To eject or not to eject
Posted on Sunday, April 27, 2008
There are those places where you expect folks to be rowdy and loud, and there are also those places where such behavior comes as a surprise — a shock, even. When you go to an athletic event, you aren’t surprised to hear loud exhortations and occasional salutes or taunts. And if you find yourself at a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert down by the river, you might know to be on the lookout for flying whiskey bottles.
A loud rock concert at Alltel Arena is likely to attract loud fans, but most attend shows to hear performers, rather than to hear themselves “perform” and, for whatever reason, attract attention to themselves.
The word that comes to mind is “boorish,” which is defined as “rude, awkward, ill-mannered.” It seems the perfect word for some situations.
And after the surprise wears off, anger can sometimes bubble to the surface, followed by a desire to have someone do something, especially at an event such as the John Prine concert at Robinson Center Music Hall in early March. People whose seats were in the mezzanine were subjected to “boorish behavior.” Prine, a singer-songwriter with a backing band, is not loud enough to drown out clowns, as it turned out. While those of us at the concert who were seated on the floor weren’t disturbed, phone calls and e-mails from concertgoers demonstrated clear agitation.
One person who wrote, Jack Heinritz, put it succinctly: “Three or four rowdy characters were whistling — loudly and shrilly — loud and shrill enough to physically hurt, even from a distance, during the opening act,” he wrote. “These guys would throw their heads back and whistle through their teeth for sometimes 10 seconds at a time. I observed several people approaching these men, and asking them to ease up. They got the finger, plus louder and longer whistling.
“ I was hoping they were Prine fans, who would settle down to hear his songs. Wrong. If anything, they got progressively louder and more obnoxious. Understand, this isn’t just be- tween songs; it was during the songs. By the third Prine song, I’d estimate 30 to 50 people had left.” Out $ 113. 70 for his two tickets, Heinritz left when his wife developed a severe headache. On their way out, he tried complaining to someone who looked like an authority figure (he was wearing a blazer and dress slacks ) and was told nothing could be done, although “lots of people complained on their way out,” he was told. “My thinking is, if a baby is crying in a theater, interfering with others’ enjoyment of a movie,” Heinritz wrote, “an usher will ask the parent to remove the baby from the theater. Except for the age of the offender — and the element of intent — is this any different ? If security at the Robinson Center can’t do anything about such a disruption, why are they there ?” OFFICIALS HORRIFIED For their part, city officials were horrified to arrive at work the following Monday and find a couple of irate emails and three phone calls from unhappy Prine fans. In a crowd of more than 2, 500 people (close to capacity, which is 2, 609 ), the number of bad actors was small — apparently a pair of whistlers — but loud. “Normally, this doesn’t happen here,” said Phyllis Lucas, director of event operations for the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau, which oversees activities at Robinson Center. “We have safety officers and they go in and observe the situation, because what one person considers ‘rowdy’ may not be what another person considers ‘rowdy.’ “ Every time we went to observe, they were fine, on their best behavior. This is only the second time in my 34 years here that I remember ever having a person that we’ve had to ask to pipe down. We can’t eject someone with force out of the building. If a person refuses to leave the building, then that’s when we call the Little Rock Police Department, and ask them to go talk to the person.” The shrill duo refused a staff request to leave, but then re-considered and did so before the arrival of police officers.
“We tried to handle it as swiftly as possible,” Lucas said. “If something happens again, we’ll call the LRPD sooner. To a patron, it may have looked like we’re not doing anything, but we are. We do care about our patrons’ entertainment experience.” And though the powers that be were not able to rescue the Prine concert from disruption, they at least restored Heinritz’s faith in his city officials. Noting that the Little Rock Police Department had been called, “but when they arrived the offending parties had left the building,” Lucas offered the bureau’s official apologies and — best yet — a refund of the Heinritzes’ $ 113. 70.
