Pretenders are back on tour, and while frontwoman Chrissie Hynde is happy to see fans around the world, she’s asking for a little variety. In a statement posted to social media, Hynde admonished persistent rail riders, writing, “When we go on tour, the whole point of it for the band is that we are playing to a different audience every night. That’s why we go on tour!”
“So if we’re in Edinburgh (like we are tonight), we look forward to seeing local faces,” Hynde continued. “This is what makes it new for us every night.”
Hynde explained that this policy is a little more than a suggestion, telling fans not to be offended if they are asked to move out of the front row. On behalf of the band, she thanked fans who bought tickets to multiple nights but asked “that you give the local fans a chance. This is what keeps it new for us…especially after being on tour for so many months.” Find tickets to upcoming Pretenders tour dates here.
Insatiable social media consumption has combined a post-pandemic culture that commodifies not only art but the artists themselves with grossly inflated ticket prices to create what many fans view as a toxic subculture. Subscribers to this coterie of “rail riders” (whose spot is directly in front of the metal barricades that often separate stage and crowd, otherwise known as “the rail”), seem to value being seen in the front row just as highly as whatever they’re seeing in front of them.
The jam band community is particularly fertile pasture for multi-show rail riding culture, given the ethos that no two shows are ever alike. In a recent GQ profile, Phish bassist Mike Gordon addressed the belief among some in the front row that their energetic output is in some way responsible for the direction of the highly improvised performance.
“My career is based on epiphanies and peak experiences that have validated the path that I am on,” Gordon said. “It makes sense to me that, if I felt these things that are intangible and can’t be put into words, other people might also. I’ve talked to a bunch of people, often in the front row, and there’s a very strong opinion among some of them that they are creating this concert with their energy.”
When asked whether he, as a member of the band, believes that’s possible, he said “I believe it. But I also believe that, if they were truly inspired by the experience, rather than coming every night for 200 shows, they would probably create their own thing and contribute it to society.”
That was not the first time Phish had weighed in on the rail rider culture. A clip from Todd Phillips‘ 2000 cult classic Phish documentary Bittersweet Motel shows guitarist Trey Anastasio opining about “dudes in the front row.” Beginning with the band’s April 2022 run at Madison Square Garden (originally a 2021 New Year’s Eve run but rescheduled due to COVID), fans now enter a randomized lottery that determines the order in which those with general admission floor tickets can enter the venue. The practice has since become standard for the band’s tours. Gone are the days of waiting in line all day.
Another Madison Square Garden regular, Billy Joel, also encountered issues with his Front-Row Joes. Rather than diehard fans who waited all day in line, however, the people in the front rows of Billy Joel concerts were only the ones who could pay the astronomical markup on the secondary market. In a 2014 interview with Billboard, Joel recalled looking down at the “gold chainers,” as he referred to them, “Sitting there puffing on a cigar, ‘entertain me, piano man.’ They don’t stand up, make noise, [they just] sit there with their bouffant-haired girlfriend lookin’ like a big shot. I kinda got sick of that, who the (heck) are these people, where are the real fans?”
Joel’s solution was to cut out the gold chainers and the scalpers by not even selling tickets in the front rows.
“We now hold those tickets,” he said, “and I send my road crew out to the back of the room when the audience comes in and they get people from the worst seats and bring ’em in to the front rows. This way you’ve got people in the front row that are really happy to be there, real fans.”
Whatever the solution—be it a lottery or making the dudes in the back row into the dudes in the front row—there will always be a front row, and there will always be fans who need to be there. Even if the sound sucks.
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