Oh, yeah, I had almost forgotten. NFL time is approaching. I’ll start honing in on those lines in just a few weeks. I nver bet the pre-season because no one is really trying.

Cheers–

MRE

By: Barbara Jepson

Barbara Jepson — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:16:08 +0000

Hi Dr. Eades: I’ve always wanted to ask someone who is intelligent, articulate and cultivated what they see in popular hard rock music. I find it just a lot of harsh noise. I was surprised to read of your wife’s reaction to the SB concert and would love to get her input on this.

I’ll pass it on to her. I think she plans to put up a blog herself about the concert that is a counterpoint to mine. As to hard rock music, I don’t know what constitutes hard rock from regular rock, and I don’t know if the group Queen falls into the hard rock category, but I can tell you that I love Queen. Especially the songs written by lead singer Freddie Mercury. What a talent! I even like the hard guitar riffs. And, sad to say, were Freddie still alive, and were the group still together, I would probably be willing to stand for hours in a stadium to see then perform.

Cheers–

MRE

By: Todd

Todd — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:08:04 +0000

I recall reading a report in the 80’s that suggested hearing loss may be psychosomatic. If you’re enjoying the loud sound, its adverse affects may be lessened to a great degree. That would explain my own, MD’s, and even your recent experience.

Caveat: I’m not suggesting anyone assumes that to be fact and acts accordingly.

..Todd

By: Bob Keim

Bob Keim — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:32:24 +0000

circumin?

A great antioxidant.

By: Todd

Todd — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:45:46 +0000

Interesting topic. I’m one of those deaf soundmen. Not deaf though, oddly enough. After 2700+ concerts of every type of music known to mankind, (and some that thankfully never will be), many of them quite loud, my hearing recently checked out as perfectly normal. I quit that business in 1990 (shortly after mixing a Johnny Winters concert, though it wasn’t related to that).

But my ears check out fine now, and I’m in my late 40’s. The hearing specialist asked me why I was there bothering him. I explained. He looked at me dumbfounded. I really don’t understand why I can still hear as well as everyone my age. Maybe cumulative hearing loss is stored in adipose tissue for release sometime later in life. Hmm… I know… Reducing carbohydrates reverses hearing loss. You heard it here first (pun intended).

And by the way, Johnny’s problems are not necessarily age related. All the antioxidants in the world would be too little – too late for that fellow. Man I could tell you stories…

..Todd

I don’t know why it is, but MD is the same way. She’s attended a zillion concerts, never worn earplugs, and has extremely acute hearing. I damaged my hearing by doing a lot of handgun shooting in my youth – without hearing protection. And I know that each time I go to one of these ear-splitting concerts, that I lose a little more.

By: Kim

Kim — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 01:10:16 +0000

Sounds like the time we went to see Johnny Winters in Denver at the Fillmore Auditorium back in 99/00. They wheeled him out on a furniture hand cart. It’s really sad to see them get old.

I wish someone had wheeled me out of the SB Bowl on a furniture hand cart last Thursday night befiore the concert had started.

By: TomC

TomC — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:42:29 +0000

You mentioned volume levels at concerts. I am in complete agreement. Most of the soundmen at rock shows suffer from serious hearing impairment. They are routinely subjected to dangerous sound pressure levels for hours on end and quickly lose a good deal of their hearing. Here’s a little trick I use to get me through concerts: bring earplugs. The cost almost nothing, can be found in drug stores and hardware stores, and cut around 30 db. You lose a bit of treble when you wear them, but this usually is not a problem. In most cases, the sound is slightly improved. Best of all, you walk out of the concert feeling just as good as when you walked in. No ringing ears, no noise fatigue. Ear plugs are the only way to fly. You may want to bring a couple of pairs because people around you might ask if you have any extras.

I will bring them from here on. I’ve actually used them at other concerts, but I didn’t think to bring a pair for this one. I rushed home and threw back a ton of magnesium, vitamin C, circumin and every other antioxidant I could get my hands on.