We will get fooled again (outrageous concert prices)

Rocky Mountain News ^ | July 16, 2002 | By Paul Campos

[Drew68]

Hope I die before I get old, sang Roger Daltrey in the classic Who anthem My Generation 35 summers ago. Only one of the original band's members - the endearingly lunatic drummer Keith Moon - actually managed to pull off that particular feat. When bassist John Entwistle died a couple of weeks ago, he was, like the rest of the baby boom generation's leading edge, pushing 60.

In a gesture that captured the spirit of that generation the band's surviving original members, Daltrey and Pete Townshend, decided to carry on with the concert tour that had been scheduled to start on what turned out to be the day after Entwistle's death. After a 15-minute search for a studio musician to fill the void Entwistle's death had created, the band played on. Daltrey and Townshend explained that John would have wanted it that way.

As a long-time fan of The Who's music, I was rather shocked by what seemed like a callous attitude toward the death of someone who had been such an integral member of the group, not to mention a close companion of the surviving members for almost their entire lives. Then I checked out the ticket prices for The Who's latest tour, and this attitude began to make more sense.

For example, tickets are still available for The Who's Sept. 21 show at Dallas' American Airlines Center. A pair of fourth-row tickets will set you back $1,220, while for the budget-minded, two nosebleed seats at the very top of that 20,000-seat arena go for a mere $230, not including the inevitable "service" charge. Given that they are raking in an aptly termed gross of several million dollars for every concert on their current 40-show tour, even the most sentimental fan should be able to appreciate the sacrifice it would entail for the band's members to observe even the briefest moment of silence in honor of their fallen comrade.

This, apparently, is "what the market will bear," and charging what the market will bear has become a matter of almost religious obligation for aging rock bands that don't wish to suffer an exile on Wall Street. Speaking of which, a pair of good seats to The Rolling Stones' show at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theatre in November go for around $7,000, while general admission tickets cost more than $2,000 each (and no, I'm not making these numbers up).

A cynic might point out that neither of these bands has released a good record since the Carter administration (in fact The Who haven't released new music of any kind in 20 years). A historian might note news stories from the late 1960s, that described complaints from fans about the "outrageous" price The Rolling Stones were charging for concert tickets (the price in question was $7). An economist might marvel at the amazing power of the laws of supply and demand.

Leave all that aside. I was born at the tail end of the baby boom, and I grew up in the 1970s listening to the best of what these bands produced - and the best of what they produced is as good as this kind of music gets. Like a lot of people my age, I will always have a good deal of affection for the young men who made that music. But let's call a spade a spade: the old men those young men eventually became are shameless pigs.

Their once-great talent having departed long ago, they now wallow in the mountains of cash they continue to extract from aging boomers, who apparently will pay absolutely anything in the effort to recapture magic moments from their increasingly distant youth. Things they do look awful cold.

Paul Campos is a professor of law at the University of Colorado. He can be reached at campos@colorado.edu

MORE CAMPOS COLUMNS »

[biblewonk]

I thought Korn was a great deal at 39.50 here in CR Ia.

[Alberta's Child]

I thought Tom Petty's "Southern Accents" was a very good 1980s record. And Don Henley's "Boys of Summer" was a classic hit, too.

Ironically, I think the music for this song was originally written by Tom Petty but he didn't like it. Henley heard Petty's original song and decided that it would sound much better with the chords played backwards. The rest is history.

[nothingnew]

Fuzzy memories of the Stones as well,

heh heh heh...yeah...

You may not believe this, but the only time I saw the Stones was in a bar in New Haven, CT.

The band was in between concerts from NYC and Boston, and they, well...just dropped in.

Unbelievable, but it is true...The bar was called "Hungry Charlies'" at the time, and I saw many others drop in through their tours...Neil Young hooked up with Stephen Stills once...Quite the site to live in at the time...too bad I had to leave CT when it went totally socialist...oh well, I still remember it well...(oh yeah, I was at the Doors concert at the New Haven Arena..."blood in the streets in the town of New Haven..."

