Over the years, I have become a bit of an expert in understanding a live audience. There are so many intangibles when you go to a live show which all flows into the full live experience.  For most, live music is a social event.  For me, live music is about by the artist.  Those two don’t always flow together nicely.  Nonetheless, a live show is pretty magical if you think about.  With our shared experiences, I have set forth the goal in building the standard in Live Music Socioligy which will be a working document. I encourage you to classify new types below in the comments section which I will add to this living document.  It is our duty to identify these categories so that people are educated and informed. Now beforeI begin, I want to make clear that we all tend to pass through these categories at one time or another.  Knowledge, however, may help you to understand the signs before attempting to taste the life of the following groups:

The Pre-Show Drunk
You know em, you love him. It’s the guy (in most cases) that is drunk before the show even starts.  This guy starts lubin’ up at 5PM and by 10:30 is completely sauced out of his mind. I would hesitate to say that we have all been there once before but on the other side it’s pretty entertaining to watch.  No one wants to be around this guy, however there is a certain circus like feel to watching what he does.  Everyone in the venue knows how this is going to end except for him. Thirty minutes into the show, this guy is typically passed out to which all of his entourage ends up on babysitting duty. During these thirty minutes, this somewhat vertical person can (and likely will) turn to Heckling the artist, the bar staff or anyone in his general vicinity.

The New Couple
Ah, the new couple.  These two have just started dating and he thought it would be a great idea to bring her out to a packed house for a night of music.  Their age can vary but typically falls into the range of 20-50.  In their undying love of 24 hours, they feel it is necessary to let everyone in the venue how. They could care less about the music, it’s all about each other, for now anyway. They dance and kiss the night away oblivious to hundreds watching. I often wonder why you even bother to pay the $20 per ticket?

The Larrys
Every guy has been a part of The Larrys at one time or another. This is the group of guys that come for the view but still enjoy the music.  They sing along with the music however internally they have a pacman like game going on in their head.  The more girls they can spot in the venue, the more points they get. The Larry’s generate around 23.2% of the talking through the show.

The Mollies
Every girl has been a part of The Mollies. There is one in the group that will say let’s go see a show.  The rest in the group say this is the best idea ever without even knowing who the musician. Their goal is to be noticed.  This goal can be reach by either making a scene, crying or parting the crowd at least a dozen times throughout the 2 hour show.  The Mollies make up for at least 32.5% of all talking through the show.

The Innocent
This group of folks are equally represented on both sides of gender.  The Innocent don’t make their presence known till at least half way into the show when a cop or bouncer will escort them out of the club. That long walk out the club will consist of multiples “What did I do??”.  Their offense spreads the spectrum but is known to include dancing on tables (next to the DO NOT GET ON TABLES sign), fighting, biting, spitting and yelling. It should be noted that there are often early warning signs of this group which can start as The Pre-Show drunk category but not always.

The Second Stringers
Not a lot of love is ever given to The Sound Guy. His sole purpose in life is to provide us the best possible sound given the equipment he has at hand. However, The Second Stringers is a group which is devoted to giving constant feedback to that lone Sound Guy in the back. This category was raised by Kevin (@HighDesertMusic).

The OneTuners
This can be a subgroup of any of the above or a category of their own. They are the ones who come to the show but only know ‘onetune’. They have to show that they do know a tune by going absolutely b-zerk when that tune is played live. (submitted by Don Z)

The Literally Unwashed Masses aka TLUM
TLUM are comprised of hippes, steam-punks, dead-heads, etc who couldn’t bother to clean up (just a little) before going in public (let alone to a large gathering of people). (submitted by Wevo)