In the days following the Ryan Adams’ concert, I read that the no-policy pictures actually came from Ryan Adams himself and not from the Disney Concert Hall as I had previously thought. According to the LA Weekly, Adams is not allowing any pictures on this tour, not even for professional journalists, and his PR is actually encouraging reviewers to bring along a sketch artist! What? Like in a courtroom? Sorry but I was too far to have produced any good sketch of him, and that would have distracted me way more than taking the few pictures WITHOUT FLASH that I nevertheless managed to take despite everything.
Ryan Adams’ reps are saying that pictures are not allowed in order to cut down on possible distractions for audience members. Again this is so over the top, I didn’t disturb or even distract anyone when I took a few pictures without flash!
I had noticed the complete silence in the hall, I certainly like a public who is respecting the artist, but being at a concert is also a live experience, you basically have signed up to be a little distracted by the guy next to you who is screaming some stupid thing, or by anything else that can happen. This is part of the live experience. I go to punk concerts where I am hit by legs and elbows of people surfing the crowd and stage diving, so I was a little traumatized by this excess of authority at the Disney Hall.
But this is not the first time it happened. When I went to see Fiona Apple at Largo, there was a no-picture policy strictly enforced by some zealous security guards who even confiscated my camera.
I wonder who does this too. According to what I have read on message boards on the internet, some concert-goers are saying that Ramblin Jack Elliot did not tolerate any pictures at the Blues fest in Chicago in 2010 (but he is old), Tool don’t allow any cell phones at their shows (and fans give them off before the show? Unbelievable!), Natalie Merchant confiscated a camera once, the band Heart has also a no photo policy (due to Ann Wilson’s weight issue?), Kanye West did not allow pictures for his Glow in the Dark tour in 2008 (but that was different), and at the last Wilco tour, the security people were confiscating all the cameras. I have also read that Bon Jovi allows pictures but is totally involved in the process and only allows the ones he has selected (I really wonder how he does this). I am sure there are tons of other examples, sure I forgot a big one, Prince! But he is a nuts anyway.
The no-picture policy is pointless in this age of all-media-all-the-time, there is actually more portable devices than people in the world, and each concert-goer has at least a cell phone that allows taking pictures (or more), so why going through the nuisance to search every person entering a concert hall? In any case, they are never able to totally enforce the policy, you want the prove? There are at least 18 videos of Ryan Adams at the Disney Hall on YouTube, and almost the whole Friday night show!
I understand that flash can be disturbing, and I know that some people overuse their iPhones during shows, but I am not talking about dumb people who check their facebook while chatting during a show, this is way more disturbing! You can take pictures without flash with most cameras these days, and I don’t see where is the problem, that’s why I did take some pictures at the Ryan Adams’ concert.
Jeff Tweedy once interrupted a concert to say that taking pictures was taking ‘away from the natural experience of enjoying live music when everybody is working so hard to preserve their memory in a tiny screen rather than just enjoying the show that's happening right in front of them.’ Sure, but that’s everybody’s right to do so, and I don’t see why Tweedy should dictate to his public how to properly enjoy the show.
Artists who don’t allow pictures and who use the flash thing excuse or the Tweedy excuse, actually hide something else, some real reasons like ‘the lightning is not right’, ‘I will look awful’, ‘these people are not professional photographers’, ‘this picture will end up on some gossipy website’,… in short a prima donna mentality that unfortunately affects a lot of artists when they have reached success.
It is funny how young and almost unknown bands actually thank me when I take pictures and videos of their performance, there is absolutely no angst or uneasiness at all, you can only get this from famous bands who only care if they look good on a picture.
Not allowing cell phones or cameras is going counter-time and counter-technology, it is going backwards, thus it is a loss of time. Plus it does not work! I don’t like stupid interdictions, and I don’t like when artists find lame excuses when in fact they only want to control their image.