Aerosmith are gods, 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). So how much did it cost for me to see them live, the complete show? Nothing!

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 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 pass out in my own excrement, drunk and safe, in the beanbag chair in front of the television until daybreak.

Thank you, modern technology!

Aerosmith fans, here's the link!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0dXk5qUdiE

[quote=Dr Winston O Boogie jr;918365]Thank you for inviting me. I am looking forward to it.

I forgot that the last festival I attended was amazing and free. It was 2011 in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. Warren Hellman picks up the tab and played in the some of the bands when he could. Please read his obituary, it is inspirational. click here

This was the lineup.http://www.hardlystrictlybluegrass.c...1_Schedule.pdf

I saw the BEACH BOYS, The TURTLES and The ASSOCIATION back in the late 60's. Cost about $10. In the 80's we saw FOREIGNER, CHICAGO, REO SPEEDWAGON, The Highwaymen( Cash, Nelson, Kristofferson and Jennings) and TOM JONES. All cost under $30 dollars. Recently, Eric Clapton in London and The Eagles in Amsterdam for between 250 -300 Euros.
PS If anyone would like to organize trips to rock concerts let me know.

In defense of the higher "face value" of concert tickets today, I have to point out that the experience today is enhance by all of the high tech equipment that today's bands have.

I played in a band back in the 60s and early 70s that opened for several big name touring acts. These bands mostly just plugged into huge amplifiers and the sound went directly out the the audience. There were no mixing boards. Occasionally, if the venue was big enough, the drums would be miked, often with one bass drum mic and an overhead. Guitar amps were seldom run through the board as there was often no board. Often times, the performers didn't even have monitors.

These days, Paul McCartney travels with twelve 18 wheelers full of equipment. A twenty five foot high HD video show goes on behind him during his performance. He travels with his own stage. There are pyrotechnics involved in most shows. The bands have state of the art monitoring systems including wedges or in-ear and sometimes a combination of both. Performers have can look at television screens on which the the lyrics to their songs scroll in time with the music so that they don't forget a line. Amps are all run directly through the board and all of the drums are closely miked so that all of the sound is coming through the board and can be precisely controlled. It is amazing how they can EQ a board today to get them to sound so good in venues that in the past were considered impossible in which to get a good sound. Instruments are exchanged seamlessly. Pianos come up from holes that open in the stage. And these days, most of this is done without cords through remote controls.

And all of this is set up and run by a staff numbering in the hundreds that travels from venue to venue.

Then think about the venues that you sit in to watch these concerts today. I've been to concerts at the Amway Center and Orlando and the Banknorth Garden in Boston. These places are amazingly comfortable with wide padded seats. It's a far cry from sitting in the mud for hours waiting until 4:00am or the old standing on floor of the no seating concerts that we had back in the day.

If you wonder why concert tickets that were $20 forty years ago, are $250 now. That is the answer. It's a much better show and a much better experience. And that is without factoring in inflation.

Now as to why you have to pay $1,000 for a $250 ticket, that is another question and one that has me really ****ed off.

Woodstock 1969 Jimi Hendrix The Who Santana Janis Joplin the Grateful Dead Country Joe Joan Baez Richie Havens Crosby Stills & Nash The Band etc. 3 day pass $21 ($7 per day) Came up to the gates and the fences were all torn down. In celebration everyone were throwing their tickets in the air. Some entrepreneurial folks gathered them up and are selling them on E-Bay today to supplement their retirement.

Best deal for me was The Rolling Stones in 1965, ticket price $2.50 (cost $0.75 to park).

Still have that concert program.

I saw the Dick Clark Caravan of Stars at the Convention Center in Conneaut Lake Pa in 1964.The show featured Tom Jones,The Shirelles,Mel Carter,Big Dee Irwin,and the Jaynettes.Tickets were $3.00.