don't laugh if it's not funny.

I have this Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds Live CD that’s pretty amazing. I love the fact that, unlike a lot of mainstream music, Matthews and Reynolds can actually play. And when they play, boy do they play well. But the problem I have with the CD is that Dave Matthews really likes to talk to the audience between songs, before song and during songs. This would be fine if he wasn’t such a mumbler. So it goes like this: The music to “Two Step” starts up, guitar playing, drum beating and then Dave decides to say something. Only instead of speaking in complete sentences with discernable words, it sounds more like this, “So, I was mmmmm and then hmkelaopopo and you know.”

Okay, so it’s gibberish and totally annoying. But the part that kills me is that the entire audience acts as if they can understand what he is saying. It goes like this:
Dave Matthews: “So, I was walking up the street the other day and I mmmm yadadadad blah blah blah.”
Crowd: “ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha.”

In my opinion, uncontrollable laughter at something you can’t possibly understand is just not called for. All it does is encourage the mumbling. So audience, please encourage mumbling at concerts for bands like The All American Rejects and Everclear. They can’t play live. They can’t even fake it. So maybe then, mumbling would be a nice buffer for the realization that you’ve paid a pretty penny for a ticket to hear a band play that can’t really play. But please, audience, when it’s Dave Matthews and guitar genius Tim Reynolds, don’t laugh at the mumbles. Just don’t.