YouSuck: You Guys Feel Priced Out of Big Shows, So You Prefer Smaller Gigs Instead
There’s no denying it: life is fucking expensive. When we’re not trying to figure out how to mortgage the MetalSucks mansion a third time just so we can buy some fucking eggs, we’re struggling to justify ticket costs just like the rest of you! So when we posted our weekend reader poll asking how you, the MetalSucks reader felt about ticket prices, we were pretty sure we knew how things were going to shake out.
After collecting your responses, it’s painfully obvious that more often than not you guys would rather spend time in a small venue supporting a smaller or mid-level band than shell out a ridiculous sum of money to attend something like Black Sabbath’s last gig ever or a bloated festival somewhere.
Looking through a lot of your responses on social media, a lot of you put the blame on the monopolistic existence of Ticketmaster and Live Nation. Thanks to their stranglehold on not just the market, but also their grip on venues all over the U.S., it’s hard not to see why people are furious at that corporation. Take Facebook user Kevin Dixon, for example, who said the following about corporate greed affecting ticket prices:
“It’s not the ticket prices that are the issue. It’s the ‘processing fees’ and all that BS that often times double the price of the ticket. The music community, as a whole including all genres from pop to metal, need to come together and say enough is enough. The ticket sellers are the ones making the money, not the artists.”
As a result, the biggest cohort of respondents said they prefer attending smaller, more affordable shows than splurge for the big gigs. And while some of you understood why the costs exist, people like Luis Tirado Jr. generally consider a bigger show if it’s a special event or something.
“I’m not paying hundreds of dollars for a metal concert. It’s ridiculous to charge so much if it’s a regular show with an opening band. If it’s something special, like an anniversary tour for an album hitting 10 or 20 years, that’s different. A regular show charging $200? Hard no.”
Ultimately, we all agree that insane ticket prices are a huge bummer and a hindrance to getting to see some of the bands we’d like to see live. Or as Josh Kain put so eloquently:
“Uggggggghhh it fuckin sucks.”
