To Bruce or Not to Bruce?
It's official that Bruce Springsteen is coming to my hometown on August 24. Despite years of fandom, despite 1978-82 in New York state (a long but doable car-ride from New Jersey), despite seeing variants on his theme, such as Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes - I've never seen Springsteen live.
Unfortunately, I'm going to be otherwise occupied when the tickets go on sale. That means if I want to see the show looking up instead of looking down, I'm probably going to have to come up with several hundred dollars. This site has tickets I'd really like already on sale for a little under $500 each . . . Parking, dinner, a beer or two at the show - let's round it off at a grand. Or, if that offends you, and you think nosebleed seats should suffice, let's round if off to $400.
What's a person of moderate means to do?
For a fraction of the cost, I could buy an iPod and download every Springsteen song available on iTunes, and still have money available to catch dozens of up-and-coming shows at smaller venues. I could max out campaign contributions to some worthy local candidates. I could change lives with donations to some of my favorite charities. I could investigate that concept called "retirement savings" that I've heard some people mentioning.
Do you blow a grand on a single show? What if he has an off night? What if the people in front of me are tall? Can one show really be worth that kind of money? Would I walk out of the Sprint Center thinking "Great show, but . . ."?
I don't know. Maybe. Springsteen shows are legendary. Seeing a great artist live is a totally different experience than listening to the music itself. What is the proper price of a lasting memory? How much would you pay to see your "best concert ever"?
Labels: arts, diversions, music
posted by Dan at 6/26/2008 06:39:00 AM
14 Comments:
You had to know I'd comment on this one... :-)
If you can't get tickets during the presale on Friday (Back to Rockville should have details soon) or Saturday AM, try the Springsteen ticket exchange at www.backstreets.com/btx. Sometimes additional tickets go on sale the day of show too.
You should go. If it was a band you kind of liked or even really liked it would be a different story. But this is (for reasons I still don't completely get) your absolute favorite. When you go see your favorite band live, it is a different experience. And you've never seen him. That is the real deciding factor here. It's a lot of money to be sure, but you could give up something else if you really wanted to balance it out. It will be worth it. Guaranteed.
I would love to see Springsteen live. But not for that kinda money.
About the only act I'd pay that kind of money to see would be the Beatles.
And I don't mean back in 1964. I mean today. Right now. If Lennon and Harrison rose from the dead and the Beatles reunited
and put on a show, I'd consider going to see them.
My fav concert by far was Tina Turner. I saw her twice; once at Sandstone and then at Kemper. Now, she's coming back and with enough $$$ I could probably get good seats, but since I've already had the pleasure twice, I'll live on memories and DVD's.
For me, the seats I get are really important. I don't like the Sprint Center upper deck. I've done that once and never again. I could barely see the performers faces and I felt like I was going to fall every time I stood up. If you do decide to pay the $$$, make sure you get a dang good seat or you'll regret spending the money later.
I don't know what it's worth; but I can say I saw Springsteen and the E-Street Band twice, once early on (3000 seat arena) and once at Kemper, from high up. The two best rock and roll shows evah, out of a pretty large sample testifying to a wasted late youth. If you like rock 'n roll (I wouldn't pay much of anything for Acoustic Poet Bruce), they do a show like no other.
OH, I forgot to answer your question. You'd walk out of Sprint in a daze, going "OMFG".
Been to about four of his shows.
Drop the cash, it is worth it.
Which candidates are worthy of maxing out donations to?
Dan,
Paid about that much altogether (trip to Vegas) to see Jimmy Buffett.
Was well worth it, and I had already seen him in concert once.
Your kids are out of the house, go for it.
I saw Hendrix. He died. I saw Joplin. She died. I have concert phobia.
My all-time favorite band was here recently and I didn't go.
Live show venues suck nowadays- tickets too damn expensive and the band ended up playing during a severe thunderstorm anyway- nice way to treat LONGTIME fans.
Oh- I want to add to Roy's dead rockers that I've seen- in addition to the 2 he mentioned:
Jim Morrison
John Lennon
George Harrison
Dan Fogelberg
Terry Kath
Carl & Dennis Wilson
Brad Delp
Laura Nyro
Karen Carpenter (okay- not a "rocker").
Cheers!
-Groucho
Why not set up a paypal link so your readers can contribute to your tickets?
Anonymous 6/28:
Thanks for the suggestion, but the thought of making money off this blog kind of creeps me out. It's addictive enough for me as is . . .
As it turns out, I'm pretty likely to go, and might be going with some great seats.
How will you end up with great seats?
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