View Full Version : The old man and concert sticker shock...
RayinPenn
08-03-2014, 07:59 AM
Last night my wife, SIL and I went to the Billy Joel at Citizens Bank Park. Don't laugh but I think the last concert I went to was Johnny Mathis at Westbury music theatre. Maybe twenty years ago. We leave 2 hours early - it is normally less than a half hour drive. The always classy Miley Cirus is playing next door so we are worried about traffic...(My god the outfits those teeny boppers were wearing?) We discuss how we are glad our daughter doesn't care for her um 'style'.
Parking $25 dollars? Wait a minute didn't I just shell out nearly $200 a seat? Now you want another $25. After the robbery we park and wander in. Three beers $36!!! Now I know why people were tail gating - eat and drink now or be robbed.. And to top it off no Yuengling! Am I mistaken but isn't this Pennsylvania? So here we are sitting on the ground floor in tiny seats with a bunch of hyped grays -complete with the occasional hearing aides. My people. There was what I remember to be the typical concert behavior but very subdued. Billy unexpectedly let the crowd finish one of his songs. I saw a tear come to his eyes ( I guess he was thinking they still love my stuff).
I bought what I thought were good tickets - yeah I'm a a big spender with a wrist band with ground floor seats. I soon discover if you sit at ground level your stand for the two hour concert? My knees start talking to me after the first half hour...
I'll know better next time that would be in 2034.
So what about Billy? One word: fabulous, just fabulous..
Lovey2
08-03-2014, 08:09 AM
...
RayinPenn
08-03-2014, 08:15 AM
Nerby
Glad you enjoyed the concert.....LOVED your story.....;)
dewilson58
08-03-2014, 08:27 AM
$200 tickets???...........I assume they were nice seats????
Could you see the whites of his eyes??
Lovey2
08-03-2014, 08:34 AM
Nerby
...
RayinPenn
08-03-2014, 08:35 AM
So did I when I bought them...
LatDoc
08-03-2014, 09:10 AM
Wow. Thanks for the warning. I had no idea a concert could cost that much.
Sounds like something only my children can afford.
Chi-Town
08-03-2014, 09:19 AM
I know what you say about parking costs. Here's a photo of a sign I took the last time I was in downtown Chicago.
44105
Dr Winston O Boogie jr
08-03-2014, 09:40 AM
You all must be living on a remote island somewhere. In 2002, I paid $1600 for two 11th row seats to see Paul McCartney.
$200 is nothing these days.
A friend of mine just went to see McCartney up north. He bought the highest package that he could. It gave him entrance to the sound check and a back stage vegetarian buffet, that Paul "might" show up at, but rarely does. (He didn't) and the show from the third row.
The cost? $1,700 per ticket. Yup... $3400 for him and his wife to see Paulie. Paul was great as usual.
Don't get me wrong, I've seen him six times and would go again if I could get decent seats for a reasonable price. But last time, I paid $300 for two seats eight rows from the very back of the auditorium. I didn't think that it was worth is, but my wife had never seen him before and I thought that she should. Oh yeah, we also had to pay $30 for parking and we had some hot dogs or some thing that cost another $30-$40.
But I would recommend that anyone that hasn't seen him live should really go. It's an experience that you really don't want to miss in your life time.
buggyone
08-03-2014, 10:51 AM
When Willy Nelson played at Savannah Center a few months ago, the price was $150 - $200 per ticket. They were sold out. Start living in the 21st century. This is not 1955!
DougB
08-03-2014, 11:00 AM
When Willy Nelson played at Savannah Center a few months ago, the price was $150 - $200 per ticket. They were sold out. Start living in the 21st century. This is not 1955!
I guess it sold out. It only holds about 900 people, don't it?
Dr Winston O Boogie jr
08-03-2014, 11:04 AM
When Willy Nelson played at Savannah Center a few months ago, the price was $150 - $200 per ticket. They were sold out. Start living in the 21st century. This is not 1955!
I have no problem with the prices being higher today than they were fifty years ago. For one thing, the quality of the sound is much better today and most big name acts have some sort of video show behind them. It's a lot different setting up concerts today than it was in 1965.
What I do have a problem with is paying $800 or $1000 for a ticket that has a $250 price on it.
Halibut
08-03-2014, 11:21 AM
I feel ya, RayinPenn. I haven't been to a live music concert in decades (probably Jimmy Buffett or Dan Fogelberg in the late 70s), but I was kind of shocked at the Broadway ticket prices last time we were in NY, and the same for shows in Las Vegas. At least those times we didn't have to park. It would have steamed me, too, to pay that much to leave my car in a lot, because it was unexpected.
bluedog103
08-03-2014, 12:00 PM
I've seen Willie Nelson several times for way less than $150 for great seats. I recently saw Jimmy Buffett for $50 something per seat. It all depends on the venue. Larger capacity usually translates to lower prices unless you insist on front row. I wouldn't pay $1700 to see anyone, except maybe the Last Supper with the original cast.
Bonnevie
08-04-2014, 11:29 AM
I can't see the attraction of seeing aging rock stars in large venues where you have to look at jumbotrons to see anything....
saw Crosby, Still, and Nash a few years back and honestly it was quite a shock....three, old, overweight guys....still sounded good but I prefer to remember them as they were
coolkayaker1
08-04-2014, 11:39 AM
I adore Aerosmith, but their tickets are face value $300, scalper value $1000 (and I'm all for open markets for getting what one can for their own ticket in the resale market). Did I see them live?
No. Their 2013 full concert is free on youtube in high-def, I can google Chromecast it to my 70-inch HDTV; sit five feet away from the screen so that I can see if Steven Tyler's had a tonsillectomy; crank it through my 125-watt, 5.1 home stereo until my ears ring like church bells; drink Pabst Blue Ribbon for which I pay 50-cents a can; my truck parks free in my garage and I'll never come out and find a half dozen juveniles smoking reefer and treating my bumper like a saloon stool; I can wear my faded Aerosmith t-shirt from 1970, the one that reeks of mothballs and Aqua Velva, without someone begging me to buy a new one with a naked lady on it for fifty bucks; and I don't have to pee in the blue-waters of a filthy, portable, plastic outhouse.
At home, I just lie safely in my own excrement in the beanbag chair in front of the television until daybreak.
Aerosmith fans, here's the link!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0dXk5qUdiE
John_W
08-04-2014, 12:04 PM
The last concert, not counting Savannah Center, I went to was Grand Funk with all 3 members (Mark, Don & Mel) in 1998. Since then I have collected over 300 concert DVD's all professionally shot in wide screen and mostly filmed in the last 10 years. When played back on my 60" Vizio LED TV with a 6 speaker surround system that will blow you away, I have the best concerts right in my living room.
tomwed
08-04-2014, 06:57 PM
I can't see the attraction of seeing aging rock stars in large venues where you have to look at jumbotrons to see anything....
saw Crosby, Still, and Nash a few years back and honestly it was quite a shock....three, old, overweight guys....still sounded good but I prefer to remember them as they were
That's exactly what I was thinking. I don't see or hear very well. Maybe there is a market for CSN knockoffs at $30 a seat. If no one told me, I probably wouldn't know it wasn't them. :)
tomwed
08-04-2014, 06:59 PM
When played back on my 60" Vizio LED TV with a 6 speaker surround system that will blow you away, I have the best concerts right in my living room.
and you can pause it............................
vBulletin® v3.8.11, Copyright ©2000-2025, vBulletin Solutions Inc.