Attention Bruce Springsteen and other similar Tribunes of the People – the people (small “p”) are irritated with you. According to Rasmussen, 70% of them think the cost of tickets is too high. (Whatever happened to the other 30%?)
This is not such a big deal for me, since most of my concert going went out with The Who and I’d rather listen to my favorite music, from Tammy Wynette to Pavarotti, in the car. It’s interesting to see, as an aside, how your taste in music morphs over the years. I used to adore Coltrane, but now will only listen on certain occasions. Jerry Lee Lewis, however, remains high on my hit list. Late at night, driving, I turn to the classics. Beethoven’s 7th gets a lot of plays. It’s all rather mysterious.
But back to the high cost of concerts. We live in a time when most of us don’t want to spend money. I know I don’t. It’s a form of low-grade depression cum lack of optimism. The future does not look promising – better hunker down. As we know, our leaders aren’t particularly inspiring a change of attitude. They don’t seem to know how to do it. And in some ways they don’t want to do it, preferring a drone-like society with everyone dependent on them. But they don’t even make good dictators. They don’t appear to be enjoying the process.
What is the way out of this? No one can be sure, but it may come from the states. Earlier in my life, I wasn’t such an advocate of states’ rights. Why they even had Jim Crow laws in some Southern states. How backwards was that! But things have changed. Local action may be our best hope.
Until then, I’m sticking to bar bands.
I’ve only been to one concert in my life (yes, I live in a bubble). It was “The Moody Blues”. Total snoozefest. lol
Regarding musical tastes…I’m all over the place. I still own an MC Hammer CD (rotfl) and Nina Simone can still make me cry every time. Sarah McLachlan’s music was another cry-fest for me. Def Leppard, Pink Floyd, Tommy Bolin, Pat Benatar, Tom Petty, Carol King, The Everly Brothers, Marilyn Manson, Daft Punk, Amy Grant…Bach… How does one who loves music only pick ‘one’ style? I love it all!
The only groups fron the past I can still ‘relate’(70s word)to are Pink Floyd and Lynrd Skynrd,other wise I’ll take Bach.
Freebird is an awesome song!
Yes, Bruce, man of the blue collar folks, charges a significant amount of a week’s pay for the privilege of seeing him. Although he rails against TicketMaster (which is fine as far as it goes), only Bobo’s or those spending money foolishly can go see him. I think he even got into a dispute with someone over the price of a horse for his daughter:
So Mr. Blue Collar Working Stiff Genuine Asbury Park Greasemonkey was about to throw down $850,000 on a horse for his daughter? And he welched on the deal because…why? It’s prancing wasn’t up to his exacting standards?
Rock ‘n’ Roll. You may feel it speaks to you, but don’t kid yourself – it’s not speaking the truth.
Yeah, Springsteen in concert is expensive. And he annoys you with political asides. But his shows (w/E Street Band) are solid and almost overly long. I’ve never seen Springsteen phone it in or sleepwalk through a performance.
Same thing with Willie Nelson, that man plays ’til the last dog is hung. During the show, Nelson takes requests and some idiot always shouts, “On the Road Again!”
From the stage, Nelson says, “Hey man, we opened with that.”
The idiot explains he came in late. So Nelson and his band play “On the Road Again” again and the crowd roars with laughter.
I saw U2 in 1987 in a 3,000 seat theater. I was approximately 15th row and paid $12. A couple years ago I let a friend talk me into going to see then at a stadium. We bought the tickets on ebay because these days it is very difficult for a regular fan (particularly one with a day job) to pay the price printed on the ticket. They were more like 100th row and mine alone was $330.
It was a great show and all, but dang!
Most groups playing big spaces are past their prime and can be out-rocked by an above average bar band.
Wow, 1987? They were already pretty big then – that was the year they released “The Joshua Tree” – sold 25 million records.
What theatre did you see U2 play in in 1987? Here’s the setlist and venues played, it was almost exclusively arenas and colisiums that were booked.
http://www.u2setlists.com/joshuatree.shtml (scroll down)
I saw that tour and paid a lot more than $12 to see U2, so I would love to hear this story…
One reason I wouldn’t consider spending big dollars on entertainment is that I know I am going to get hit with a massive tax bill next April. Good wine, movies in theaters, dinners out, new clothes for me (the family still gets theirs), weekend trips have all been throttled back. Some in Califoria think up to a 1/3 of the small wineries in California will go under. So we can either spend on personal consumption and employ those who provide the goods & services, or we can send the money to Washington so they can give our money to those who are now out of work because we no longer buy from them. We know what the illuminti want – too bad it’s not what I want.
