For someone who was only ever a casual fan of the Lord of the Rings books, I am a nerd and a half for the movies. I have been to every midnight show. (I brought MY MOM to every midnight show. Step back!) Those evenings were some of the coldest ever (movie theatres really don’t want to let Lord of the Rings people in, for some reason), but I remember each one being a blast, for several reasons.

It’s a time machine into my past! The movies were different, my love of midnight shows was the same.

First of all, once you were in line for a Lord of the Rings midnight show, you were In Line. There was no cutting at a midnight show. If someone had to run out of line for a second, their space was guarded as if by prior arrangement. (More than twenty minutes, and your space was given up. Unspoken but unchallenged!)*

* Exception to this politeness was when they opened the doors for Fellowship of the Ring and everyone stampeded. Nerds are not to be messed with.

Second of all, my mom and I almost inevitably ended up next to incredible people. For Two Towers (my favorite line), we ended up next to a couple of guys who let us watch the Fellowship Extended Edition with them on their laptop, and when the wife of one of them brought hot chocolate (best spouse ever!), he had made a stealth phone call to bring two extras for my mom and me. (Best nerds EVER.)

Third of all, people were very respectful. During Fellowship of the Ring in particular, there were only two instances of loud noises (aside from the occasional laugh): the standing ovation at the end, and the sound of a theatre full of grown men openly sobbing as Boromir gave his dying speech.

When I flew to Seattle in 2004 for the Symphony, it was the same experience. There was clapping between movements, and at the end, but the audience was very clearly trying to be respectful and quiet and let the effect of the music flow over people uninterrupted.

The midnight shows and the Symphony cemented in my mind that if you are really a fan of something, and you are among other fans of that thing, you will be able to enjoy the work while respecting the right of those around you to enjoy the work as well.

As you can tell, I was very young. Also, an idiot.

This weekend I went to The Fellowship of the Ring in Concert at Radio City. I wrote it up for Tor.com, lamenting the loss of the music to the volume of 1) the movie and 2) the audience. The music I’ll discuss more in-depth later this week (it’s a post of its own), but I was pearl-clutchingly dispapointed at the audience reactions at Friday’s performance.

They applauded favorite moments or actors, and would often drown out beautiful music cues doing so. If you’re applauding big musical moments, that’s cool, but overall it seemed like the audience would have been just as happy with an IMAX screening. I totally get it (IMAX screenings are awesome), but in that case they should have gone to see an IMAX screening, you know? People were working hard onstage to deliver a concert, and the audience kept drowning it out because they felt like applauding when Arwen drowns the Wraiths. (They drowned out Arwen’s soloist for like, ten seconds! RUDE.)

This ends my moment of being everyone’s demanding 85-year-old gran. Tomorrow: music nerdery!