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The price of concert tickets today.... What's your take?

I was a union stagehand from 1978-85. I was paid to see top bands of the day....in their prime! I had my fill...and moved on.

Spending thousands of dollars to see nostalgia...playing their songs for the ten thousandth time...with half the original members...is crazy to me. They are just riding a money train with music they wrote in their twenties.

One instance I had.....I saw Leon Russel back in mid 70's and it was one of the best shows I ever saw. About three years ago, I saw he was going to be in area at a small venue. Tickets....$50. I got excited and almost went and bought them....but decided to check him out on YouTube as I hadn't heard of him for years.

Man....so glad I did that. He was a shell of his former self and barely whispered his words while playing. I didn't want to ruin my memory of him in his glory so passed.
 
centsless said:
One instance I had.....I saw Leon Russel back in mid 70's and it was one of the best shows I ever saw. About three years ago, I saw he was going to be in area at a small venue. Tickets....$50. I got excited and almost went and bought them....but decided to check him out on YouTube as I hadn't heard of him for years. Man....so glad I did that. He was a shell of his former self and barely whispered his words while playing. I didn't want to ruin my memory of him in his glory so passed.
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We saw Leon Russell about 10 years ago at a small venue in Minneapolis. The stage was up two steps, and it took about 10 minutes for him to hobble up them with his cane. My wife and I looked at each other and thought we had just wasted $35 for each ticket. He sat down behind his piano and for the next 2 hours belted out music and songs like he was thirty. He must have been up and down with his energy at the time, so we may have just lucked out that day. He was pretty good on the Union album with Elton John, too, although that was a studio effort.
 
I saw B.B. King about a year before he died. He was 88 and obviously suffering from dementia. It was horrifying. He shouldn’t have been on the road. I still don’t understand how anyone enjoyed that show. He could barely sing, he couldn’t play. It was a free jazz festival, so I didn’t pay any money to see the show. If I’d paid to see that, I would have been annoyed.

I saw Aretha Franklin a year later at the same festival (on her final tour) and she was amazing. She had lost the top end of her range, but was only really obvious on a couple songs that she sang lower than the original recordings.

I saw Leonard Cohen on his next-to-last tour (2009, I think), and was show was stellar. Over two hours, insanely great band, and he was in excellent form.
 
I just found a couple of old ticket stubs; AC/DC in 1986 (Hamburg) for 29 marks. That was about 10 bucks, I think. And Triumph in 1985 (Tallahasse) for 12.50 :)

GREAT shows !!
Tickets.jpg
 
Just went to the Box Office for Alice In Chains and Korn. 2 good seats $110. Joe Bonamassa 2 nights later, center and 5 rows back, 2 for $236, he is doing a military discount for his shows!! Going to the box office saved me $63, the mil discount $40 :rockon:

Edit: forgot about Murphy’s Law Saturday night at a bar/club, $12 ea
 
Johnny B said:
I saw B.B. King about a year before he died. He was 88 and obviously suffering from dementia. It was horrifying. He shouldn’t have been on the road. I still don’t understand how anyone enjoyed that show. He could barely sing, he couldn’t play. It was a free jazz festival, so I didn’t pay any money to see the show. If I’d paid to see that, I would have been annoyed.

I saw Aretha Franklin a year later at the same festival (on her final tour) and she was amazing. She had lost the top end of her range, but was only really obvious on a couple songs that she sang lower than the original recordings.

I saw Leonard Cohen on his next-to-last tour (2009, I think), and was show was stellar. Over two hours, insanely great band, and he was in excellent form.
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I saw BB once in each decade of the 80s, 90s, 00s and 10s. The first three shows were great. The last was sad, and not just because his performance suffered. The audience was out of control swarming the stage taking cell phone videos like it was some sort of ghoulish exercise to get documentation that they'd been there before he died.
 
Johnny B said:
I saw B.B. King about a year before he died. He was 88 and obviously suffering from dementia. It was horrifying. He shouldn’t have been on the road. I still don’t understand how anyone enjoyed that show. He could barely sing, he couldn’t play. It was a free jazz festival, so I didn’t pay any money to see the show. If I’d paid to see that, I would have been annoyed.

I saw Aretha Franklin a year later at the same festival (on her final tour) and she was amazing. She had lost the top end of her range, but was only really obvious on a couple songs that she sang lower than the original recordings.

I saw Leonard Cohen on his next-to-last tour (2009, I think), and was show was stellar. Over two hours, insanely great band, and he was in excellent form.
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I saw BB open for Frampton, same thing - it was embarrassing.

My first concert was 1978, Heart, Sammy Hagar, Randy Meisner, Bob Welch, $6.50. Well worth it!
 
Jnevill said:
I saw BB open for Frampton, same thing - it was embarrassing.

My first concert was 1978, Heart, Sammy Hagar, Randy Meisner, Bob Welch, $6.50. Well worth it!
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I saw Johnny Lang open for BB about 2002. Great show all around!!
 
GChief said:
Edit: forgot about Murphy’s Law Saturday night at a bar/club, $12 ea
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Wow. I saw them a lot in the 90s, and a few times since. Last time was in Miami in 2008 or so. There were a billion bands on the bill and they didn’t go on until around 2am. They still worth seeing?
Will S. said:
I saw BB once in each decade of the 80s, 90s, 00s and 10s. The first three shows were great. The last was sad, and not just because his performance suffered. The audience was out of control swarming the stage taking cell phone videos like it was some sort of ghoulish exercise to get documentation that they'd been there before he died.
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That is just horrifying. I wish I was able to see him before I did. I don’t even really feel like I really saw a BB show.
 
Will S. said:
I saw BB once in each decade of the 80s, 90s, 00s and 10s. The first three shows were great. The last was sad, and not just because his performance suffered. The audience was out of control swarming the stage taking cell phone videos like it was some sort of ghoulish exercise to get documentation that they'd been there before he died.
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I got to see him, in the old rink in my neighbourhood that I played a ton of hockey in as a lad(which I find cool), in 1996, and he kicked ass.
I saw him again in 2005, and it was pretty meh. When he played, he had it going on. But he hardly played. His band did a pile of numbers before he came on, and he told a ton of stories, and didn't play much.
 
GChief said:
I saw Johnny Lang open for BB about 2002. Great show all around!!
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I got see Lang way before most. Before he was known outside of the midwest he played at a blues festival in Duluth I went to back in the day. 1994/1995 I think? So much passion. He was exciting to watch. And he seemed to be all over the place that weekend. I went to an after festival Jimmy Thackery show and he got up with him to jam. Met him at our hotel afterwards, too. Super nice kid.
I saw him again in 2012, and it was boring as hell.
 
GChief said:
That sux, I just saw him open for Buddy Guy last year, he put on an awesome show.
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You know, I also saw him back in 2002-ish, and recall it was a good show. It may have even been him opening for Buddy? I forget.
I saw Buddy a few times around then, and also quite a few blues people. I'm forgetting who opened for who, lol! I know one of the Buddy shows was front row at a festival, one had Shemekia Copeland as the opener, but I forget the other one.
 
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