Pink Floyd Concert Field Observation

Recently I had the privilege of attending a Roger Waters concert in Indianapolis, Indiana. You may not know that he is one of the original members of the super-group rock band Pink Floyd. I theorized that despite the enormous amount of people in attendance and widespread drug use, I would not witness and negative or harmful altercations. My reasoning was that the type of music played would inspire a positive vibe and equate with enlightened and peaceful behavior. With too many rock acts today anger seems to be a fundamental part of the music and at shows such as these, aggression in the music can translate into negative behavior among the crowd. When listening to Pink Floyd music, usually the last thing on your mind is anger. So, I set out to find if about twenty thousand people could get along in a haze of alcohol, marijuana smoke, and hallucinogenic drugs.

The concert venue was the Verizon Wireless Music Center which was formerly known as Deer Creek (yes it’s true, there is nowhere left without a corporate name). One thing to remember when viewing the numbers of the observations I recorded is that I obviously only saw and interacted with a small portion of the total amount of those in attendance. The concert started at seven thirty p.m. on September thirtieth, but most people arrived a couple hours early and socialized in the parking area. The activities included listening to car stereos, throwing balls, playing hackey-sack, and drinking alcohol. Out of the twenty people I overheard attempting to purchase hallucinogens (magic mushrooms or LSD) fourteen of them I witnessed in the parking lot. At seven p.m. most people still seemed to be in the parking lot. With the show starting in one half hour everyone made their way to the gate, creating quite a traffic jam. Even though there were thousands of people crammed together like sardines waiting in a line that didn’t seem to be moving, no overly aggressive or harmful behavior was witnessed despite the jostling and bumping into each other (eight-seven instances observed with most occurring in entrance line). Once we got into the concert it became apparent that the show was definitely a sold-out capacity crowd. There were ten beer stands that I counted and booth which sold liquor shots (throughout the night I observed about 150 instances of alcohol being consumed). At seven thirty the concert began and almost as soon as it started the marijuana smoking began. While in the parking almost no pot smoking was witnessed, but in the concert basically all of the forty-two instances were observed. As far as instances of use observed, I counted the times I smelled it or saw it being used. One would think that from the large number of times marijuana was witnessed being used by the small portion of the crowd with which I interacted, use of the drug must have been widespread. The concert went on for about three hours with various songs from the albums The Wall, Wish You Were Here, Division Bell, and the album Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. It was in the parking lot when everyone attempted to leave that the real traffic jam occurred. To simply leave the parking lot it took two hours of waiting and inching forward. Most of the thirty-eight horn beeps I recorded happened while in the parking lot, but the traffic did not end there. Once out of the parking lot we were corralled down country roads which were also packed bringing traffic to a near standstill. Because of this, it took an hour to get to the highway which was about ten minutes away if traveling at normal speed.

For many people, the group Pink Floyd is considered as un-popular, aged, and without any sense or credibility in today's music society. It's so unfortunate that true rock and roll music is being left behind for the new head-splitting garbage that infests the airwaves today. The newest generation is unaware of the history behind all the “music” they listen to now. Where did it all begin? Who first wandered into the realms of psychedelic music to create a style and a culture that would last for decades, and never be copied? The answer of course is Pink Floyd. Along with their trademark sound and style, goes a stigma of many people who consider them to be a “drug band”. Although most people