Etiquette: Put away your camera phone and just enjoy the damn show!

OK people. I know that going to a concert is special and you want a memento besides that $45 T-shirt, but the incessant picture taking has got to stop. Seriously, whipping out a camera while an artist is pouring their heart out onstage is a fat, cystic zit on the face of human behavior. Bjork couldn’t contain her frustration with camera-happy crowds in an interview with the New Zealand Herald this week when she likened their rude technological disruptions to being ignored by a friend during an intimate dinner. And Band of Horses singer Ben Bridwell explained to Pitchfork a few months back about why the quest for material for personal blogs/videos/other projects during a concert is a ruinous distraction from the music, and people end up missing out on the very thing they intend to experience. Since when has brandishing the tools and ethics of your ordinary scumbucket paparazzi become acceptable and in some instances, admired? Let’s respect music, fellow concertgoers stuck behind visually-impairing photo-taking positions, the art of photography, and most important, yourself by keeping it in your pants … or purse, or whatever you carry your crap in. Want to reflect upon how great it was seeing Green Day perform “American Idiot” in its entirety without having to pull up that blurry shot of someone’s head blocking a diminutive stage? It’s called a memory. Use it or lose it. And c’mon - do you want to piss off your favorite band?