FMCDH

[Alberta's Child]

Nice selections there. Personally, I don't think there are better live bands out there than the Allman Brothers, Bob Seger, and Rush. My standard is based on how close the band's on-stage sound is to their studio sound.

[Drew68]

LONG LIVE ROCK!!

Oops! I got a red "X"

Here's a couple I like:

Pete with his Gibson SG

An airborne Pete with a Gibson Les Paul.

You can always tell what artistic era The Who was in by the guitar Pete played.

Rickenbackers: The Early Years
Fender Strats and Teles: The Psychadelic Years
Gibson SGs: The Rock Opera Years
Gibson Les Pauls: The Arena-Rock Years
Schechter Teles (the black ones): The First Farewell Tour
Acoustic Guitars: The Second and Third Farewell Tours (his hearing was damaged)
Now he's back to Fender Strats again.

[discostu]

Petty rocked, big kudos to Petty for keeping rock alive during a bad decade (there were others, Dire Straits jumps to mind immediately). Henley did a few good songs bug he started getting more and more lounge lizardy. That's only of the big problems with 80s music, the survivors of the 70s pretty much all lost their way in the 80s. Pick a great rock act in the 70s and check out their 80s music (not counting people that started off in the late 70s who were building an audience and became big later, just the guys that were big in the 70s for all or most of the decade), they all stink. The Who, the Stones, Lou Reed, Neil Young, Joe Cocker, Aerosmith. Then towards the end of the 80s two albums came out that pretty much signaled the end of the dark ages: Lou Reed's New York and Neil Young's Freedom (both arguably the best album that artist made) and for the most part (except Aerosmith who insists on remaining a crappy soft rock ballad band, inspite of Steven Taylor's promise after the Permanent Vacation tour) they've all come back or retired.

Then there was the truly 80s music, Madona, Lauper, Seagulls, Men without Hats (OK they were pretty funny sometimes), Falco (AHHHH how did that jump into my brain). Dreck, bilge and crap.

Which of course is why the 80s developed a strong "alternative" music scene with the second wave of punk and the big beat people. It's also why we got rap, a lot of people were craving some sort of genuine emotion in their music and the main scene just wasn't providing it.

[Grampa7030]

I also was at the Gorge. One of the best places to watch and listen. The concert was well worth the price and no where near the cost the article lists. I believe they were $80 or so and though I thought it was a little steep, we thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The Gorge is not exactly in a populated area and is about a three hour drive for us, so it becomes a weekend thing for us. As far as reliving youth, I never went to concerts in the 70s as they did not fit in my budget then.

[Sabertooth]

The Rolling Stones' show at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theatre in November go for around $7,000, while general admission tickets cost more than $2,000 each (and no, I'm not making these numbers up)

Face value on all of the Stones' Wiltern tix was about $54. The prices you're quoting are broker prices.

I was ready online when the Wiltern show went on sale... couldn't get through for 20 minutes. When I did, both the Wiltern and Staples Center shows had sold out, leaving only the show at Edison field. But the brokers immediately had dozens of tickets for sale.

I paid $90 each for four decent seats at Edison, but once again, the brokers had all the good stuff. Hard to know the solution for the smaller shows, and the demise of festival seating only fuels broker prices at the larger venues.

General Admission is the best weapon against the brokers, but you can't get insurance for gigs like that with major acts.

[Drew68]

You can always tell what artistic era The Who was in by the guitar Pete played.

From Gibson Guitars: The Pete Townshend Signature SG

[Rebelbase]

Re#29. Nice.

[Alberta's Child]

Didn't Pearl Jam go through a whole legal fight against the concert promoters' cartel a few years ago specifically because of the dramatic rise in ticket prices?

[Wolfie]

Pearl Jam took on TicketMaster, and got their collective back-side kicked.

[Alberta's Child]

General Admission is the best weapon against the brokers . . .

The best weapon against the brokers is to schedule three concerts in Los Angeles, then schedule ten more a few weeks later. Those tickets that were selling for $7,000 to the first three concerts will be going for about $7 after the next ten are scheduled.

[weegee]

His prices are an exageration to say the least. He must be pricing through ticket scalpers and not Ticketbastard.

