The Most Annoying Things People Do at Gigs (And How Not to Be That Person)
Live music is supposed to be a shared experience. A room full of people, one stage, a few hours of noise, energy and hopefully something worth singing about on the way home. But every gig has them: the small collection of habits that can turn a brilliant night into an endurance test for the musicians and everyone standing nearby.
Most of these things are not done maliciously. They happen because someone gets carried away, forgets that other people exist, or assumes that a gig is a private screening arranged entirely for them. Here are some of the most annoying things people do at gigs, plus a gentle reminder that good gig etiquette costs absolutely nothing.
1. Pushing to the front, then holding up an iPad
Wanting a good view is understandable. Forcing your way through a packed crowd so you can hold a giant tablet above your head for the entire set is less understandable.
An iPad is not invisible. It blocks the view of everyone behind it, creates a glowing rectangle in the middle of the room and often records a performance that will never be watched again. A phone held briefly for a photo is one thing. Turning up with a screen the size of a small television and treating the front row like your personal tripod is quite another.
2. Recording the entire gig
A few clips are fine. Capturing every song, every encore and the walk-off is probably not improving your experience. It also means the people behind you get to watch the whole show through the back of your phone.
There is a useful rule here: if your arm is tired from holding your phone up, it has been up too long. Put it away for a song and let the people around you see the actual musicians.
3. Talking loudly through the quiet songs
There is a time for catching with your friends. It is usually not during the acoustic number where the singer is trying to deliver the most delicate lyric of the evening.
Gigs are noisy, so nobody expects total silence. But loud conversations, shouted gossip and detailed retellings of what happened at work can flatten the atmosphere for a surprising number of people. If your story requires a voice normally reserved for outdoor use, save it for the interval.
4. Singing louder than the singer
Knowing every word is excellent. Making sure the entire venue knows that you know every word is not always quite so excellent.
Sing along, absolutely. That is part of the fun. Just remember that the audience is backing vocal, not the headline act. If people three rows away can hear your version more clearly than the person on stage, consider turning it down by about 40 percent.
5. Shouting requests at the wrong moment
“Play the one everyone knows!” is rarely the helpful contribution people imagine it is. Neither is yelling a song request while a musician is tuning, introducing a song or trying to explain why the next number matters.
Requests can be part of a good interaction between a band and its audience, but timing is everything. There is a difference between a playful request and repeatedly shouting over the set as though you are trying to operate the band by remote control.
6. Using flash photography
Flash photography at a gig is a reliable way to distract the performer, annoy the people nearby and make every photograph look like it was taken during a minor electrical fault.
Most modern phones can manage concert lighting without a flash. If the venue or performer has asked people not to take photos, the best image is the one you do not take.
7. Arriving late and expecting a front-row route through everyone
Late arrivals happen. Trains are delayed, babysitters run late and sometimes the queue moves more slowly than expected. What is annoying is arriving halfway through the headline set and expecting the crowd to part like the Red Sea so you can reclaim the exact spot you would have had if you arrived on time.
Find a sensible gap, apologise as you pass and accept that your view may be a little further back. You can still have a great night without conducting a full-scale crowd evacuation.
8. Leaving every ten minutes
Need the toilet? Of course. Need another drink? Fair enough. Need to leave, return, leave again, return with three friends and repeat the process throughout every song? That is a lot of traffic for one small patch of floor.
If you know you will be coming and going, stand somewhere near the edge. It is kinder to the people who arrived early and would quite like to watch the set rather than spend it being gently elbowed by passing traffic.
9. Bringing a huge bag into a packed crowd
A small bag is practical. A giant backpack full of mysterious hard corners is a weapon with shoulder straps.
In a tight room, oversized bags catch on people, take up valuable floor space and occasionally knock somebody in the face. Travel light where you can, use the cloakroom if there is one, and keep anything you do bring close to you.
10. Treating the floor like a dance arena
Dancing is encouraged. Launching yourself sideways into strangers is not.
There is a difference between enthusiastic movement and repeatedly barging into the same people. If the crowd is packed tightly, keep your dancing within the space your feet actually occupy. Nobody minds joy. People do mind being used as human crash mats.
11. Crowd surfing without checking the room
Crowd surfing can be part of the right gig, with the right audience and the right security arrangements. It is not automatically appropriate everywhere.
If the room is small, the crowd is mostly seated or the venue has asked people not to do it, take the hint. A surprise boot to the back of the head is not the encore anyone ordered.