STAND UP, SIT DOWN Across the river at Alltel Arena, where things are generally louder in the first place, it would seem there would be fewer opportunities for errant fans to offend, what with all that loud rock ’n’ roll, pop, country and so on. “There haven’t been many times where we’ve heard people telling us, ‘Can you tell them to be quiet ? We can’t hear the music, ’” says Alltel General Manager Michael Marion. “If a complaint gets to me, it’s usually pretty serious. We’ve had people complain to the concession folks, which is not the place to go for that. “ We have a customer service window at the main entrance, and anyone who complains, we’ll offer them a refund and let them leave the building. I’m a Wal-Mart kind of guy in that respect. But if you call me after the show to tell me the show was bad or something wasn’t right, should I then send you a refund ? If there’s an unruly patron, maybe pouring beer on people in front of him, an usher will ask him to sit down and behave.” As to standing, a matter that sometimes irritates audience members who prefer to occupy their seats, Marion says sometimes the artist contracts are in control of that issue, spelling out that if anyone stands up, it’s fine with the performers. “You would think that it would be where if a whole row stands up in front of you, you’re going to stand up, too,” Marion says, “and if only one guy stands up, well, then he should sit down. But some artists will say, ‘ Leave that guy alone, let him stand up.’” Since the arena is in the entertainment business, it walks a fine line in trying to keep the customers satisfied.
UPSET BY OTHER FOLKS And because the arena has also had shows by more reflective sorts of singer-songwriters, including James Taylor, Norah Jones and Alison Krauss, there are times when some folks will be upset by other folks. “We don’t sell widgets here, we sell a good time,” Marion notes. “Our product is very intangible and subject to a lot of factors. We want people to come in and have a good time, and if someone is impairing their good time, we want to do something about it. We have a ‘contact us’ part of our Web site, but it’s mostly stuff like someone asking, ‘Why don’t you book Heart ? I hear they’re on tour.’” Alltel even has a director of event services, Joe DeGeorge, who focuses on issues like crowd control. “We follow a process, and while I wouldn’t call our approach ‘lenient,’ we do try to give people enough chances to correct their behavior. If someone does something another person doesn’t like, they usually complain to an usher, who talks to the person. Then if there’s a second complaint, we bring a supervisor in who tells them they’ve been warned once, and they need to straighten up their behavior, or they will be asked to leave.” Offended parties will usually request immediate expulsion, but that doesn’t usually happen unless belligerent behavior is involved. “The type of show will dictate the crowd,” DeGeorge says. “It it’s Metallica, it’ll be a standing up, dancing sort of crowd. If it’s the Transylvanian Orchestra, the crowd wants to see the show and hear the music and so they’ll be sitting in their seats, quietly. Sometimes, a touring rock show may have its own security and they say, ‘Get that person out of here.’ So then we’ll be following their cue. “ We have had to summon the police at times to eject someone, and they’re usually intoxicated.” DRAW THE LINE On the club level, two of the most successful music establishments are ready for anything, with visible bouncers moving about to discourage the likelihood of incidents that could cause customers to complain, leave and maybe never return. “It depends on what type of show what we expect,” says Erin Hurley, entertainment director at Juanita’s. “When you have a more intimate, personal singer-songwriter type of evening, you get a different crowd than with a rock show, where the amplified factor drowns out the idiots. At Robinson, you can’t move away from them, but here, patrons can get away easier.
“ I’ve sent security around to tell people to be quiet, and we’ve put up signs when we have an intimate, seated show, telling people to keep quiet and be respectful of the artist. When we have artists like Todd Snider and Mike Ferris, it can be hard since they both started out as rowdy guys, Mike in The Screamin ’ Cheetah Wheelies, and they have gotten away from that. Mike is now sitting down doing spiritual songs.
“ It’s embarrassing when the artist has to tell the audience to be quiet.” Chris King, co-owner of Sticky Fingerz Chicken Shack and The Revolution Room, echoed Hurley’s sentiments.
“The bottom line is if anybody disturbs the artist, that’s really where we have to draw the line,” King said. “We’re a little more lenient otherwise, being kind of a rowdy environment. Sometimes you have to judge whether it’s a heckle, or just a drunk yelling out for his favorite song so the performer won’t forget to do it.
“ We just had a great seated singer-songwriter evening last night, by Martin Sexton, and there were people behind me yelling something about ‘Jack Black’s on stage,’ whatever that was about. I had to give them that certain ‘look’ a time or two.”
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