@tippydi-Perhaps it is, depending on one’s age and finances. I know many 20-somethings, and parents with teen/pre-teen children who love seeing the big stars, and sharing the experience. I enjoy their stories.
At one point I went to many large-venue shows. Last stadium show I went to was Bruce Springsteen, in 2016. Between tickets, parking and concessions I forked over $700+. It was worth it.
And waaaaay back in the last quarter of the 20th century, I enjoyed the music, the scene and the, ahem-concessions (cough, cough). Now, not so much. It’s likely because I’m over 65, and the thought of being surrounded by 70,000 people gives me the willies.
Clubs and small venue shows are a different story. I’ve enjoyed a number of performances at local music venues and jazz clubs in NYC.
I don’t go to many, but our kids have gifted us a couple of concert tickets in recent times.
We went to hear ZZ Top and Jon Fogarty at CMAC a couple of summers ago. Billy Gibbons can still play, but the band sucked....Frank Beard looked dead at his drum set. Jon Fogarty, on the other hand, hasn’t lost a thing....he was fantastic! He and Billy Gibbons did one tune together that was really good. Fogarty’s son played too.
Last fall I went with my son to hear "My Morning Jacket" in Syracuse, NY, and was pleasantly surprised with an incredible show put on by an immensely talented performer who I wasn’t very familiar with. Great show. Crazy prices.
I prefer smaller shows at local venues on the occasions that you catch someone with talent.
Smaller venues where you can sit close to the band and really watch very talented players play has pretty much wrecked me for large venues where ticket prices are vastly higher for a less satisfying and involving experience. But that’s me.
I rarely attend a show where the capacity is over 5,000. Prices for most large shows are ridiculous and I'm not satisfied sitting somewhere far away or off to the side, don't enjoy the parking hassles, and the sound usually sucks.
I'd much rather go to Jazz Alley in Seattle, sit right in front of the stage, have a nice meal, park for free, and be on the freeway in 5-10 minutes after the show.
I go to a lot of shows throughout the year, there's a lot of great talent playing smaller venues where you can get reasonably priced tickets and be in the first 10-15 rows and enjoy great sound.
Last year for the first time in years my wife and I went to see Styx and Foreigner at the Bangor Maine Amphitheater. I was actually surprised how good the sound quality was compared to many of the arena style shows we attended in the past. The negatives were pretty much what has also been said except for the majority of the crowd standing for the entire show. Why buy front row seats if you are going to stand? At 75 my feet and back aren’t up to it.
We do go out at least a half a dozen times a year to smaller venues where you have good sight lines, maybe a meal and not have to be concerned about the weather.
We just went to NJPAC for the annual Sarah Vaughan Vocal Competition, in the small Victoria Theater there, 5 contestants, it was wonderful, I posted some photos and links on DPReview.com. Last live event was this in 2019, just prior to covid, it made me realize how much we have been missing.
I quit going to shows in 2020 when COVID hit and I've never really gone back; I used to be good for 20 - 30 gigs per year, but I'm also 73 years old now! So I'm mostly content to watch live shows on my sound and video system. Unless I personally know any of the performers, in which case I'll come out to support them. When they started having this variable seat pricing business with Ticketmaster, I found that so frustrating I quit going to large shows even before 2020.
Whenever there is an opportunity to attend, I am there. Live concerts often include unique improvisations, interactions, or surprises that you won’t find in studio recordings. I dig the energy, acoustics and atmosphere, especially when the setting is on a smaller scale.
I don't tend to go see popular music so ticket prices aren't so much an issue for me. I typically see Phish 3-5 times a year they keep their ticket prices sane and mostly smaller club shows jazz mostly.
I rarely go to large venue (20,000 seat and larger) shows. The disconnect between seeing the band playing is just too much. Don’t get me wrong, I went to plenty of them in the decades past, from Pink Floyd, many Grateful Dead shows, Phish, Widespread Panic, Paul McCartney, The Police, Sting, Neil Young, Steely Dan, and more recently, Goose.
