I think one of the things I like least about going to gigs is having phones in your peripheral, constantly filming the thing you're trying to watch. I have nothing against filming the show or taking pictures to have your own memories of it but it's so distracting.

It used to really irritate me when people did this, and I still don't see the point when people get their phones out and film a bit of every song, but it's fun to think about the artistic process and I think that's why it doesn't annoy me so much any more.

I like to imagine someone taking all those little video clips, editing them together, putting the song title into a subtitle, and then revisiting the memory in a few years.

I enjoy watching people battle with their phone's image sensor to get just the right level of zoom before the image quality starts to degrade too much, and what people's tolerances are. It's nice to think that people hitting the shortcomings of their phone's camera might make them look into buying something more capable, but really all that gets you is better quality memories, and a sweaty back from your big new rucksack I suppose.

That must be why I find this all so distracting; thinking about some stranger's new rucksack instead of watching Nine Inch Nails.