Amsterdam, 15 Nov. 2014 (incl. moshing debate and shoe-gate)

Is there anyone else who is going to Amsterdam?
It is my first time and I want to ask, where do the band comes out? For autographs and pictures???

Not sure where they come out, because I never met a band at this venue and I've been to like 13 shows there.
The venue is pretty big and the artist entrance is at the back. Maybe that's where they come out, but I never bothered to go there.
There's also a pretty big merch stand inside so maybe you got a chance to find them there after the show.

alright, maybe I will see the buses xd than I can wait there xd thanks

I've never been to this venue before so I have no idea about the logistics of the place. I'll be there though!

Oh alright, the area is huge I have just seen it xd

Yes, it's a huge area! I'll be there as well; enjoy Amsterdam!

Home from an awesome gig in Amsterdam.

Bayside and Deer Trick were awesome, they definitely have a new fan here.

The crowd threw roses at Ian, and Brian said that he should lay in them, so he did and Brian gave him a kiss haha.

A little later someone threw a shoe at the stage, and Brian was joking that he would keep it, and after that the guy threw another shoe, which almost hit Brians head. He wass stil joking about it, but in the middle of 1930, Brian stopt the song, because the same guy was crowdsurfing I think, at hit other people with his feet. Brian was really mad and had the security pick him out of the audience, and wanted him to ''f*ck off''. He had a talk with the guy and decided he could stay if he didn't bother anyone else.

After that they ended the show really good, with We're getting a divorce, you keep the diner and The Backseat.

"I don't care who you are or what you believe in, I just want you to have a good night" That's what he said after the incident.

I have some mixed feelings about tonight, man. The crowd was rowdy as hell.

Now, I enjoy jumping around as much as the next guy and I won't deny I probably riled up some fellow goers with my overenthusiastic shouting and moving around, but there's no need to start a fucking mosh pit every single song. There's a difference between hopping around and shouting the lyrics into each others faces (my personal favorite activity) and making 3-man-walls of death only to purposely run into the backs of people facing the stage and enjoying themselves. It's not that hard to enjoy yourselves without slamming people who aren't interested in being smacked all the time.

It clearly pissed the band off, especially since the shoe thing had already happened and people were crowdsurfing without any regard. They had to stop midway through a song, 1930 indeed, of all songs. All the fucking around and talking down the assholes in the crowd made us miss at least two songs, if not more. They didn't even play The '59 Sound (which I suppose is still a staple song, right?). The stage exit wasn't that friendly either.

The show itself was awesome. Plenty of SoS (We Came to Dance, Wooderson, Divorce, 1930), Film Noir, Old White, an awesome version of Too Much Blood, great renditions of Get Hurt tracks. We only got American Slang of AS though, but I guess you can't play everything, eh. I dug it. Brian was improvising melodies and going waaaaay high at some points. Awesome. I loved it.

Also, cute girl, if you're reading this and wondering why the slightly-bearded fellow in the Stay Vicious t-shirt didn't come say hi afterwards, it was because your mom was there. It just didn't feel right.

Man, Tim Vantol is such an awesome dude.

Ugh, I hate when people behave like idiots at shows where a lot of SOS songs are played. As if the band needs a reason to play them even less than they already do!

Also what the f*ck with the shoe thing? Who goes to a show and throws shoes at the performers?

In all seriousness though, that sucks about the crowd. I mean, I don't understand moshing to begin with, and Gaslight Anthem is NOT the type of band you mosh to. I mean, how does slamming your body into another person enhance your enjoyment of the music? Ugh. At the show I went to, the crowd during Gaslight was pretty tame, but during Against Me I almost got one of my earrings knocked out of my head. Also, it's great when the 30 people behind you shove into each other like dominoes and you get slammed against the railing because you're at the end of the line. I have no problem with people jumping up and down and shoving side-to-side, but the back and forth crap doesn't need to happen.

The song is called We Came to Dance, people! Not We Came to Mosh! Go see a metalcore band if you wanna behave like that.

I agree. It wasn't that bad in Stuttgart, but there were a couple of mosh pits where we got smashed against the railing. There was a little girl with her mom and dad in the front row and she had to be pulled out by security about halfway into the show, which made me feel really sorry for her, Brian also looked pretty concerned. And nobody threw shoes, but something small and hard hit me on the head at some point. I have no idea what it was, but why would you throw stuff around at a concert anyway? I don't think I would have been joking about the shoe-throwing if I had been in Brian's place.

http://www.heineken-music-hall.nl/gallery/the-gaslight-anthem

On that link are some photo's of last night.