I just looked up The Who in Dallas and tickets are priced $55-$150 each (plus handling surcharges for ticketmaster's pockets). $325 including the fees for 2 floor seats.

The Rolling Stones are playing at 3 venues in Los Angeles. The theater this journalist selected has tickets priced at $53.50 on ticketmaster (pre-sale, not even available to the public yet). He probably still thinks that George W. Bush stole the election.

I managed to see the Who for $10 back in the fall of 1999 in Las Vegas when they reunited for an internet company gala. The band was paid mostly in stock (that became worthless as the company went bankrupt not even 9 months later). An expensive mini-tour (including the charity concerts they performed in Chicago) means that the band had to eat the cost of the crew, lighting, etc. Some of this money may be an effort to recoup the losses.

Ticket prices are up significantly this year (I'm bowing out of the new Stones tour for a number of reasons). Ticket sales are also down for the third consecutive year. Revenue is down slightly (the higher price offsets some of the shrunken audience draw). I can post the article I read on this yesterday if there is any demand.

Meanwhile I see the cutting edge bands (and forgotten legends like Link Wray who visited the Who while they were recording Who's Next and had a song written in his honor) in my local bar circuit.

Arena/stadium/public venue shows are all a scam. Ticketmaster-SFX-Clear Channel have the monopoly on advertising, venue, ticket distribution, radio hype, city dollars, etc (and the connections within the corporations run deep). I don't need to support them to see live music.

[FreeTally]

Didn't Pearl Jam go through a whole legal fight against the concert promoters' cartel a few years ago specifically because of the dramatic rise in ticket prices?

Yes - thats the only thing I respect Pearl Jam for.

[weegee]

The dirty secret is that the show promoter sells the tickets to the ticket scalper. The tickets the scalper has were never in the computer in the first place.

They are blocked as "promotion" and carry no "value" so the band see none of the money but some are given to "friends", some are given to the record label, and some are given to radio stations. Occassionally these tickets will be returned to the venue's computers the week before the show.

It is really frustrating to buy tickets when they go onsale and then find walk up customers getting seats 30 rows ahead of yours.

Ticketmaster has tried to make things appear to be more level (and in the process, milk the customer for even more fees).

Ticketmaster has a program in conjuction with Sam Goody (for $60 a year) to be able to buy tickets "before they go on sale". I looked at the offerings. They also had tickets to general admission shows that were "sold out".

The Ariel-Verizon Theater in Houston Texas (paid for with city funds) has a program by which you can have reserved floor seats to every event in the theater (for a cost of $3,000 or so). I don't see Exxon using their Insane Clown Posse or Marilyn Munster/Manson tickets to entertain corporate clients (the suggested use for this pass).

However, a scalping agency will buy up the unused corporate seats or even buy a couple of season tickets.

The Ken Lay Astrofield (he worked tightly with the area democrats to see that it got built so I will forever associate his name with it) and the Reliant Football Stadium have season tickets available but I think that there is something like a $3,000 license to buy them.

Just know that the bulk of the tickets sold go to pay for the insiders to sit up close and cheap.

I avoid Clear Channel shows like the plague.

The special "membership" thing doesn't bother me when it is at a venue like The Woodlands Pavillion which was privately constructed, but when it was built on the public dollar, I have strong opposition.

[weegee]

Doesn't Keith Richards live in New Haven?

[weegee]

It's also why we got rap, a lot of people were craving some sort of genuine emotion in their music and the main scene just wasn't providing it.

The corporations have always pushed music but after Woodstock it really changed. The bands at CBGBs in 1974-1976 may be called "punk" but they don't sound much like what "punk" is expected to sound like. They were revolting against corporate rock bands, disco, fern bar relaxed folk singers, and all kinds of crap. Captain and Tennile, Barry Manilow, and others topped the charts and were on tv every night.

The corporate control of the labels and airwaves make is seem like nothing interesting is being produced but that isn't necessarily the case.

[nothingnew]

Doesn't Keith Richards live in New Haven?

I have no idea...I left that crat infested state years ago...but I doubt KR lives in new haven...why on God's green earth would he live there?...BWAHAHAHAHA!!

FMCDH