Last year, I caught Luna Sea’s The Holy Night concert on Christmas Eve by myself. Even though I was alone, I didn’t feel lonely and enjoyed the performance a lot.
This year, the band is holding the concert on December 23, 24 again, and I’m still contemplating if I should catch it again. I’ve been spending a lot this month getting a new computer after my current one had both the left and right keys falling out and I’m about to lose control as well (the left one which I use the most). Interestingly, I hardly use the control key on the right side of the keyboard. I wonder how many people actually use it. If they actually had heat maps on keyboards, perhaps we can someday do away with the right control key when the manufacturers discover how little it’s used.
Concerts in Japan are amazing. They are not like the ones I attended in Singapore where we just sit and watch. If we’re just gonna sit and watch quietly, might as well buy the DVD right? I used to think spending on concerts is such a waste of money until I caught them in Japan, and I think maybe the threshold of marginal utility for concerts is quite high.
The idea of spending money to catch concerts when you are seated so far away, you can barely see the performers and end up watching screens used to be unfathomable for me. But I learned that concerts are fun not just because of the performers, but also because of the audience. The fans are what make concerts interesting. They are the ones who create the atmosphere. And so, it doesn’t really matter if you’re seated far away as long as the people around are an awesome crowd.
Likewise for comedies, no matter how well done a joke is, if there’s no laughter, it will sound very boring. That is why sitcoms use canned laughter. That’s why you get planted audience sometimes or have staff members to lead the crowd to clap.
In this light, celebrities are really nothing without fans, so maybe there’s a market for professional audience like what Chinese singing contest programs have.
A job worth considering.
