What kind of concert-goer are you?
The four shapes, from 'front row' to 'balcony with wine'.
Start the quiz →What this quiz explores
Where you stand at a gig is a personality test nobody administers. The person pressed against the barrier and the person seated with a drink are having two entirely different evenings, both legitimate, and most friction about going out is a mismatch between them. This finds yours.
How it works
The quiz has 4 possible results. Each answer option was written to lean toward one of them.
Your result is the one your answers pointed to most often. Skipped questions, and the occasional answer that does not lean toward any result, are not counted.
Alongside the result you see your answer profile: the share of your answers that pointed to each result. Close percentages mean you sit between two results, which is common.
Four concert temperaments
The Front Row
You'd queue for hours to be pressed against a barrier, and being far back ruins the night.
Before doors, there for the support, singing loudly, and a willingness to travel abroad without hesitating. You'll skip a drink because it would cost you your spot. What you want from an artist is presence, and your most memorable night was against the stage. Worth knowing: the front is the worst place in almost any room acoustically, since you're in front of the main speaker array and hearing stage volume rather than the mix. You've traded sound for proximity, which is a real trade and probably the right one for what you want, and it's worth knowing you've made it. Practical things: earplugs, properly fitted musician's ones rather than foam, since the front row is where hearing damage happens, and they don't dull the experience the way people assume. Look after the people around you in a crush. And go to some small venues where the front row is also the good seat, which is the only place you get both.
The Sound Desk
You stand two thirds back, dead centre, because that's where the engineer mixed it, and talking during songs is the great crime.
In time for the support, which is often the discovery of the night. One drink before the set. You know the album order, you'll say something to people talking, and what ruins a gig is bad sound. You go alone frequently and gladly. What you want is precision. You're right about the position, which is the best audio in most rooms. The cost is a certain separation: the person at the front is having a physical experience and the person upstairs is having a social one, and evaluating a gig technically can put you slightly outside it. The best nights tend to be the ones where you stop listening critically. What would serve you: follow venues rather than artists, since the room does more for sound than the act does. Seek out places known for their systems and their engineers. And once a year, go down the front for something you love, purely to be in it rather than to assess it.
Balcony With Wine
You're there for the occasion as much as the music, and standing for three hours is not on offer.
Upstairs, seated, ten minutes before the main act, a drink, and a handful of carefully chosen gigs a year. Nowhere to sit is what ruins an evening, and what you say afterwards is what a lovely evening. You've become increasingly seated as you've got older, which is the honest answer most people won't give. There's nothing lesser about this. Live music as an occasion is how most of the world has always experienced it, and a seated room where you can hear, see, and sit is a better night than standing at the back of a crowded one being unable to do any of the three. What would serve you: seated venues, theatres, and concert halls programme more interesting music than people assume, including plenty that also plays the standing circuit. Book early for the good seats. Jazz clubs, folk clubs, and classical venues are all built for your night out, and the music is often better than the equivalent standing gig.
Back Room Dancer
You want space to move and a floor that goes, and a crowd that stands still is the thing that ruins it.
Near the back where there's room, late finishes, enough to loosen up, festivals as the best format, and a lot of gigs a year including unplanned ones. What you want is momentum, and your most memorable night was dancing until it ended. If anything you've got later rather than earlier as you've aged. What's worth naming: your enjoyment depends on the room more than any other type here, since dancing needs permission from the crowd around you and a lot of gig audiences won't give it. That makes your good nights less predictable than everyone else's, and it's why the back is the right call rather than a compromise. What would serve you: club nights and dance-oriented promoters rather than seated-format touring acts, and venues with a proper floor and a system rather than a stage-focused layout. Go later. And when a room isn't moving, move anyway, because one person dancing is frequently all it takes.
What this quiz can’t tell you
- It matches you on the preferences you report, so the result is only as good as the options offered. Your real favourite may not be among them.
- Taste shifts with mood and season. Treat the result as a suggestion to try, not a verdict.
How this quiz was designed
Built from how people describe their best and worst nights out.
Read more about how our quizzes are created, including how scoring works and what we do and do not claim.