he headline of this review was the most prolific tweet of the night at Unravel’s ‘Only Gig You Can Control With Your Phone’ and frankly, it’s a good question. It was also probably the most intelligent 140 character comment that popped up in the #unravel feed.
On arrival at this gig I was a little bit social-media nervous, but phone planted firmly in paw, I was ready to join in with the other kids. Except that the other kids didn’t know what they were doing either. This is probably why the Twitter feed was clogged with randomness. Randomness like this:
fudge donut #unravel | BUY VIAGRA NOW talk to aidan #unravel | funky pigs can #unravel
It reads like a junk email inbox. There’s been no mention yet of the music at the gig, because it wasn’t the primary focus: the audience were so mesmerised by the incessant stream of nonsense being flashed at them every thirty seconds that they simply tuned out of the live set and tuned in to virtual reality. They only just snapped out of it when the music stopped, remembering their manners for long enough to clap at the end of each song. Then eyes swivelled straight back to the drivel on the screen. The following tweets provoked as much cheering as the final applause of the set:
Bum Cock Arsehole #unravel | Aidan Moffat [lead singer] needs to lose some weight #unravel | Scotland 3-1 #unravel
When an actual, real, live person shouted something out, the lead singer jokingly advised him that this wasn’t how this evening worked (if it can be said to have worked at all). At this point this actual, real, live person joined his fellow gig-goers and plugged in into a more welcoming virtual reality, by obediently producing his smartphone. He probably did the right thing. There was more of an atmosphere in the virtual world than in the real one at this gig.
