> people pull out this idea as being something neat and I think it's a completely inappropriate technique when other options are available and safety is on the line.
But we do this with all things all the time. You didn't take a ruler/micrometer and measure tolerances between parts of the last car you bought, nor the last cab/rideshare/friend's car you got into. Instead, you make some assumptions and use some cues to inform those assumptions.
Perhaps you're about to get into some ride share vehicle and you notice the exhaust looks a little smokey for the age of the car, and think maybe they aren't taking care of it. Then maybe to take a closer look at the tires and notice they're bald, etc. This is definitely something that would be considered "literally life-threatening", but there's a statistical likelihood that makes it something that not everyone checks every time.
> But if someone dies at your concert, you'll probably think it would have been worth it to have more than one person playing safety checker.
But it's not "your" concert, as much as it's billed that way. It's a joint operation between the artist and the venue, and each have their own responsibilities. It's the venue's responsibility to do certain things. This is just the artist trying to use one technique of many that are likely employed (like outright asking) to gauge how well the other party has fulfilled their responsibilities. You can't check every single thing, otherwise there's no point in there being another party (and they may not give you that access to check), but there are things you can do let you know a closer look is warranted.
> Looking back, I think we were the dumb ones. If 20% of groups are showing up unprepared to my ropes course, then that's my problem.
To some degree, maybe. I think the best outcome would be both cases, "look out" when stuff looks awry, but also examine why it doesn't seem to change. But what if you can't eliminate the problem? What if, no matter what you iterate on and try to get the contact to correctly relay your information, you can't always get he info to all the relevant people either yourself or through the contact, and 5% still show up like that? Do you stop with the "watch out" notice? No, most likely you still do that because it's useful and better than nothing, and still provides a little benefit on top of everything else that was done.
That's what we should assume the rock band was doing. They have contracts that stipulate how stuff is supposed to be, and different staff to coordinate with the venue reps for aspects of the production, and they should be doing what they can to make sure stuff is set as expected. But if brown M&M's show up, maybe it's worth paying those people a little overtime to grill the venue on what they did and didn't do that they said they did and check their work, because who knows, maybe this is the time it saves a life.