By Linda Forrest
I dipped back into my former life for a night last week when I went to Toronto to see U2 at the Rogers Centre. It was incredible.
We were lucky enough to have general admission tickets that enabled us to get as close as we wanted to to the stage, which was close. In order to do so, though, we waited in line outside of the venue for most of the day. Thank heaven for the PDA or it would have been considerably more challenging to fill the time. Liveblogging the lineup would have been far too boring for anyone not there (it was pretty boring in the lineup itself) but it was great to be able to check emails, Tweet when the mood struck, and catch up on online news.
When my phone worked, that is.
Having a Rogers iPhone on the Rogers network outside (and later inside) the Rogers Centre, one would think that reception would be stellar, that the data network would be lightning fast. One would be wrong.
The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if the fact that Blackberry was sponsoring the U2 tour impacted the service. Anecdotally, those attending the show who were using Blackberries didn’t seem to have the same frustrating lack of network access that we on the Rogers network did. Good to know that Elvis Costello could check his emails on his Blackberry with impunity while the rest of us with a Rogers account had to be contented with just basking in the glow of the many Rogers’ logos that surrounded us, rather than a functional network.
More than once in surveying round-ups and reviews of the show, I came across sentiments similar to “Did your Rogers iPhone on the Rogers network work at the Rogers Centre tonight? Mine didn’t.” The company, which struggles with its reputation as a reliable service provider, something we’ve addressed at other times on this blog, missed a golden opportunity to knock it out of the park, a park that was filled with 58,000 U2 fans, two nights in a row, that in today’s era of social media and pervasive user-created content would be sharing their experience at the show, something that extends beyond just the performance of the band itself.
Image: Open Clip Art Library.
/// COMMENTS
No Comments »Bob LeDrew
September 22, 2009 12:55 pmIf you’ll permit me a brief tangential detour:
I think people are missing out on important and profound concert experiences because they are desperately struggling to record them using their cell phones or digital cameras.
When I watch major events on TV now, or if I go to a big music thing (last time would have been Rush at Scotiabank Place) I am amazed at the thousands of people STARING at their phone / iPhone / B’berry / whatever and recording what they’re getting.
I understand the desire to walk away feeling that in some way you’ve captured the essence of the event and can remind yourself of it.
But I think that the vast majority of these recordings are of terrible quality and likely fail if that’s the goal. So people: put down your smartphones and LISTEN the next time you go.
Thus endeth the sermon.
Linda
September 22, 2009 1:58 pmThanks for reading, Bob. This is a tangent I’m all too happy to talk about.
You couldn’t be more right, Rev. Bob. I used to frequent shows almost daily when I was in the music business (admittedly this was prior to the advent and widespread adoption of many of the digital gizmos we all have in our pockets these days) and often lamented at the end of a great show that I didn’t have a CD or DVD of the show to commemorate the great ones. Many bands and venues are taking this desire into consideration and offering up a CD or DVD of the show at their merch tables; one can purchase an IOU that can then be cashed in for a download or hard copy of the show they’ve just seen. This is brilliant because not only does it meet that need for the fans, but also is a sharp business move creating an additional revenue stream for little to no additional cost. It’s not just the Depeche Modes or the Pearl Jams of the world either; Just at the end of my tenure in Toronto’s music scene, the Horseshoe Tavern had teamed up with some US company to offer up live CDs of any of the shows that took place at the venue. I can’t seem to come up with the company’s name on Google, so perhaps the idea didn’t fly, but it’s (hopefully) only a matter of time before this practice is commonplace.
I admit that I’m a tad fastidious when it comes to the rules and so when it said on my U2 ticket no cameras, I didn’t bring my camera. I could rest easy in the knowledge that almost everyone else would bring a camera, a theory proven accurate by the “milky way” that Bono elicited at one point in the show when he had everyone hold up their cell phones and cameras. Lighters have nothing on this newer version of crowd participation (and you’re less likely to burn your fingers this way!) I’m grateful that so many others skirted the rules because YouTube is filled to the brim with images of me and my husband enjoying the show. And we didn’t even have to divert our attention from the show ourselves in order to have such a terrific keepsake. Those filming may have been so busy capturing the magic that they missed it, but we get to reap the benefits doubly, having enjoyed it as it happened and being able to access scads of video after the fact. Thank heavens for user-generated content.