In certain music scenes, crowd interaction is a vital part of any show. The punk/hardcore scene especially is well known for the band and audience becoming one and sharing the stage. Stage diving and crowd surfing comes as part of the package with these kind of shows and is what the fans expect when they attend and what the bands thrive upon. There’s no rockstar bullshit here. Everyone is here to have a good time and the band and fans work together to create some of the most explosive shows you will ever attend.
With ‘Health & Safety’ constantly rearing it’s ugly head, these kinds of shows are becoming more and more at risk of dying out. One of the London’s small venue’s most renowned for these sort of shows is the Underworld in Camden which has come under fire recently for installing a barrier between the stage and audience. We ask the question ‘Are Barriers At Small Venues Ruining The Live Experience’. Will separating the band and audience affect the shows? Will barriers in small venues actually make it more dangerous? Will barriers put some bands off playing these venues? Is it time for shows to calm down? Find out what our panel thinks and let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Jenna Young – Contributor
Quite simply, yes. When a band plays at a small venue, such as Camden’s Underworld, fans want to enjoy feeling close to a band. Part of the joy of loving such a band that’s small enough to headline somewhere like that is having that intimate feeling you can’t enjoy when they get popular and start playing larger venues, its good to get the most of it while you can. It’s not even as if there are any health and safety issues with being against the stage at a small venue, sure anywhere larger the stage is too high and you really need the security there, but somewhere small if you need out it won’t take you long to push to the back. Let the small venues stay small and intimate, leave the barriers to the large ones.
Emma Younger – Contributor
Last year, I went to see Young Guns in Bath, in an underground venue called Moles. I queued for hours to be at the front despite the venue’s tiny size, all because of the attraction of a “no barrier” situation. As I expected, it was, and still is the best gig I’ve been to. It was crowded, rowdy and sweaty. There being no barrier made the experience that much more exciting. I was falling onto the stage, and John, the bassist picked me up as I fell. Better still, the crowd piled on stage for the final song, Winter Kiss. Eight months later, I was yet again at the front row of a Young Guns gig. This time, with the presence of a barrier. I left the gig with bruises on my hips that were quite frankly, insane. My hips against the barrier took the entire weight of the crowd, and the magic of a no barrier gig with it. My point is that from these experiences, I saw the same band, a similar setlist, and yet the experiences were completely different. Small venues around the country are renowned for their intimate size and ability to allow gig-goers to get up close and personal with the band. Recently moving to London, I’ve been excited about going to venues such as The Underworld which has been host to hundreds of legendary gigs. With the news of the barrier being put back into the venue, I feel deflated as the gig culture of London was one of the main reasons I was excited to move here. So I say yes, barriers at smaller venues is ruining the live experience. It destroys the atmosphere, and makes the crowd feel distant to the band, even being in a small room, and in terms of safety? Well, I got more injured with one more than without one.