But always for more bang for my bucks, I loved going to smaller "bar" or "warehouse" shows, venues holding between 150 and 5000 people. They were always cheaper and now, a LOT cheaper, and you felt like you were actually seeing the band and had some interaction with them.
My favorite venues are the Ramkat in Winston-Salem, the Orange Peel in Asheville, The Visulite in Charlotte, The Lincoln Theatre in Raleigh, and Pisgah Brewing Co, in Black Mountain. All these venues are open to audience recording too, which is a hobby of mine.
Prices for seeing bands at these venues ranges from $30 to $50 and are well worth it. I mainly go to see rock jam bands (think Spafford, Eggy, moe, lespecial, Aqueous), Americana, or jazz, and a few singer-songwriters. These places have the sound quality dialed in very well, and most don’t blow your ears out either.
I won’t say I’ll never go to a "large, expensive" show again, but it would have to be someone I really, really liked.
I haven’t been lately, but I went for about 20 years to a 4-day Americana festival called Merlefest, that has about 10 stages going, and everything from straight ahead bluegrass to rock. For the price, you get to see many, many artists.
To show the disconnect at large shows, some YouTubers recorded some of the songs as presented in commercials or videos from Taylor Swift’s recent live tour. They found that on most of the songs, she wasn’t even singing live. They were canned "prerecorded" vocals. No thanks. I mean I guess her fans don’t care and they just want to see her dance around the stage, but I can listen to a record for nearly free via Tidal and pop my own popcorn and get beers a lot cheaper.
I’m 62, and I’ve been attending shows since I was 10 years old (had a sibling 11 years older than me). Throughout the 1970’s and 1990’s, most shows were in venues under 10,000 seats, with an occasional large stadium show. Starting in the 2000’s, I started throwing in a few Multi-Day Festival shows where crowds of 80,000 fans a day were common. I quickly learned those events were not for me -- from the ticket prices to hotel costs to concessions cost, they just became ridiculously expensive.
Also in that early 2000’s time frame, I began attending shows at independent clubs -- venues that held a maximum of 500 to 1,000 fans, and quickly fell in love with these shows. The sound was much better, the prices were very low, you had the ability to see a vast variety of niche genre bands, and get to see them up close and personal. I began befriending the club managers and sticking around after shows in the loading area or in the clubs (with permission from the management), and I got to meet and party with numerous now famous musicians who enjoyed having a dinner or drinks bought for them. My primary music is Progressive Rock and Prog Metal, and I have been fortunate to hang out with the members of Haken, Porcupine Tree, Sons of Apollo, Dream Theater, Fates Warning, The Pineapple Thief, Leprous, Riverside, along with Mott The Hoople, Opeth, King Buffalo, Warren Zevon, Killing Joke, Dixie Dregs, Zakk Wylde, Black Label Society, Pantera, GodspeedYou! Black Emperor...just to name a few.
Give me the under 1,000 seat venues all day long. I’ll keep rocking out live as long as I can!
@moonwatcher-- When I saw the venues you named, I realized we must live near each other. I’m in Winston-Salem. I am at The RamKat, Cat’s Cradle, Motorco, Filmore, Neighborhood Theater, Hanger 1819, The Underground, Orange Peel, and Monstercade VERY OFTEN. I also fly to NYC to catch shows at Radio City, Irving Plaza, St. Vitus, Brooklyn Steel, and others.
Before I retired, I handled Jay’s insurance at Ziggy’s for 20 years. My office was on Deacon Boulevard, right in front of Ziggy’s. I saw hundreds of shows there before he had to close. I had free reign to sit in on sound checks. I’d walk in around 2:00 p.m. wearing a suit and tie, grab a PBR beer, and sit dead center answering questions from the bands on how it sounded. Great memories!
