Weekly survey: How high will you go for a must-have concert ticket?
When it was announced that Adele was going to appear for two nights at the BST Festival in London’s Hyde Park next summer, people freaked. Within a minute after going on sale, every ticket was gone, from the £90 general admission ticket (that’s about CAD$150) to special VIP packages (£579 or CAD$980).
Now, though, resale prices have gone through the roof. Those GA tickets are now being traded for over CAD$1,250 while the VIP passed have sold for as much as CAD$12,500.
I get it. Adele is one of those ultra-rare stars that can sell concert tickets, CDs, and digital files. Her return is a big, big deal. But those prices are insane. Or are they?
What’s the most you’d spend for that super-special, gotta-be-there-at-all-costs concert?
Let’s talk about the RHCP show at the dome. They wanted $500+ for GA during the pre-sale and now with the whole “platinum” tickets they are approaching $1,000. 12 Rows back on the floor is $700+. A seat 5 rows up in the stands is $520. These are festival prices for a show at the dome. I go to (or at least used to) about 30 shows a year. This is by far the most outrageous I have seen yet. They make the Adele prices seem like a bargain. In fact if you look at RHCP prices in NA vs Europe you’ll see that the gouging seems to be a NA specific phenomenon.
Honestly it’s like … $80 to me for a local show (which is what I paid for New Order some time ago). I’d love to see NIN again at a “proper” show (not from the lawns at the Ampitheatre, opening for Jane’s), but can’t justify the $200+. I can almost get a better experience watching their blurays on my decent 5.1 system at home.
That said, I have two bucket-list electro-industrial bands I’m fully planning on flying to Germany to see when they’re on the same bill. And they’re my final bucket-list items. I did fly to London once just to see Ned’s Atomic Dustbin 🙂
Sidenote, I am so grateful and feel so lucky to live in Toronto where I get access to so many amazing bands. Also can walk home from the Danforth Music Hall, where I’m happy to just see stuff that maybe I’m not 100% keen on, but just love the venue and vibe.
There ate so many variables in this equation that it is almost impossible for me to say.
Variables:
venue
location
date/time
artist…and then….
Have I seen them
before? Was it a
perfect moment
show? If so, stop.
If not seen or if not
a perfect moment
show, see venue.
Is it a favored
venue. If not, stop.
If so, how often
does the artist
tour? If artist
tours yearly and is
not showing any
signs of starting
residencies or
tours with other
artists or limited
tours confined to
subsets of States,
stop. If artist
showing signs of
doing last ditch
money grab,
tour, decide
whether or not
artist is worth one
last tour. If this is l.
last chance to see,
are they, top50?
Considered a band
to see before I die?
Otherwise, next
step would be to
determine worth.
These are bands I would like to see before I die (if not multiple times). Some are sheer fantasy. Some are still touring. One is beyond fantasy but I’m including them anyway.
In no particular order:
Oingo Boingo w/$$ going to charity >=2500
Depeche Mode >=500
The Smiths w/$$ going to charity >=1500
Doll and The Kicks >=150
Concrete Blonde>=250
Social Distortion going rates
The Pogues >=1000
The Clashw/$$ going to charity >=1500
Siouxsie and The Banshees (voice pre-90s)>=1000
The Toy Dolls>=1000
*limited to 10 bands. Amounts never thought of before this moment because I usually don’t have this kind of money to throw around and won’t for most bands. These bands and a fair number of others, given an infusion of cash, and no need to spend it elsewhere, would definitely make the list. Whether I could actually justify the expense when it came down to it…that might prove more difficult.