Crowd dynamics

It is said that Jack White, frontman of the recentely broken duo The White Stripes, reacted to the band's gig in Portugal in 2007 by saying that it was the first time he'd seen a crowd singing a guitar riff. Quoted for truth: the crowd at that gig sang the entire guitar riffs of Seven Nation Army, something that was borderline epic. One of the interesting things about this country, besides the best coffee in the world, the extraordinary food and the wine (and a few more things that we tend to forget), is the music crowds. Many were the artists and bands saying that they loved coming here for gigs, because the people were amazing - Nickelback would disagree, but Nickelback suck anyway. And the more I see videos of gigs in other countries, the more I am convinced that we are, in fact, the best crowd in the world. Take the video below, from one of the five best songs of the last decade: the crowd bounces around on their feet, which seem to have grown roots on the ground. They applaud in the end, and that's it. We'll confirm next July anyway, but I'm absolutely sure that, were it here, the crowd would sing the entire song loudly, they would sing the end choirs too, they'd jump, they'd wave their arms frantically, and they'd give them one hell of a hand in the end. I don't know why that happens - maybe we just enjoy music and aren't afraid to show it, or perhaps we just need it for some sort of sublimation process. Whatever. All I know is, watching a gig in Portugal is more often than not an extraordinary experience, and that's due not only to the musicians, but also to the crowd.