Went to The Today Show the ohter day and heard Journey play “Don’t Stop Believin'” no less than three times. Now that’s a band that’s not scared of playing its hits!
We were standing somewhat towards that back of the crowd but it wasn’t a large crowd and we felt good about our line of sight to the elevated stage. Then the band came out and this is what we saw for the duration of the (very short) set:
What are we seeing here? Smartphone viewscreens and the backsides of signs telling Journey how much they are loved from various obscure parts of middle America is what.
Disappointing? Yep. But there were some good moments, nonetheless. For instace, we awarded the innovation prize to this guy:
It’s a little tough to see, but we have a camera raised up by its tripod for a clear look at the band. Brilliant, right? Well, unfortunatley, our erswhile videographer couldn’t see his camera viewfinder (and we could) and he was only recording the crowd about 15 feet in front of the stage.
The point is that cameras and video recording devices prevented most of the crowd from actually seeing the show. I figured what’s going on is that a few people up front, who can see just fine, hold up their phones or a little personal memento. The people behind them do the same.
After a few rows of this, though, the people who can’t see easily hold their phones higher and higher up. Once we get to the poor suckers at the back, their only hope of ever seeing the show now lies in watching a video on our smartphones when we get home.
It’s too bad, but at least we got to hear the hits.
Not Unreasonable 