‘I call you an a**hole’

By Aurora Schnorr

You’ve been standing outside in the hot sun for hours, waiting for your favorite band to come on stage. The moment is finally here, and just as the lights come up, the girl in front of you decides to climb up on her friend’s shoulders. Or maybe, if you did make it to the front row, the barrage of bodies hurling themselves off the stage and onto your head (flailing limbs and all) nearly ruins the show for you.

From Warped Tour to DeKalb’s own Middlewest Fest, people do some pretty stupid stuff at concerts.

For The Wonder Years frontman Dan “Soupy” Campbell, it’s all about common courtesy.

“Maybe it happens to every band, and we just care more about it, or maybe it’s just us that bring out a lot of kids that want to hurt each other,” Campbell said. “I just feel bad when I see someone arbitrarily picked on.”

During a show on the 2011 Warped Tour, Campbell actually stopped the show to demand an audience member to apologize after hitting a young girl with what turned out to be a hardcover book.

“Someone just picked it up and threw it across the crowd,” Campbell said. “I just can’t imagine the logic behind that is. Like, ‘Here’s this heavy object, let me toss it into a dense group of people.’ You can call it hardcore, you can call it punk rock, but I call you an ***hole.”

Campbell suggests that being aware of your surroundings is the best bet for any concert. Whether you’re stage diving, being dove on or just a passive concert watcher, making sure you keep an eye out at all times is the best way to ensure not only your safety, but that you have the best possible experience.

“I try to recommend that kids don’t come to shows drunk,” Campbell said. “Don’t bring drugs to venues, that s*** gets venues shut down. Respect the venues. I don’t understand, like ‘This place is cool, they’re letting me play shows here. I better put a hole in the wall.’ It really all boils down to respect.”

The Wonder Years played its Middlewest Fest set at the Egyptian Theatre, 135 N. Second St., on Saturday to a small audience of devoted fans. The crowd managed to have a good time despite the Egyptian’s no moshing or crowd surfing policy.