Yeah Yeah Yeahs Take a Stand Against Camera Phones

Let it be known: the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are not cool with you living your life through your smartphone. And they’re pretty adamant about it.

On a door at a recent Webster Hall show in New York City was a sign asking fans to put down their mobile devices, reading:

PLEASE DO NOT WATCH THE SHOW THROUGH A SCREEN ON YOUR SMART DEVICE/CAMERA.

PUT THAT SH*T AWAY as a courtesy to the person behind you and to Nick, Karen and Brian.

MUCH LOVE AND MANY THANKS!

YEAH YEAH YEAHS

The posting also could be a slightly veiled attempt by the group to limit recordings of their shows, though frontwoman Karen O did tell the crowd before the second song of the night to take as many photos as they liked for a few minutes, but then “put those motherf**kers away,” according to SPIN.

But I think this is mostly done for the sake of the audience. I love my iPhone, and I love snapping photos of bands and posting them to Twitter etc. etc. But what I don’t love is standing behind someone that has their glowing screen in front of my face for the entirety of a show I’m trying to enjoy.

There’s much to be said for recording experiences for posterity, but there’s also a lot to be said for living in the moment and taking in those experiences yourself. I think this gets lost too easily these days. We’re wired and well connected and it’s great and has certainly changed society – mostly for the better. But every once in a while we’ve got to stop and take things in for ourselves, and there’s few better places than this than a concert. After all, you likely can listen to the band’s record when you get home, and it will certainly sound better than the quality of the audio coming from your cell phone.