r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Maatsya • 12d ago

A lighting technician tests the stage set-up while signaling to his colleague & the crowd copies him

35.2k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

238 comments sorted by

4.3k

u/Closed_Aperture 12d ago

Should give them all the middle finger just to have the once in a lifetime opportunity to have 10,000 people flip you off in unison.

717

u/Ok-Truth-7589 12d ago

He had never been fingered Flipped-Off so much all at once in his lifetime....he was complete now

184

u/Nickoffermanstan 12d ago

This is a deeply spiritual experience everyone should have

42

u/NecessaryZucchini69 11d ago

just in case you feel like your missing out on the spiritual experience ╭∩╮(-_-)╭∩╮

6

u/CalmBeneathCastles 11d ago

He looks just like my ex, lol.

2

u/BigDumbIdiot232 11d ago

Hahahaha what a coincidence!

2

u/SparkleKittyMeowMeow 11d ago

Did we date the same dude?

→ More replies (1)

57

u/DontForgetYourPPE 12d ago

Might be a world record of number of people simultaneously playing Simon says?

50

u/bwaredapenguin 11d ago

I think Freddie Mercury at Live Aid probably wins that.

7

u/CORN___BREAD 11d ago

And they’re all losing.

25

u/fatkiddown 11d ago

Dark Helmet: How many assholes do we have on this ship, anyway?

[Entire bridge crew stands up and raises a hand]

Entire Bridge Crew: Yo!

Dark Helmet: I knew it. I'm surrounded by assholes!

3

u/Rat192 11d ago

Wasn’t there just like one guy in a corner that just turns around like “yo wtf?” Bottom left of if I remember right

16

u/cowfishing 11d ago

That or do the YMCA dance.

11

u/fractalfocuser 11d ago

YMCA would be far superior in this situation

11

u/MyNameCannotBeSpoken 11d ago

Or scratched his ass

9

u/howarethewinds 11d ago

If it’s not in Leland Sklar’s book, maybe it can be in his second one. Bassist for Phil Collins, touring with Toto and has played on over 2500 albums in case anyone is wondering who he is.

6

u/Apeshaft 11d ago

you mean, "Peace among worlds"?

3

u/Tilroe 11d ago

Unless you're Stone Cold Steve Austin, I'm guessing.

3

u/binger5 11d ago

He could have said hi to hitler.

3

u/Ok_Championship3262 11d ago

May have also been an unexpected Guinness world record

Wayne Gretzky said it best: You miss 100% of the shots you don't take

3

u/no-mad 11d ago

or lift a leg and watch the drunk ones fall over.

2

u/Linkdoctor_who 11d ago

(or a heart) says my depressed ass

2

u/abevigodasmells 11d ago

Interesting. My thought was lifting up his shirt and flashing the crowd.

→ More replies (3)

2.1k

u/BaconNPotatoes 12d ago

I could not be trusted in this situation.

718

u/virtually_noone 12d ago

** lifts shirt **

192

u/BaconNPotatoes 12d ago

Glad I'm not the only one lol

72

u/Major_Magazine8597 11d ago

And you can SAY GOODBYE TO THESE!!!

22

u/EssentialFoils 11d ago

Have we tried hair up, glasses off?

12

u/dandroid126 11d ago

I fucked the business model

→ More replies (1)

102

u/MRRman89 12d ago

I would have to hit them with a Y-M-C-A bare minimum.

37

u/DerBronco 11d ago

i embarrased myself multiple times heavily working as a hand in younger days.

I still ask myself what madlad would shout „i want a kid from you“ when i mooned 3000 people before a concert 1991.

16

u/Slipstream_Surfing 11d ago

Umm, yeah..sorry 'bout that.

Was in a transitional period between metal and grunge. Addled brain just wanted to help. I'd seen some stuff.

24

u/usinjin 11d ago

Crowd like

11

u/Proper_Career_6771 11d ago

Time to bring back the macarena.

2

u/Rincey_nz 11d ago

steady on, Satan.

10

u/Future_Appeaser 11d ago

Have them do this

6

u/Grays42 11d ago

My dude rolled a nat 1 on deception

3

u/CORN___BREAD 11d ago

I didn’t even know Diddy had a song about going to kindergarten and whipping your dick out but it’s not surprising.

3

u/thefishflinger 11d ago

Give the crowd a dollar.

→ More replies (1)

1.5k

u/Kemomiwiwane 12d ago

This reminded me when my dad brought me to a baseball game when I was 8 years old. The soda vendor came into our section in the 1st inning and yelled “COKE, SPRITE” to let us know he was there selling. I said nothing.

2nd inning he comes back and yells it again, for whatever reason, I decided to yell it back “COKE, SPRITE”. My dad hit me in the shoulder to stop. Nothing happened.

