Because there will always be rich idiots willing to foot the bill. The common man is getting priced out of concerts and plays. Hell, I remember seeing Death of a Salesman on allowance money in high school.
The insane cost of event tickets.
- Thread starter auk1124
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I can't remember what I paid to see Simon & Garfunkel at Comisskey, but I know it wasn't a lot. Great show too.
Yup a bit of a difference:
In 1969 a week or so following Woodstock (late August) we paid $40 a ticket to watch CSN&Y along with Joni Mitchell at the Los Angeles Greek Theatre. She performed CLOUDS and they performed their first album, to the note. What an experience for my first ever concert.
Last show I got to go see was when Weezer played a free show at Grant Park during Taste of Chicago.
What bugs me is the high cost of tickets for a concert or performance held in a sports arena.
Paid $200 to see the Foo Fighters and Weezer 2 weeks ago.
Ouch! I think I paid about $18 for Woodstock, about $8 for Chicago and Led Zeppelin. Now that was a loooong time ago, but inflation isn't that high. The acoustics in many (most?) of these high priced arenas is also offensive. Most sound like a giant tin can.
...Not the Los Angeles Greek Theater and also the Hollywood Bowl. They're good venues with good acoustics.
Last show my wife and I went to was The Pogues/Sawdoctors in 2006. Tickets, after fees, were close to $60 each. In 1976 we saw Dylan's Rolling Thunder tour with Dylan/Baez/McGuinn/Kinky Friedman & others. Tickets for that one were $8. We even took our 6yo daughter. When my wife and I were dating, in 1968, we saw the Grateful Dead for $3. Even though we weren't huge Dead fans, we remember that one because when we left going on 4am they were still playing. In the early to mid 1960's, tickets to major rock groups (Jefferson Airplane, Dylan, etc) were $4-$5.
The best value ever was in 1981 I saw the Count Basie orchestra at a midwestern university. Tickets were around $20 each, but it was a great show. After the concert, my brother and I walked across the street to a small jazz club that always had local live music and a $2-3 cover. We paid our cover, found a table and were enjoying the group when about 6 or seven members of the Basie band walk in, start uncasing their instruments and jamming along with the local guys. Great night, and for a $3 cover we saw a truly memorable evening. Of course, none of the real big stars like Basie or Freddie Green showed up, but it was swinging.
In 1988 I went to see the Robin Trower Band at New Georges in Marin County (north of SF). It was a very small bar with a dance floor and I paid only $15 and stood about 6 feet away from the band who played all of Bridge of Sighs and Passion albums to the note.
Agreed.
While one or two mega-venues might have actually good acoustics, mostly they're bad and it's just a case of "crank it really loud" on the mega-speakers, and it's far less about the quality of the music and far more about the mega-decibels of the sound.
Fortunately (?) up here in Canada, the "usual" sports arena that's used for a concert is a hockey arena, so you have a roof and it's an enclosed space so you don't lose sound upwards. I can imagine that a concert in a baseball or football field would be much worse.
Anyhow, you cram twenty-thirty-fourty thousand people into a concert ... do they all really need to pay big-time bucks to watch the tiny ants on the stage waaaaaay down on the playing field?
Oh well.
The best deal I had was when I saw Missing Persons at The Peppermint Lounge in NYC. Had to be either 1982 or 1983. The price for admission was 1 penny if you got there early enough. So of course we got there early enough.
A lot has changed since I paid $5 to see Stevie Wonder open for the Rolling Stones in a baseball stadium in 1972. And since I paid $150 in 1999 to see the Stones a second time in a basketball arena. Live music is still one of the great experiences in life for me, but now I just won't go unless I can get decent seats, preferably in a small setting. So be sure to say "hi" if you see me a Citi Field on 6/16 for Dead and Company.
Nowadays, I think the "future" of life performance music for "guys like us" is small, aspiring acts in the smaller venues ... and "past their prime" acts that are no longer famous but can still perform.
Not for us is going to a big stadium to see a "hot" mega-star act for "only" a couple thousand dollars. No, we want to find the obscure and the forgotten, the unknown and the irrelevant, and get a great show for just a few bucks. And maybe not every act we go see have "it" ... or have lost "it" compared to decades past ... but we'll enjoy the search, the chase. One day, someone else will be bragging about managing to score those thousand-bucks-a-seat tickets for a mega-super-star act, "ony" 72 rows from the stage ... and you can casually mention spending $15 to be front-row-centre to see them play a three-hour evening concert back in 2018 when nobody new who they were.
In other words, live life like you were Ouch.
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Not for us is going to a big stadium to see a "hot" mega-star act for "only" a couple thousand dollars. No, we want to find the obscure and the forgotten, the unknown and the irrelevant, and get a great show for just a few bucks. And maybe not every act we go see have "it" ... or have lost "it" compared to decades past ... but we'll enjoy the search, the chase. One day, someone else will be bragging about managing to score those thousand-bucks-a-seat tickets for a mega-super-star act, "ony" 72 rows from the stage ... and you can casually mention spending $15 to be front-row-centre to see them play a three-hour evening concert back in 2018 when nobody new who they were.
In other words, live life like you were Ouch.
Like this?
The best small venue concert for me was seeing Neil Innes at a very small bar in Bloomington Illinois. I brought a Rutles CD for him to autograph. My brother and sat down at a table to wait for the show. I look at the table next to us and there is Innes sipping a beer. Got my autograph. Great show for a crowd of about 50 playing Bonzo Dog, Rutles and solo songs and even a couple Monty Python tunes he wrote.
It’s gotten out of hand even in the last 5-10 years. I agree with others that it’s a direct reflection of dwindling record sales but some prices are just outrageous.
Roger Waters The Wall tour in 2010 - $210 for second row.
Roger Waters Us and Them tour in 2017 - $1500+ for floor tickets (not even close to second row).
I’m glad you can still see 4 great metal bands at an intimate venue for around $30 or else my live show days would be over.
Roger Waters The Wall tour in 2010 - $210 for second row.
Roger Waters Us and Them tour in 2017 - $1500+ for floor tickets (not even close to second row).
I’m glad you can still see 4 great metal bands at an intimate venue for around $30 or else my live show days would be over.
How many people actually go to these mega events because they know and like the bands or is it so they can say, "I was there!" Who cares!
According to today's newspaper, $22,000 for a Super Bowl ticket from Stub Hub.
dave
According to today's newspaper, $22,000 for a Super Bowl ticket from Stub Hub.
dave
In 1975 I was hourly paid by Bill Graham for security work. My first working concert was Pink Floyd at the Cow Palace and I stood directly in front of the stage and watched them perform the entire Dark Side.........
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