Went to see Queens Of The Stone Age in Bournemouth last night with my wife. We're both huge fans. Saw them play at Pukkelpop in 2010 and they were fantastic. Didn't really get another opportunity to see them again until now. Loving the new album and have played it to death.
I've been to the BIC (Bournemouth International Centre) a few times before. I think the last time was for Christine and the Queens, which was a different sort of gig, but still fun. The place was rammed last night, to the point where I'm very, very curious to know what the attendance was. During the second support act, we left a little early to get to the toilets and get the drinks ready before QOTSA came on stage, and the place was already rammed, with tons already queuing for drinks, the loos, or just congregating outside the hall talking or milling around.
Band came on and kicked off with No One Knows, which was an incredible opener. Unfortunately, someone in the crowd behind us threw a plastic beer cup (one of the huge ones, heavily weighed down with beer) into the air which ended up hitting my wife on the head. She's got a lump on her head which came up pretty much immediately and it's taken skin off her nose, too. Had a kind member of the crowd check up on her. But, that instantly put a downer on things. I've got to say that there was a ton of other cups being thrown around throughout the night.
I can appreciate it's a huge band to come to Bournemouth, and there aren't that many acts of this tier that come this way, but the crowd was shit yesterday. You get the odd person who is a bit of a lunatic, but (combined with it being rammed) there were people being knocked/barged all over the place. Added to that, the sheer amount of 'wanderers' who barge past/walk in front of you or behind you (nudging you) to get to a specific area in the venue is really, really fecking annoying. This has really gotten worse post-Covid. I can't remember this being too much of an issue beforehand, but it's a growing problem. It does pull you out of the experience, because you could be just listening or in the moment enjoying something on stage, but somebody (or quite often a small group) walking in front of you and blocking your eyeline can really pull you out of the moment. Why can't people just fecking enjoy the music?! You've paid to watch a band, just fecking watch them. It got ridiculous at one point with the same two shirtless twats going past us about 4 or 5 times. I do generally think the gigging public are getting worse etiquette-wise.
The annoying thing is that the band were fecking amazing. They were one of the best bands I've seen and were incredibly tight, even with some of the time changes or funny rhythmic sections. But, the experience wasn't what it should have been. Felt sorry for the wife who was really looking forward to it, but that sort of stuff that happened really put a downer on the evening. I feel a bit cheated.
. I've been to The O2 loads of times and never seen them use that system before.