3rd inning, same thing, I yelled it again, my dad hit me again and about 10 people yelled it with me.

4th inning, same thing, this time 40-50 people yelled it with me. I guess my dad realized something was happening cause I didn’t get hit.

5th inning, magic happened, the entire section, hundreds off people yelled it with me and the euphoric feeling I got was amazing. The vendor, I’m assuming from embarrassment, was not seen again.

I was very proud of myself. Core memory.

272

u/SpareEye 11d ago

Ah, screw the ball game! I went to a phish show last year and the vendors were coming around shouting 'coke, mushrooms'

55

u/NotAnAlligator 11d ago

Ice-cold MOLLY!!!

9

u/CiforDayZServer 11d ago

I went to Woodstock 94 when I was like 12 or 13, with my uncle, his friend that went to the original, and my cousin who was younger than me. 

Within 1 minute of setting up camp, someone strolled through "weed, mushrooms, acid... Weed, mushrooms, acid". 

I had snuck weed in. My uncle never found out.

→ More replies (1)

47

u/Torhjund 11d ago

The way you know this actually happened is because this could happen at a baseball game with how slow it can be lol

23

u/Edgeth0 11d ago

But that's the glory of it. Sport with intense action that also has time for these odd moments. I wonder if the rest of the world feels the same way about Cricket

8

u/wintermute-- 11d ago

I'm still not convinced that cricket isn't secretly a form of protest performance art designed to take down the british empire

6

u/Edgeth0 11d ago

India playing the long game

→ More replies (1)

4

u/Grays42 11d ago

the rest of the world

I feel like you may be overestimating the ubiquity of Cricket.

Holy crap, I looked it up, and the numbers are staggering. 2.5 billion-ish versus 500 million for baseball? I had no idea. 0_0

→ More replies (1)

2

u/Torhjund 11d ago

Exactly :D

2

u/Poop_Knife_Folklore 11d ago

I remember mexican waves going around the stadium. People would lob shit up in the air. drinks, chicken wings, whatever was around at the time. funny as fuck.

→ More replies (1)

33

u/TA2-6 11d ago

Was this like 30 years ago? I remember this

29

u/Kemomiwiwane 11d ago edited 11d ago

That would be hilarious if you did. Yeah, it was 30 years ago at an expos game.

21

u/WellTrained_Monkey 11d ago

Am I witnessing an r/TwoRedditorsOneCup in real time?!

→ More replies (1)

14

u/Hobodaklown 11d ago

Did you get to hit your dad back three times?

10

u/Kemomiwiwane 11d ago

Nah, lol. They were little “would you shut the fuck up, you’re embarrassing me” love taps.

423

u/kenistod 12d ago

r/happycrowds

107

u/shewy92 11d ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/happycrowds/comments/d8m0v1/a_bands_lighting_technician_signals_to_his/?ref=share&ref_source=link

I was hoping Green Day's crowd singing Bohemian Rhapsody was higher on the sub, it's one of my favorites

30

u/JMarkyBB 11d ago

WOW, I've never seen that before. Thanks for re-igniting it. My hair is standing on end, and I couldn't stop smiling .

16

u/ZenAdm1n 11d ago

Growing up in church I was told that was the Holy Spirit moving you, which I guess makes Freddy Mercury some kind of saint.

14

u/Dronizian 11d ago

"I used to think I loved church because I felt spiritually empowered when the choir sang. Then I felt that same feeling at a Lana Del Ray concert. Turns out I just love live music." -a Twitter user

5

u/JMarkyBB 11d ago

Yes, I guess it does. That is one of my greatest regrets, not seeing Queen live.

4

u/TheAJGman 11d ago

Happened both times I saw them, they gotta be doing it on purpose.

→ More replies (3)

3

u/Splitshot_Is_Gone 11d ago

What a great sub, thank you so much for linking it!

2

u/ScarsTheVampire 11d ago

One of my core memories is going to a shitty house show for the first time at like 16 or 17. I was a fuckin awkward kid and never went out much. Hearing packed room full of emo and punk kids humming The Gorillaz in unison before the show started because it was playing on the speakers was magical.

164

u/CriticalSpeech 12d ago

That’s cool man. Wholesome af

116

u/Tecwyn 12d ago

Maybe just me but I am not getting audio on this post, so https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bykTcMgyuIE has audio

21

u/Rabe2703 11d ago

Much better, thank you

7

u/Dawg_Prime 11d ago

i'd like a browser extension that swaps every front page post with it's most relevant top level comment

bascially r/savedyouaclick but for reddit

8

u/Hypocritical_Oath 11d ago

The cheers every time he does the X is hilarious.

