I’m waiting for the band: protraction and provocation at rock concerts – Richard Witts (2005)

Author(s): Richard Witts
Publisher:  Popular Music, 24: 1, pp. 147-152
Date: January 2005

Why do bands keep audiences waiting? This question is one among several by which I aim to delimit the phenomenon of the public performance experience. I want to determine how far a concert is a sequence of rituals – rather than an encounter critically focused on the act of music-making – where it is the observance of each component that decides the success of the occasion. I ask this of all types of concerts, by the way, but – hey – this is a popular music journal.

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