12. Smoking or vaping in the crowd
Smoke and vapour travel. The person beside you may have asthma, may be trying to protect their clothes or may simply not want the inside of their lungs to smell like synthetic mango until Tuesday.
Use the designated outdoor area and come back when you are ready. The band will still be there, and the people around you will be grateful.
13. Throwing drinks, phones or anything else towards the stage
There is no universe in which throwing a drink at a musician improves the performance. The same applies to phones, pints, trainers and anything else that is not meant to fly.
Musicians need their eyes, their instruments and their equipment in working order. If you want to show appreciation, applause is both traditional and much less likely to damage a guitar.
14. Leaning on barriers or touching the equipment
That barrier is there for a reason. It is not a personal shelf, footrest or invitation to reach over and adjust something on stage.
Microphones, pedals, cables, monitors and instruments are all positioned carefully. Even a small accidental change can cause a loud pop, feedback or a musician suddenly discovering that their sound has disappeared. Admire the setup from the audience side.
15. Heckling the support act
The support band is not background furniture. They are musicians who have travelled, loaded in, soundchecked and stood on stage in front of a room that may not yet know their name.
You do not have to love every act, but you can give them the basic courtesy you would want if you were the one holding the microphone. Talking through their set or shouting for the headline act is a quick way to make a room feel smaller and meaner than it needs to.
16. Arriving at the merch table and asking for a full biography
Merch tables are a lovely part of a gig. They help musicians earn money and give fans something tangible to take home. They are less lovely when one person occupies the table for twenty minutes while a queue forms behind them.
Ask your question, buy your shirt or record, have a quick chat and let the next person step forward. If you want a longer conversation, check whether the musician has time after the rush.
17. For musicians: turning up unprepared
Audience etiquette matters, but musicians have their own list. Turning up without the right cables, forgetting the set list, failing to charge the wireless system or treating soundcheck as optional can create problems before the first song has even started.
Whether you are playing an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar or a full band setup, preparation is part of the performance. The audience may not know exactly what went wrong, but they can usually feel when a band is scrambling.
18. For musicians: tuning loudly between songs
Tuning is necessary. Making the audience listen to every string while you search for the note is not the most polished way to do it.
Mute when you can, tune efficiently and use the gaps between songs with purpose. A tuner, spare instruments and a little preparation backstage can save a lot of awkward stage noise.
19. For musicians: leaving feedback to sort itself out
Feedback is exciting when it is intentional and painful when it is not. A microphone squeal that goes on for several seconds can make a whole room flinch, especially in a smaller venue.
Good gain structure, sensible monitor placement and a quick response from the person at the desk make a huge difference. The same goes for a solid guitar amplifier setup: loud is not the same as clear.
20. For musicians: forgetting that the drummer and keyboard player exist
Every band has a front person, but no band is held together by one person alone. Ignoring the drummer when introducing the band, forgetting the keyboard player in the encore or treating the bass player as furniture is a surprisingly common bit of stage nonsense.
Give credit where it is due. The groove, the harmony and the parts that make a song feel enormous often come from the musicians who are not standing in the spotlight.
21. For everyone: being permanently online
There is a strange irony in going to a live gig and spending the whole night posting updates about being at a live gig.
Influencers and vloggers are part of modern life, and sharing a moment from a show can help an act reach new listeners. But not everyone has come to watch someone narrate to a camera while the band is playing. If you are filming content, keep it brief, avoid blocking anyone’s view and save the running commentary for after the set. The act on stage deserves to be the main event for the people who came to see and hear them.
Take a few photos, share a clip if you want to support the band, then put the phone away and be in the room. Live music is one of the few things left that does not need to be experienced through a notification panel.
22. The best gig habit: leave room for other people
Most gig etiquette comes down to one simple idea: enjoy yourself without making the experience worse for everyone else.
Stand where you can see without blocking the view. Dance without knocking people over. Sing along without drowning out the band. Support the opening act. Put your phone down now and then. If you are the musician, prepare properly, listen to the rest of the band and remember that a good audience wants you to succeed.
And if reading this has made you want to start a band, replace a tired instrument or build a better live setup, have a browse through our collections of drums and percussion, keyboards and pianos and ukuleles. Just promise us you will not bring the biggest possible case into the front row.
Here is to better gigs, clearer views, quieter phones and fewer flying drinks.