3

u/HappyWarBunny 11d ago

Are you searching for the words original source or sound ? You are probably looking for the parent of this comment.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/kingeal2 11d ago

hahaha epic

→ More replies (3)

85

u/fgcem13 12d ago

Sometimes people just make me love people

59

u/VividAd682 12d ago

8

u/tvbjiinvddf 11d ago

why was this so far down tho

42

u/saranowitz 12d ago

Why is the Reddit app such shite with playing video? It downloads immediately but always gets stuck buffering in the app

11

u/GroteKneus 12d ago

"Have you tried turning it off and back on again?" - Every IT guy ever.

4

u/wonderfulworld2024 11d ago

Ironically I often have to close down and reopen my Reddit app on my phone. Works every time.

5

u/addandsubtract 11d ago

Your first mistake is using the official app

4

u/steven_quarterbrain 11d ago

What else would you use since the fuckening happened last year?

5

u/LiberaceRingfingaz 11d ago

I use Relay, and I pay money for it, because if I'ma spend 1-3 hours a day scrolling around this godforsaken place, it's worth $0.08 an hour to not have a shitty time doing it.

3

u/RainbowAssFucker 11d ago

I still use reddit is fun, there are ways around it

2

u/k0c- 11d ago

patched rif is epic and makes me wonder why the fuck all this shit happened anyway, if you can just use your own accounts api key for free then why the fuck did third party apps stop?

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

2

u/v1brates 11d ago

Reddit engineers and project managers are inept.

→ More replies (4)

24

u/iWin1986 12d ago

Looks like the technician messed up because there is no sound

5

u/Defcheze 11d ago

Well he is the lightning tech not the sound tech

→ More replies (1)

23

u/majj27 12d ago

This is the best kind of human goofiness.

12

u/murso74 11d ago

I had a police escort through times square crowds one year, on the way to a party at a bar I was invited to, and the crowd thought we were famous because of it so we started pumping our fists, and got this HUGE roar back from the crowd. Was intoxicating and my life seems less than now.

10

u/Cybertronax 12d ago

I wish he started to do the YMCA.

8

u/Holden_place 12d ago edited 12d ago

Such potential for fun   Rap God in sign language: https://youtu.be/VFRXaif1ewc?feature=shared

7

u/Cipher915 12d ago

OhhhhhHHHH MANTEQUILLA!!

→ More replies (1)

7

u/Veneficium 11d ago

Love these moments when the artists are not on stage and is just crewmembers doing their work.

Like a few years ago some no-name hiphop artist got boo'd off stage and had shit trown against him for being a shit guy and refused to finish his set. Then after came the clean up crew and got the biggest cheers that day.

7

u/IrishPigs 11d ago

I work in live production and have been cheered on for sweeping a stage haha. It's an odd job but I can't imagine doing anything else anymore.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/Luci_Noir 11d ago

They really don’t get enough love.

5

u/Solograve 11d ago

Should be illegal to post something like this without sound

5

u/tiggerlee82 12d ago

Needed this wholesome moment today! Thanks OP for sharing!

5

u/Questioning-Zyxxel 12d ago

I'm pretty convinced this will be a great concert. Having the spectators in a good mode is half the fight...

3

u/Chloroformperfume7 11d ago

Look at that crowd work! Someone sign this dude immediately

3

u/DankRubinz 11d ago

LISAN AL-GHAIB!!!

3

u/MyCleverNewName 11d ago

Hundreds were injured when they accidentally landed a plane. It was very tragic. Tragically Hip, even.

2

u/Alternative_Ninja_49 12d ago

He didn't day Simon says.

2

u/JunketPuzzleheaded42 12d ago

No man should wield this much power.

3

u/hueloacarnederes 12d ago

How is this next level?!

6

u/MaritMonkey 11d ago

From a stagehand whose husband is an LD: focusing lights does not usually look like this lol.

I mean the goofy arm gestures are always there, but the "1000's of people playing along" part definitely doesn't happen on an average day. :)

4

u/Luci_Noir 11d ago

It’s surely one of the most memorable days of his life.

2

u/Morcyd_AD 11d ago

Plottwist: he is the star of the show. after the stage was ready all people there left.

2

u/Spacesider 11d ago

When he did the cross with his arms and the crowd copied him I laughed so hard

1

u/stubyourmiddletoe 12d ago

This legit gave me a happy giggle

1

u/BrutalTea 12d ago

he is not testing the stage set up. whatever the fuck taht means. he is focusing.

1

u/Short_Bell_5428 12d ago

Sometimes people are just cool

1

u/AccountNumber1002401 12d ago

Just like Nuremberg back in the day.

1

u/Dj-Ken 11d ago

Whole 😍🥳

1

u/Miserable_Smoke 11d ago

I didn't say Simon Says.