The last concert I went to was back in 2019. My son took me to the 50 years of Jethro Tull concert. I believe we were at Mohegan Sun Casino in Conn. I got my son into Tull back in the 90’s, I had been to well over 30 Tull concerts before this last one. The concert hadn’t changed a bit, same concept. Big difference is Ian Anderson’s voice, he can’t hit the notes any more and all the songs were slowed way down to accommodate his aged voice. No more concerts for me, too much hassle, too loud and the crowds are inconsiderate. I would rather take a stroll down Beale St. in Memphis in the evening and listen to the locals play.
@allenf1963I live north of Charlotte, near Statesville. We are indeed blessed with several good sounding venues for live music in this area within 2- or 3-hours driving distance. Not bad. MSG in NYC was always special. Would love to see Radio City. Have fun and keep supporting these local venues. I’m glad they survived the Covid-19 years. Many just barely did.
Ah, Ziggy's will always be a special venue. I really miss it in its old location. Saw a ton of shows there and recorded some. They had a killer sound system. Saw Medeski, Martin, and Wood there for the first time. Wow.
@thecarpathian-- I saw Warren Zevon twice (1983 and 1996), and those shows rank up there in my Top 20% of live concerts. The 1996 show was my favorite. In a small club in Winston-Salem, NC, called Ziggy's with a capacity of around 500 for that show. It was a solo, acoustic show by Zevon, so he reworked his songs to fit just one person playing them -- some were acoustic guitar, some electric guitar, some a Hammond Organ and Synths. Unique and killer.
@moonwatcher-- I was devastated when Jay had to shut down the old Ziggy's. Wake Forest University used their clout with the city and screwed him over big time. All those business properties on Baity Street and Deacon Boulevard were bought up or run out of business by a WFU front (me included) so Wake could develop it and add off-campus offices and parking. After years, they just announced that whole stretch of Deacon Boulevard from University Parkway to the football stadium is being turned into an entertainment district. I knew that was the plan when properties were being bought and flipped, but it's taken around 15 years.
Ziggy's was amazing while it lasted. I first went to a show when it was the little white house where the Joel Coliseum parking lot is now located. Saw Los Lobos in 1986. It's mind blowing to see the list of the bands that played at Ziggy's from 1986 to 2006. It was THE PLACE bands wanted to play on their way from D.C. to Atlanta. Now, bands go to Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, Orange Peel in Asheville, or one of the Charlotte venues. I mean, the huge Prog/Death Metal band Opeth played Ziggy's three times. They still play smaller venues in the U.S. (I saw them 2 nights in a row in 2020 at The Apollo Theater in Harlem), but the also sellout 100,000 attendance festivals numerous times a year.
I keep wishing The RamKat will start booking bands like Ziggy's did...but it hasn't happened yet.
In exceptional rare cases I can go to live concerts. if not completely acoustic the sound quality on such concerts is considerably worse than with my audio system. So it becomes like a waste of time and money.
@allenf1963, I had the pleasure of discovering Ziggy’s in 1994. I was working as a movie extra and housed in the vacant Hane’s pantyhose plant next to WFU. We got bored one night and went on campus to find something to do. Stumbled onto Ziggys and decided to check it out. Saw Ozric Tentacles one night and Leftover Salmon the next. Truly epic venue. Looked like a little honkytonk bar, but go down some stairs and bam, a huge concert hall. One of my favorite bits of serendipity.
I still attend live shows, though the acts that interest me are few and far between. And, I often end up ill after attending a well-attended event. I get funny looks when I show up wearing a mask.
@pvnasby-- That's awesome! I was at that Ozric Tentacles show. They were touring their "Arboresence" album at that show. I've listened to them for years, a fantastic Prog/Psychedelic/Space Rock band. That show was October 19th, 1994. Leftover Salmon was October 20th.