I'm happy the mosh pits weren't on the side we were standing on, but two men ran through everyone to the front row, then started taking selfies and started smoking, really annoying, but after one song there left.

I don't what what it is with these people, they didn't even seem to like the band, then don't go bother the other people who have been waiting for this concert for months.

I would have loved it if Brian had taken the shoe and launched it back at the guy's head. But of course Brian would've gotten in trouble, because that's how annoying the world is.

Rose1991 wrote:

In all seriousness though, that sucks about the crowd. I mean, I don't understand moshing to begin with, and Gaslight Anthem is NOT the type of band you mosh to.

...

The song is called We Came to Dance, people! Not We Came to Mosh! Go see a metalcore band if you wanna behave like that.

To be fair, We Came to Dance is not actually about 'dancing', but it's about moshing. That's the joke if I'm not mistaken. It was written to honor those old hardcore shows where everyone just 'danced' like nobody was watching, you know.

So you're damn right I'm going to start jumping around with a big ol' smile on my face. The problem just is that some guys (and without starting a separate discussion; it's almost never the Dutch people in Amsterdam, it's nearly always the drunk tourists who seem intent on being obnoxious) seem to have no spacial awareness or are just out to involve people who don't want to be involved. Gaslight is a rock band, and, especially their SoS stuff, is prime material for rocking out to, no problem with that.

Four Simple Words

I respectfully disagree, as there's a stark difference between moshing and hardcore dancing. Hardcore dancing doesn't involve massive amounts of pain and knocking the wind (or earrings) out of people. Jumping around, knocking into each other a bit, and having fun: cool. Being a violent asshat because you can: not cool. But I think that goes without saying.

I keep editing this post over and over again because I don't know how to word it, but what I'm trying to say is that what generally happens at Gaslight shows is fine. I consider moshing and dancing to be two toooootally different things. Moshing is really extreme stuff, like what was exhibited at said shoe-throwing show. Shoving each other around like they do is just good old American punk.

I wasnt at that shoe throwing show, but throwing shit at any show is just stupid. I remember seeing Oasis some years ago in Berlin and somebody throwed a full beer mug at Noel when the first song just got started. I remember thinking "well there goes my chance of seeing Oasis at least once in my lifetime(and that tour actually happened to be one of the last tours they did), so thanks a lot beerthrowing asshole..."(them, or at least Liam, having a reputation of walking offstage when stuff like that happens). But luckily Noel just got a towel, cleaned up and carried on.

NeverTrustAJunkie wrote:

I would have loved it if Brian had taken the shoe and launched it back at the guy's head. But of course Brian would've gotten in trouble, because that's how annoying the world is.

Why not...
Theres a video of when Paul Westerberg got a shoe in a middle of a song called Waitress in the sky. He adlibbed immediately with the rhytm of the song: "Fuck you you stupid cunt, I will kick your goddamn teeth in. And if you dont believe me, I will. Anyday of the week pal...because you aint nothing, but a waitress in the sky" or something like that

I just wonder how drunk and/or out of your element you have to be to REMOVE YOUR SHOE and throw it at the stage. Like, nobody brings extra shoes for the purposes of hurling them at the entertainment. Like, a beer bottle, I could see, but your shoe??? Even if you get it back, you're going to be without it for quite awhile.

If I was Brian I woulda kept it.

Coming from the hc/punk scene, I feel like I need to defend some of this "dancing".
Most people are considerate within what they're doing. Of course, if you know a band's music lends to it, you won't go stand in the middle if you don't want any part of it. I know I've seen Bayside open for TBS and I had to get in the back cos things were getting very rowdy! But that's just the kind of band they are. I imagine the same thing would happen with Against Me! Of course I think as people drink more they are less considerate, and a big venue doesn't help any.
Still, while TGA are not a band that lends to moshing right now, back in the SoS days they had some punk-ish songs.

Having said that, the shoe throwing baffles me.

