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Bob Dylan stops his concert to call out fans for taking photos

by 13 Comments

Bob Dylan is a phenomenal songwriter, but when it comes to speaking to fans from the stage, we can say that he is a man of few words. However, this changed on Tuesday evening in Vienna. The crowd tried to take photos of the concert despite the strict “no photo” policy, which made Dylan stop the show and speak to the photo-snapping fans to call them out.

Reportedly, as Dylan and his band were playing Blowin’ in the Wind, smartphones in the audience started showing up. The famous singer got evidently infuriated and spoke to the fans, although I can’t clearly hear what he said. He then started moving away from the microphone, walking backwards. This made him trip over a stage monitor, causing him to nearly hit the floor.

After this, Dylan walked back to the microphone and said: “I’ll say it once again: take pictures or don’t take pictures. We can either play or we can pose. Okay?” He and the band stopped playing and posed for a while, and you can hear the crowd yelling “Play!”

The video of the incident was posted on a fan Instagram page bucketsofbob:

According to The Rolling Stone, Dylan only played one more song after the incident and then walked off for the night. The band finished the show with an instrumental version of Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues.

Here at DIYP, we’ve covered several cases of musicians who got annoyed by fans taking photos, like Adele or Josh Klinghoffer of RHCP. Jack White even banned smartphones from his concert by making fans use Yondr pouches. And honestly, it’s kinda sad that an incident had to happen to make Bob Dylan speak from the stage.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m extremely annoyed by people who take photos and videos throughout a concert. First of all, they are blocking the view for me and other people behind them. And second, I can’t understand why they can’t leave the freakin’ smartphones for once and simply enjoy the music. Apparently, the musicians also find the latter annoying as well, and I can’t blame them. If they play music for you, the least you can do is listen to it. That should be the reason why you’re at the concert, anyway.

[via NewsCut, The Rolling Stone; image credits: Francisco Antunes/Wikimedia Commons]

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  • Ying Tong

    Listening to Dylan is almost indistinguishable from listening to a Dalek.

    • Bonham House

      Cliche

  • jazzmsngr

    This is nonsense. The people paid for their ticket. If they want to leave or get a beer or take a picture they can. If I bought a $300 steak from a restaurant and proceeded to throw ketchup all over it and then eat half and throw it out…the chef doesn’t care. He still got paid. And don’t even start with “Dylan doesn’t do it for the money man ….”. plEASe. I sort of get that it bothers other people ….so does your terrible singing and arm waving and dancing too. No one bans that. When the guy in front of me starts really feeling blowing in the wind and starts singing along to to his wife and raises his arms ….it bothers me more then a phone. These artists need to stop telling people how to eat their food. And no Dylan wasn’t right about the posing either. We paid to watch you play. If I want to turn my back to you ….so be it….keep playing or don’t accept my money. All those people in that audience should get a refund.

  • jazzmsngr

    I think what bothers people is what goes through their OWN head when seeing someone take a photo….they immediately start to judge both that person and themselves. “Why are they doing that?” Where will that video even go? Will that pic even come out? To busy for this then the music…..even Dylan starts to do it. It’s called being insecure. Maybe if Dylan wasn’t a totally washed out has been who was highly overrated to being with….he’d have more confidence when on stage that people still like his music since they PAID GooD money to see him.

    Mind your own business! Don’t worry about me and what I’m doing. You don’t know if some of those people are taking a photo for someone who could not be there or whatever the reason. It’s not your business to speculate.

  • Bonham House

    Stop with the phone videos. You are present in the moment to view the concert. Are you ever going to go back and view your phone video?

    • repatch42

      I do, all the time, often years after the concert, do you have a problem with that? I paid for my ticket just like you. Suck it up.

  • monte reed

    “And second, I can’t understand why they can’t leave the freakin’ smartphones for once and simply enjoy the music” so I assume the next time I pay and go to a national park you want me to leave my smartphone and not take any pictures but to simply enjoy the scenery…….

  • And they could understand him?

  • Hey Bob don’t do concerts anymore, that way you don’t have to worry about photographs. Simple

  • David Juffet

    Bob can do or say anything he wants on stage. Your grandkids kids will know about him. He’ll be 78 on Wednesday give it a break. He’s the most bootlegged artist in history. On tour for over 50 years.

  • repatch42

    To the OP: not everybody is like you. We live in a society with a WIDE variety of wants/needs/likes. The sooner you figure that out the better.

    I take photos and videos during concerts. I ensure my activity does not directly impinge the enjoyment of others (usually choose a seat on the aisle at an angle so nobody is behind me).

    I USE these photos and videos for personal reasons.

    As to Dylan, it’s his show, he can do what he wants, but fundamentally he’s acting like a dinosaur, he should respect that some of his fans want to ‘enjoy’ his show in a way he might not agree with, and he should respect that the only reason he’s on that stage is because of his fans. He should grow a pair and just deal with it, instead of acting like a babyman.

  • Meanwhile bands all over the world wish more people would photo and video and tag them and share them..lol

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