We live in an age of instant gratification. Everyone texts, tweets, takes selfies and Snapchats with impunity, and it’s just the age we live in. Apparently, however, a Disturbed concert is sacrosanct, a little bubble of humanity that should be undisturbed by something so rude as a cell phone. Speaking of undisturbed, that’s probably the best way to describe former fan Shannon Pardue, a mother who took in last Wednesday’s Disturbed show at the House of Blues in Dallas. Unlike a Danzig concert, there was no ban on cell phones, so she had no problem texting her 14 year-old daughter, who had been caught in a hail storm, in between the end of their set and the band’s encore. Frontman David Draiman wasn’t so happy about it, and he unloaded on her in a clip that went viral:
“So what is so important going on in the world that you need to be texting the entire fucking show? I’m not wrong. Am I wrong?” Draiman asked the crowd. “If you were up here and I did that to you, how would you feel? Seriously! It’s fucking rude. It is! If you don’t want to watch, don’t watch, but don’t stand there in front of the fucking stage in the front row of the balcony where everybody can see you texting the whole fucking time on your phone.”
While she admitted to the Dallas Observer that she’d taken pictures and posted status updates during the show, she said she wasn’t on her phone the whole time. And hey, even if she was, she paid good money to see the show and should be allowed to do whatever she wants. A Disturbed concert isn’t a play or an opera where what’s happening onstage deserves your undivided attention. And it’s a shame for Pardue, a fan of the band for 15 years, to have been berated by the singer of a band she liked. She doesn’t like them any more, though:
“Rock stars wouldn’t be where they are without people who come to pay for the show,” Pardue says. “Whether I had my eyes on him or not, I am still there and I can hear them. He’s an amazing singer, and they were good, but it was just his attitude. I’ll never pay to see him again nor will my friends.”
[youtube]https://youtu.be/7sM73kwAHsg[/youtube]