Rose1991 wrote:

I respectfully disagree, as there's a stark difference between moshing and hardcore dancing. Hardcore dancing doesn't involve massive amounts of pain and knocking the wind (or earrings) out of people. Jumping around, knocking into each other a bit, and having fun: cool. Being a violent asshat because you can: not cool. But I think that goes without saying.

I keep editing this post over and over again because I don't know how to word it, but what I'm trying to say is that what generally happens at Gaslight shows is fine. I consider moshing and dancing to be two toooootally different things. Moshing is really extreme stuff, like what was exhibited at said shoe-throwing show. Shoving each other around like they do is just good old American punk.

Fair enough, I guess we're talking about the same thing but just using different terms. "Shoving each other around" works for me!

I'll clarify shoe-gate since there seems to be some confusion and I was actually a few feet away from the guys that did it.

Two dudes took of their shoes and started using them to clap along with a song. It was totally random, but kinda funny, completely harmless, and the people around them had a good laugh. Then, when the song ended, they tried to make some contact with Brian and succeeded. One of them threw a single shoe at Brian as they were sort of talking and it him in the leg or something. It wasn't like the dude was aiming at his head. Brian was confused but kinda laughed it off and asked him why the hell he did that. The guy yelled that he was from Dublin (which kinda explained part of it already, really) and that it was a sign of affection. Brian told him that throwing stuff at people is hardly a sign of affection and offered to step to him and hit him in the head with his amplifier to see if the guy still thought it was a normal way of communicating. Around that time, he (or his friend, I don't know) threw a second shoe which went kinda fast and hit one of the amps, I think. Brian was clearly at least a tad pissed off at the whole thing and it took a while before we got to hear another song.

THEN, a few songs later, the same jackasses start to crowdsurf which mainly involved kicking people in the head. That was it for Brian and he stopped a song (1930), moved towards the security barrier, and told the guy to come over. The dude was reluctant, but we kinda shoved him in Brian's general direction and they talked for what seemed like a few minutes. Brian got back on stage, explained that he made a deal with him that the guy could stay if he stopped bothering other people. The entire band seemed seriously put off by the whole situation but they resumed 1930 at its bridge.

It wasn't like people were trying to kill each other, but it was annoying and time-consuming nonetheless.

I think if people are going to mosh then just keep it within the area where like minded people are doing it , don't start belting people in the back who aren't involved , I think that way it keeps most people happy .i go to a lot of gigs of all types and the most polite pits always seem to be at Metal gigs for some reason but there always seems to be an older age range at them so I wonder if that has anything to do with it .
The worst one was Arctic Monkeys where my 17 year old daughter got punched in the face by a bloke in his 30s .
It just seems these days there are more dicks going to gigs intent on being a pain in the arse .

loazis wrote:

I'll clarify shoe-gate since there seems to be some confusion and I was actually a few feet away from the guys that did it.

Two dudes took of their shoes and started using them to clap along with a song. It was totally random, but kinda funny, completely harmless, and the people around them had a good laugh. Then, when the song ended, they tried to make some contact with Brian and succeeded. One of them threw a single shoe at Brian as they were sort of talking and it him in the leg or something. It wasn't like the dude was aiming at his head. Brian was confused but kinda laughed it off and asked him why the hell he did that. The guy yelled that he was from Dublin (which kinda explained part of it already, really) and that it was a sign of affection. Brian told him that throwing stuff at people is hardly a sign of affection and offered to step to him and hit him in the head with his amplifier to see if the guy still thought it was a normal way of communicating. Around that time, he (or his friend, I don't know) threw a second shoe which went kinda fast and hit one of the amps, I think. Brian was clearly at least a tad pissed off at the whole thing and it took a while before we got to hear another song.

THEN, a few songs later, the same jackasses start to crowdsurf which mainly involved kicking people in the head. That was it for Brian and he stopped a song (1930), moved towards the security barrier, and told the guy to come over. The dude was reluctant, but we kinda shoved him in Brian's general direction and they talked for what seemed like a few minutes. Brian got back on stage, explained that he made a deal with him that the guy could stay if he stopped bothering other people. The entire band seemed seriously put off by the whole situation but they resumed 1930 at its bridge.

It wasn't like people were trying to kill each other, but it was annoying and time-consuming nonetheless.

Thanks for that. At least Brian is always one to talk about a situation with the people causing it and to show them the error of their ways. I appreciate that about him.