Were you in town filming "Marriage, Pride & Madness" by chance? I know that movie was in town at that time. My good buddy was an employee of the NC School of the Arts in their Film School Department at that time. He was in charge of purchasing all the equipment for the studios and screening rooms they were building as they expanded. Had some GOOD times going in with him when the school was closed and playing around with the audio gear in the movie theaters! There may or may not have been some "Alice In Wonderland" activities while Led Zep's "Song Remains The Same" blared on the big screen!
When I grew up, the word “concert” was strictly for classical music. A Kiss “concert” was rather a headbanging party.
I saw Bb king, Cher, Sting and other big names live. But yeah, still going regularly to the Dallas Symphony. Pinchas Zukerman gave me goose pumps in his 70s 😜😜
In the Seattle area we have an awesome venue at Chateau Ste. Michelle. They have a great sound system, and on a warm summer afternoon, with a picnic an a bottle of CSM wine, we've seen some great shows. Diana Krall, Jackson Browne, Paul Simon (last tour- his encore of The Boxer brought people to tears), Lyle Lovett puts on an awesome show. Gary Clark Jr. Was beyond words for both sound and lights, and his impromptu meet and greet afterwards (no charge, no handlers), spoke volumes. Farther north, we've recently seen a killer show with The Mavericks, and downtown Seattle has Jazz Alley and we've seen more great shows there than I can count. There's also the Triple Door where we've seen David Lindley (RIP) Sonny Landreth, and more. The Big Venues, we've been once in the last 10 years - to see the Rolling Stones. Stupid expensive, but I gotta say, they did not disappoint.
I’ve gone to a few. I’m finding that even smaller bands are cranking their volume up to painful degrees. I saw Spoon and Alvvays and Spoon was almost unlistenable live whereas Alvvays was just on the edge of being so loud that you really couldn’t hear the songs. Actually, the best concert I’ve seen in a while was the Dandy Warhols in a relatively small space. The Dandys weren’t even headlining but played a very nice set that was tolerable loudness-wise.
So while I would like to go to more, it hasn’t really been a pleasant experience, even with bands that I really want to see. BTW, these are smaller venues. My city doesn't have or get much in the way of bigger concerts other than casinos or classical music venues. The Casino venues don't really get artists I am interested in.
@allenf1963, I was filming a TNT movie called “Tecumseh, The Last Warrior”. It was part of a series of Turner movies about the Native American experience in early America. I was out of work, the money was good, and I had a blast. Ziggy’s was part of it. The horse wranglers I was hanging out with liked to party.
Had the pleasure of many a show in and outdoors flower power, hippie wannabe, sex, drugs and Rock ‘n’ roll. I’d feel silly doing that 💩 now. Still love hot rodding, big sound, fine wine etc, but on my schedule in my cave and with my preferred company. Not to mention the coin people want to listen to S… sound, ridiculous.
@pvnasby-- That’s cool. I wasn’t aware filming for that movie was in Winston-Salem. The city had quite a few movies, television episodes, and commercial work done here from 1988 to the mid-2000’s, then it sadly dropped off. A lot of filming has to do with the NC School of the Arts being here. I wish the city would leverage it more to get work. The State cut funding, and there was an exodus to the State of Georgia for film projects.
In 2024 I witnessed 14 shows from Al DiMeola at a 235 seat theater in Hudson Falls NY to Springsteen at the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse. I loved every show just like I did all those many years before following the Grateful Dead around the country. Now that I am 64, post 2 major back surgeries and arthritis in my knees, hips, and shoulders I find I can no longer sit or stand long enough to enjoy the shows to their fullest. 2025 will be a decidedly down year for the number of shows I see. I see Dream theater in March, that might be my only show of 2025.
Saw Styx foreigner great concert still have great voices and sound had 7 crown i tec 12000 amps sounded great.reo and zz top all in the past year.now because I have more time and finances than when I was 20 years old.i guess it is a quality of life issue now.i use the I tec 12000 on my woofer towers with 6 12 inch woofers and they sound great.on another 6x12 inch woofers I have a bunch of high watt ice amps.enjoy the music weither it's live or in your home.
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