As you can CLEARLY see from the above photo, I saw Arcade Fire at the Paramount last night. This picture was taken a few moments after the tall guy sitting in the section below us finally sat down. I wasn’t sure how much time I had between his bouts of standing, so I snapped this to prove, if only to myself, that there were moments when I could see everyone standing on stage. Since we were in the balcony of the Paramount, everyone else was sitting. I didn’t want to stand to see because then no one behind me would be able to see the stage. See how that works?

What is it with tall men standing in front of me at live music shows? At the Spoon show in June, Mrs. Glamm (who is one of only three people I know who is shorter than me) and I staked out a good spot by a pillar in the bar part of the Showbox. We were feeling pretty good about our locale: we could both see, we had something to lean against, and we were close to alcoholic beverage service. About five minutes before Spoon came on, this gargantuan guy shimmied his way to the pillar and stood RIGHT FUCKING IN FRONT OF US. He slid his arm around his girlfriend as Mr. Slamm said, “Wow, what a fucking asshole!” Asshole, of course, heard Slamm and asked what his problem was. Slamm explained that he thought it was unbelievably rude to worm his way into a spot that was directly in front of two of the shortest women in the venue. Asshole said he had been there since the place opened to get that spot and he felt Slamm owed him an apology. I told Asshole not to worry about it, to turn around and go back to his simian stage-gawking. He refused to turn around until Slamm apologized. The guy was big, and none of us wanted to deal with him anymore, so Slamm finally said, “Sorry. But I still think you’re rude.”

This kind of thing happens to me all the time. I know it’s no more their fault for being tall as it is mine for being short. But shit, throw me a frickin’ bone here. If tall guys stand behind me, they can still see the stage. It doesn’t work the same way if I stand behind them. What really bugs me about it is the complete disregard for anyone else at the show. I paid the same amount of money to be there as they did. (Well, not last night. Joe paid for my ticket last night. But still.) Why do they think they have more right to see the stage than the tens to hundreds of people standing behind them, many of whom are females shorter than themselves?

I was just getting into the above mindset last night when I finally decided that since this happens to me all the time, I had two choices for how to deal with it: 1. I could ask the usher to ask the guy to sit down, which would make me look like a big baby and probably wouldn’t be much more than a temporary fix anyway since this guy would probably just wait for the usher to leave and would stand up again; or 2. I could choose to concentrate on listening to how good Arcade Fire SOUNDS, not worry about who I could or could not see on stage, and have a pleasant memory of the show.

I chose option 2. Oddly enough, about two minutes later, tall dude sat down. He stayed seated for the rest of the show. Except right after the encore started, but by then we were all standing.

And you know what? The show rocked. The band was so good. They are every bit as fantastic live as I’ve heard they are. Joe and Slamm talked as we were walking out about how Win’s guitar was drowned out by the orchestral sounds of the rest of the band. But I didn’t care. I teared up during “Headlights Like Diamonds” and did the best seated dance I could muster for “Rebellion (Lies).” I know I probably say this the morning after just about every show I see, but it was definitely one of the best ones I’ve ever been to. It was even better than, don’t hate me, Kings of Leon.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I must go do some internet stalking research on Wolf Parade, who opened for AF.

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