Because the internet is patently “forever,” a video of Lorde vehemently shushing her audience back in June of 2017 can have sudden relevance almost a full five years later. Which is exactly what has happened to this now viral moment from a concert she performed in support of her then-new record, Melodrama. Naturally, the video of “the incident” stemmed from a gig in New York, source of all pain. Including the tarnishment of one’s reputation. And yet, if anything, this “resurfacing” should prove what concert-goers who come to actually hear the singer in question perform have known all along: there’s nothing more fucking annoying than everyone in the crowd screaming the lyrics at the top of their lungs.
Never mind that such a vexing aspect of concert-going is held up as a beacon of how it’s meant to be a time of “community” and “joy.” Uh, no—there is nothing less joyful or uninspiring of love for one’s fellow human than being around a horde of off-key, drugged-out fuckheads ruining your favorite songs with their own interpretations. Sure, many will say that the entire point of a concert is to showcase one’s fan-oriented devotion, complete with a recitation of lyrics as scripture. As everyone worships at the altar of [insert pop star’s name here]. But no one was worshipping Lorde’s abrupt shushing of their horrendous singing that fateful June 16th evening back in 2017. A “simpler” time. When not literally everything was posted to the internet as a means to prove someone of being cancel-worthy. Even though it seemed, in 2017, that it was already like that. And yet, little did we know…
After all, this show was performed in a pre-#MeToo climate (which wouldn’t come to roost at a culture-altering level until late 2017), when trigger-happiness on “cancellation” wasn’t even more pronounced. And yes, women would still somehow become just as much the victim to that phenomenon as men (see: Asia Argento), having to bite their own nose off to spite their face, as it were, just to get the male gender to endure some amount of culpability.
But anyway, back to the majesty of Lorde shushing her crowd at the Bowery Ballroom so she could then sing an extremely rough-hewn rendition of “Writer in the Dark”—one of the most affecting songs from Melodrama (especially if you yourself are a writer who reflects on being done wrong by a cad in a relationship). One must ask themselves why it feels so uncomfortable for people to endure their own silence… why an a capella performance is so untenable in the modern era. Could it be because the masses are too accustomed to reveling in their own white noise that they can’t even fathom actually shutting the fuck up and listening? In fact, one is surprised that the audience was even willing to adhere to Lorde’s shushing rather than turning against her right then and there. Possibly because the act of her doing that was so jarring that they could only remain silent and get “offended” by it later. Saying things like, “I didn’t pay such and such amount to be told to shut up.” Well, no one else paid to have their experience tainted by shittaytay non-celebrity singing.
What’s more, when one looks at “vintage” footage of concerts (apart from the screaming throngs at The Beatles’ shows), there’s little trace of the audiences singing along at the top of their lungs, unless they were actually asked by the performer in question. It was almost as though there was a greater sense of reverence and “civility” during the germinal era of concert-going precisely because it could not be documented. It was as though appreciation existed in a higher form as a result of being forced to live in the moment. Lorde herself, on the contrary, has remarked to her audience that she’s not one of those self-superior artists who would ever deign to say something like, “Don’t film the show, just be in the moment” (sort of like what Madonna did during her Madame X Tour). She is, however, someone who understands the value of being able to actually hear herself when she sings. For, as any artist can tell you, being drowned out by the sound of the audience’s own “vocals” can greatly affect the quality of one’s performance.
Yet, most important of all, Lorde’s emphatic shushing (which she has done many times before, as a certain supercut will evidence) getting spotlighted is perhaps a chance for The Audience to maybe, just maybe, stop and consider whether they ought to be opening their damn virus-ridden mouths, particularly in the post-COVID era, when no one really wants to hear them. Let alone increase the risk of being infected by them—for we all know group singing makes the spread of Miss Rona even more likely.
