Maynard James Keenan Urges Fans to Stop Recording Video at Shows
Filming concerts on a cell phone gets on a lot of people's nerves. It can get distracting, turn people's attention away from the actual performance and bug everyone around you. It can also bug people onstage, especially Maynard James Keenan of Tool and A Perfect Circle. In a recent interview, he spoke about his distaste for people filming at shows.
In an interview with the Joe Rogan podcast, Maynard started airing his grievances about the practice. "This stuff annoys me - because I'm a firm believer in oral tradition. I embrace the storytelling - being able to describe to your friends that, sitting around that fire after a good long day of hunting. Where you tell the story about hunt and you do all those things, and those family stories, and your grandfather, and your great-grandfather's stories are told in that setting," explained the singer.
He continued, "You're not writing it down. It's a tradition of understanding the details and being able to explain and expand on the details from your recollection of what you saw. But if you have no skills in absorbing what you saw, if you rely on this thing [holds up a phone] to capture their stories for you... First of all, nothing you're gonna get at a show is gonna represent what you just saw, or what you were there for. As a postcard I suppose it works. But stay present! Stay with these people to be there for this thing. That's far more important. Also, as courtesy, maybe the person behind you would like to be that person who's enjoying this and now your s--t's in their way."
It's pretty understandable where Maynard is coming from in this. Cameras demystify certain aspects of performance and it loses some of the magic that happens when telling others about it. For example, a Slipknot show filled with fire and practical effects, recalling the experience of seeing it happen verbally can get cheapened from a bad video that catches it for five seconds.
See the full interview here.
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