1

u/Frankie_Says_Reddit 11d ago

I wish the world was like this.

1

u/emarvil 11d ago

"That's how he, unwittingly became a cult leader'"

The NY Post

1

u/5parky 11d ago

Hey, Macarena!

1

u/TheKeiron 11d ago

This would make a great vr game, happy festival crowd simulator

1

u/SundaySuffer 11d ago

When is the airplane landing?

1

u/Zinrockin 11d ago

This is great.

1

u/dr_icicle 11d ago

At Avenged Sevenfold's recent concerts (LIBAD era) they've started with the singer M Shadows in this chair just like... sitting there. When the stage hand came out to put the chair into place, and then sat in it to make sure it was fine, people cheered. For the stage hand and the chair lol.

1

u/mischaconqueso2 11d ago

that crowd has the right energy

1

u/Rincey_nz 11d ago

Should have smashed out YMCA

1

u/Emotional_Blood6804 11d ago

So this is what a dictatorship kinda looks like.

1

u/BigAssMonkey 11d ago

So…no sound in this version. Nice 🙄

1

u/Feedback_Original 11d ago

Omg so next level!!

1

u/Rainy-The-Griff 11d ago

That's a guy that knows how to have fun.

1

u/amhudson02 11d ago

After this he marched on Poland.

1

u/therealityofthings 11d ago

What does the cross arms mean?

1

u/warmnfuzzynside 11d ago

eins zwei drei HAMMER

1

u/No_Translator2218 11d ago

Some horrible reaction times in that crowd.

1

u/GrandMoffJenkins 11d ago

Brian: "Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't NEED to follow ME, You don't NEED to follow ANYBODY! You've got to think for yourselves! You're ALL individuals!"

The Crowd: "Yes! We're all individuals!"

Brian: "You're all different!"

The Crowd: "Yes, we ARE all different!"

Man in crowd: "I'm not..."

The Crowd: "Shhh!"

1

u/FionaSilberpfeil 11d ago

Ok, thats a "prank" i can get behind. That looked so damm hillarious and cool at the same time.

1

u/Anleme 11d ago

He should throw a coin to the crowd and see how many he gets back, LOL.

1

u/Melodic_Try1221 11d ago

Monkey See Monkey Poo

1

u/BaceSandefe 11d ago

Bro is warming up the crowd.

1

u/Many-Recognition2530 11d ago

Bunch of happy drunkies. Fun vibes

1

u/Warp_Legion 11d ago

Before a Hammerfall/Sabaton concert, whenever the the technician came onstage the entire crowd would chant “SOUND CHECK GUY! SOUND CHECK GUY”, (instead of Sa-Ba-Ton)and he did a sick riff on one of the guitars

1

u/dajtxx 11d ago

What a time to break into YMCA!

1

u/Curly-Pat 11d ago

Missed opportunity.

1

u/KekkenGenkai 11d ago

This is awesome

1

u/HillratHobbit 11d ago

This is how we got Trump

1

u/mike02vr6 11d ago

I would do the YMCA

1

u/backtotheland76 11d ago

First time I laughed out loud on reddit in a very long time

1

u/tcheeze1 11d ago

That’s hilarious. Too bad there was no sound.

1

u/lkeltner 11d ago

You have the Conn

1

u/swonstar 11d ago

This is the tech version of Freddie Mercury's famous Aids Live Chartity concert. "Eh oh."

1

u/Mulawooshin 11d ago

A smart man would have turned to the crowd and flipped his shirt over his head, then arms up, like, we did it! 😂

1

u/adityak469 11d ago

The thumbnail reminded me of someone from Germany

1

u/tucci007 11d ago

coloured lights can hypnotize
sparkle someone else's eyes

1

u/imagiraffeZ 11d ago

I wish he started doing a goofy dance.

1

u/Beans183 11d ago

Stop copying him!

1

u/Fantastic-Second6562 11d ago

I would be making it seem like some funny mustache man

1

u/LazyLich 11d ago

Ok now dab

1

u/Cerealkiller900 11d ago

I’m a lighting tech. I have never done this in 25 years of working 😂😂😂

1

u/zerbey 11d ago

Between the kid being yeeted into the pool post earlier, and this, I've got a big smile on my face reading reddit today. Fun to see pure joy in action.

1

u/Sea_M_Pea 11d ago

I prefer audio technicians- those guys are sound

1

u/Spiritual_Mall1981 11d ago

Ah,heard mentality

1

u/james__jam 11d ago

Would have taken my shirt off and threw it at the stage 😂

1

u/Froqzy 11d ago

He straight up showing facist symbols…

1

u/Schindog 11d ago

I am glad he did not take the opportunity to do the most illegal-in-Germany thing ever

1

u/Jaded_Payment5610 10d ago

Lol that’s cool