Here we are after she performed at a tribute to her friend.
Posted on 07/14/2004 8:06:24 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
Edited on 07/14/2004 9:28:46 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Hot Country Jam 14,092
Tim McGraw 17,265
Kenny Chesney Sold out
Jimmy Buffett Sold out
Dave Matthews Band (two shows) 41,019
Slackers
Blink-182/No Doubt 8,069
X-Fest-Godsmack/Cypress Hill/Newfound Glory others.. 13,844
Rush/An Evening With Rush 8,828
Aerosmith/Cheap Trick 12,894
Van Halen/Silvertide 13,593
Jessica Simpson 8,384
Kiss/Poison 11,703
Sting/Annie Lennox 9,947
Attendance at Post-Gazette Pavilion shows (capacity: 22,683)
When it was hyped in the spring, the summer concert season sure looked rosy.
The live music industry was coming off a record year for revenue in 2003 and a strong first quarter in 2004, and there was no reason to think that wouldn't continue through the summer.
But between canceled tours and low turnouts, it's gotten to the point where Clear Channel might be longing for those good old days of Steve Miller sellouts.
A midyear business analysis just released by the trade publication Pollstar concludes that "For reasons that are still unclear, the bottom seemed to fall out of the concert market in mid-April. All three major concert promotion companies and several prominent independents reported a sudden drop in sales of anywhere from 15 percent to 50 percent."
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
What's the absolute BEST concert you've EVER been to?
Roger Waters (former PF frontman) - Gund Arena in Cleveland - 1999.
MFH - I really enjoyed the Rush Vapor Trails show at P-G Pavilion a couple of years ago (10 rows back on Geddy's side), but missed them this time around - evening of memorial Day was VERY bad timing.
I see you are a Slap Shot fan! Hahahahahaha...Suzanne is a dyke!
Best concert I have ever been to? Hmmm...probably Rush either Hold Your Fire tour at the Meadowlands...3rd row center or Vapor Trails in Charlotte 3rd row in front of Geddy.
I saw The Division Bell and Momentary Lapse of Reason tours....amazing amazing stuff. I miss them.
I think it's more than just ticket prices (which are outrageous) -- it's been a wet summer, so that's going to hurt outdoor venue sales. Plus, a significant number of these acts have members who don't know when to shut up, which may be driving away potential audiences.
LOL - thanks. So few people here actually have seen or remember the movie (a Western PA classic).
I have the original Hanrahan jersey....it is sitting in my closet. I won it in an auction of hollywood memorbilia.
My absolute best?
The Big Music Machine - March 2003 - with my voice teacher as featured soloist :-)
Who the hell is that?!? lol
Here we are after she performed at a tribute to her friend.
Monkees, with my daughter who was nine at the time. (I'll pause here for derisive laughs).
Prince just blew the lid of the Garden in three sold out concerts here. I saw him Tuesday and he put on a great show.
Here is a typical concert experience...
Arrive three hours before the show so that you can actually get to your seat in time - after fighting all the traffic, jockeying for a $20 parking space and getting through the lines at the gates, etc.
You have to pack food and drinks in a cooler so that you can tailgate and not have to buy the $6 cheeseburgers and $7 beers at the concessions (even a bottle of water will cost you $3.50).
Unless you won a radio contest or have connections somehow to the performing acts, you will have nosebleed seats and will have to settle for seeing the performers on the huge screens (might as well have stayed home and watched it on DVD). Or you could rent binoculars ($15 per event - leave your credit card or driver's license as collateral). But remember, if you leave your driver's license as collateral - you can't buy beer because even if you look like Keith Richards, they will still card you.
During the concert, you must constantly get up to let by the constant stream of fellow concert-goers who can't go more than 10 minutes without having to get up to buy food at the concessions or use the bathroom.
During the concert, the people sitting next to you will likely be on their cellphones yakking to their friends on how they are "at the concert" and they will periodically hold the cellphone in front of them so as to prove to the person they are speaking with that yes, they are indeed at the big concert.
If you light up a cigarette, you are immediately thrown out. But somehow the smell of marijuana is everywhere. How does that happen?
The loudspeakers at the concert are always TOO LOUD.
Whenever the performer sings a slow song, people feel obligated to light cigarette lighters. Why?
When you stand up so that you can see, the people behind you tell you to sit down. When you sit down, you can't see because the people in front of you are standing.
The performing artists seem to have a compelling need to patronize their audience by changing the lyrics in some of their songs to reflect the town they are in. Then they will always tell their audience that this is the "best darn audience we've ever played for! Hell yeah!"
After the concert is over, everybody starts running for the exits, pushing and shoving. Then the main performer comes out for an encore and everybody is pushing and shoving back to their seats (when will they ever learn?)
After the final encore, everybody is pushing and shoving back to the parking lots where they proceed to wait for hours and hours while pimply-faced teenagers try to direct traffic by waving flashlights in a random, haphazard manner. During all of this, the concert-goers have a need to play full-blast in their car stereos (with the windows down) a CD of the artist they just got done listening to live.
You finally get home bleary-eyed at 2AM and wonder what the heck you just paid $300 for.
I can't argue with your points at all. I just pay a ticket broker to make sure I am sitting in the first 5 rows and be done with it. Yes,it costs an arm and a leg but I don't have to put up with half of the crap you just listed.
Man..outdoor concerts are the worst.
From the sounds of my busy street and the system freaks who travel it, music has been replaced by the metronome's amplified trip-hammer.
Ramones at the legendary El Mocambo nightclub in Toronto. Two times in Feb. and July 1979. Nothing else has ever come close.
The only aforementioned act worth seeing this summer is Aerosmith. However, if you've seen them before, there's no reason to pay $100 a ticket for nosebleed seats this time around.
Thank God, I live in New Orleans where I can hear great live music every night of the week and don't have to worry about even paying a cover charge.
That would have been awesome.
How long were the Ramones' sets? I heard they used to come out and play about 15-20 minutes and call it a night. Granted, they played 10 songs at breakneck speed in those 20 minutes. Or did they play much longer when you saw them?
"What's the absolute BEST concert you've EVER been to?"
It has to be the first rock concert I ever went to. It was April 1973 at the Oakland Colosseum Arena, and the acts were Deep Purple, Fleetwood Mac and Rory Gallagher. I was 13 at the time. I went to the show with my next door neighbor and two other neighor kids. The tickets were like $5.00. We felt we were so cool at the time (how cool can you be when you need parents to drop you off and pick you up though?), and I have never felt the same level of excitement and joy at another live show.
I had never heard of Rory Gallagher before that night, but I became a huge fan immediately. To this day Deep Purple are still my favorite band despite the many changes in personnel.
I've never heard of Rory Gallagher. Anything I might have heard before?
I love Deep Purple. I especially liked their not-well-remembered '80s album, "Perfect Strangers."
There are exceptions to the rule. Acts like Pearl Jam and Springsteen still do an exciting stage show but those acts are becomer rarer all the time. And while I still like their music, I won't go to their shows anymore since most of them seem to use their concerts as an opportunity to bash Bush these days.
That said, I don't mind seeing a bar band here and there, especially honky-tonk or blues. Even jazz is okay in a small, intimate setting.
I'm a big fan of classical but I hate classical concerts with a passion - but that's a story for another thread.
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