What is the way out of this? No one can be sure
How disappointing, Roger.
Tax cuts, and higher Peaceful Market spending (with reduced non-peaceful gov’t spending).
Reduced gov’t spending, even with higher gov’t deficits, is better than increased gov’t spending (with the same, higher, or lower deficits) — because gov’t tax & spend is a lose-win forced deal, while all private, peaceful deals are win-win.
Economies grow with win-win deals.
Rock stars get rich when so many want to see them, live, that the viewers are willing to pay hundreds of bucks.
I saw Bruce in 1975/6 at the US Naval Academy — GREAT show, he rocked then; and does ok now.
U2, fronted by Dead Kennedys (California Uber Alles! … aura smiles and never frowns), maybe 1980; maybe $12 or so then. Or was it Romeo-Void with U2 and DKs fronting for the Clash … so long ago? Gas was much cheaper, too.
Maybe 12 years ago I so Neal Young, solo acoustic. The tickets were $75, pretty mucch the top end then, except for an Eagles tour where they charged an “outrageous” $100. Neal ranted many times in the concert about the “corporations” and “greed” and so on. I love his acoustic stuff, but he was clearly clueless about the hypocrisy.
$75 is laughably low now. All the top acts charge hundreds of dollars per ticket these days. Yet, so many of them still trot out their “anti-establishment” schtick for the dopey acolytes who come to relive their pathetic “rebellious” “yoot.” It’s just another variation on the film stars, the “progressive” politicians and assorted Beautiful People who fly about in their private jets while sanctimoniously lecturing the rest of us on how WE should live. Away with all of them, I say.
I am shocked — shocked, I say — that you would suggest that THE GOVERNMENT get involved in regulating music ticket prices.
What happened to letting the market decide?
I tried to get tickets for Pavarotti ( not the horse) in Carmen at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion about five years ago. Offered up to $400 per seat for two. No deal.
It’s not just the rock stars.
Season tickets for Orange County’s little opera company (four performances) were $1500 per person a couple of years ago when I quit buying.
Yet, so many of them still trot out their “anti-establishment” schtick for the dopey acolytes who come to relive their pathetic “rebellious” “yoot.” It’s just another variation on the film stars, the “progressive” politicians and assorted Beautiful People who fly about in their private jets while sanctimoniously lecturing the rest of us on how WE should live.
Most of the these acts have long since lost the understanding that they are entertainers. Nothing wrong with that; in fact it is great to have the talent to be entertaining to large masses of people. But they are nothing more than that. They are not moral authorities, nor are they even politically thoughtful and sophisticated. Some of them simply do this stuff out of cynicism, giving leftie fans what they want in order to pry a few more bucks out of their hands. The truly sad ones actually believe what they say and believe in their own importance and transcendence. How pathetic.
Yeah, that is certainly true. The Scorcese film on Bob Dylan PBS showed a few years ago showed a Bob Dylan today commenting on the interviewers they showed interviewing him in the 60s, guys with white shirts, skinny black ties and horned rim glasses asking him in deadly earnest about the Viet Nam war or whatever. Contemporary Bob Dylan says, they’re asking these questions of entertainers—imagine! I thought, at least he gets it.
Priced aren’t the only reason I’ve all but stopped going to concerts. The audience WON’T SHUT UP. If they’re not talking to each other or on their phones, yelling over the music, they’re doing something even worse: singing along at the top of their lungs.
Really, buddy, I didn’t pay this kind of money to come sit in the row in front of you so I could listen to your version of these songs.
Springsteen, Floyd, Syknrd, Neil Young, U2, Willie Nelson, The Eagles, Dylan …
Hey-soos! Do people listen to anyone but senior citizens anymore?!?? These guys *are* going to shuffle off to the big arena in the sky pretty soon, y’know …
I saw a video of Pink Floyd performing The Wall at Earl’s Court in 1980. The guy who put it together included a shot of a ticket stub — 7.50 pounds sterling, probably about $10 at the time. Now you can’t get into a sh#$ty nightclub for $10.