Hey guys,
I have not been to many concerts in my lifetime, but I would like to go to a few this summer, and also would like to bring my boys. Ages 9, and 13. Will be 10, and 14 this summer. Do you think the 9 year old is too young to take in a concert? Also my main question is where is a good place to get tickets that don't cost an arm and a leg? Craigslist, or other ticket re-sellers? Any sites better than others?
Is 9 too young? That depends. Is it a GA (general admission) or do they have seats? Is it going to hurt your ears, or is it a reasonable volume?
As for tickets, if the show will be sold out I try to buy at the venue in advance. I try to avoid places and artists that only sell through ticket master, even if it is in person at the venue (a convenience fee for walking up to the window and purchasing? WTF?), but sometimes that is unavoidable. If the show isn't sold out, I'll either buy at the venue (again, in advance) or else wait until a day or two before and buy off of craigslist. Gotta be careful on craigslist of course, and I'll only buy real tickets.
After that, I'll use stubhub and only stubhub.
EDIT: My wife and I generally see about 6 concerts a year. We've already been to 3 this year.
It seems that this area is run buy ticketmaster,stubhub, etc, and scalpers. Everything seems to sell out to re-sellers in a matter of moments. One of the concerts is a band my 13 year old likes, and I have come around to liking them, but not loving them. The band is Coldplay, and they are playing at the home of the Patriots (Gillette Stadium)which is a 60k plus seat stadium, and is sold out. My gues is this concert will not be ultra loud in a large stadium of this size. You can find tickets on the re-sellers sites, and CL, but I'm not sure about dealing with CL sellers. I've been hit or miss with CL seller in the past. Mostly positive, but a few clunkers.
Around here you better be buying them directly from ticketmasters. Lots of counterfeit tickets around.
Mazdax605 wrote: My gues is this concert will not be ultra loud in a large stadium of this size.
ALL concerts are ultra loud unless you're hearing a classical soloist. It's just the way it is. Bring ear protection for the kids.
I average a few concerts per month--sometimes it's a few a week. Looking at my calendar, we have two just next week--and then one the week after. Concerts on our schedule range from small local gigs to big names.
My advice:
Yes, everyone going should wear ear protection! I love my EarPeace ear plugs. In fact, I now keep their holder attached to my keyring. Foam ear plugs kind of muffle everything. These just lower the volume. I never come home with ringing ears, even when up in the front row. They cost a few bucks more, but I'm a happy customer. They're not the only game in town, but since I have been happy with them I haven't moved on.
My friends just brought their 8-year-old twins to Iron Maiden. The kids loved it, but did tucker out towards the end. It was a long evening for them.
For tickets, it depends. If it's a venue with assigned seats, I'll be the guy buying them the moment they go on sale. Excessive? Maybe, but last month we watched Maiden from the fourth row. (Fourth row after GA, not fourth row from the stage.) For bigger shows, it's almost always Ticketmaster. Smaller shows seem to favor Ticketfly or Ticketweb. Yes there are fees, and I figure it's the cost of doing business. I can either pay the fees or I can just stay home and miss the show. If I buy a ticket via Craigslist, then I have to stop what I'm doing and meet with the seller. For me, it's not worth it.
We used Stubhub for the first time last month. Tool sold out before tickets even went on sale, and we really, really wanted to go--Primus was opening. So we did Stubhub. The tickets cost us about double what they should have. Yes, it sucks, but since Tool seems to come this way every five years or so we bit the bullet. The seats were killer, and we had a great time.
I get paid to be at concerts 
I do agree with bringing ear protection... especially for young ears, they have to live a long time with tinnitus if you damage their hearing at a concert
We use ticketmaster or buy at the door. Most of the local concerts are at a 21+ venue around here.
mad_machine wrote: I get paid to be at concerts
My wife recently got to say "I'm with the band" and just walk on in. She thought that was cool.
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS bring ear protection!!!! I have terrible hearing from going to shows when I was a teenager and playing my drums without using ear plugs, and it sucks. I usually keep a box of ear plugs in the glove box of my car in case I want to catch a local show. And at a big stadium, even though it's not a particularly "loud" band, they will overcompensate with the sound system and it will be pretty loud.
I agree on the hearing protection. I hate the ringing after, and I know it's damaging my ears. With good earplugs, the sound may be better, since your ears can actually do something with the volume. I took in a Springsteen concert from the nosebleed seats a month ago, and the earplugs made the whole thing far more enjoyable.
For me, I just pay Ticketmaster. I'm a wimp, despite what my earplugs might suggest.
I would add that age appropriateness should be considered. Does the artist have a censored version of their albums? Do they need one?
This reminded me to look for X Ambassadors at the State in Ithaca. It's sold out and not listed on stubhub. 
Ticketmaster predominately, followed by Stubhub. I've only used Stubhub a few times, and I do my best to find folks legitimately trying to unload tickets they cant use at close to face value, as opposed to those trying to make a profit on the tickets. That doesn't always work, and we don't always got to the concert.
I got awesome seats at the FedEx Forum to see the Foo Fighters off of Stubhub, I wasn't quick enough, forgot they went on sale, to buy direct from Ticketmaster, and other than some fees, I didn't pay much over face value.
On the flip side, I wanted to see the same show David mentioned, Tool wasn't coming to Arkansas, but they were going to be in Southaven, MS, Tulsa, OK, and Dallas, TX, all easy road trip, stay the night, and make a weekend of it road trip destinations. EVERY location sold out in seconds, I didn't get tickets, nothing on Stubhub, CL, or eBay but outrageous scalper prices. Add double or triple face value of the tickets to the cost of a road trip and hotel room, I no longer wanted to see Tool and Primus that bad. Sucks.
Our local rock station 100.3 The Edge, has promos regularly for their listeners, I'm on their mailing list, they actually don't spam too much, maybe 2 emails a month, plus they have early purchase codes for their "Edge Head" listeners. If it's a show they're promoting they'll email you a promo code for a discount or more often a code that lets you buy tickets a few days before they officially go on sale.
I saw Korn and Slipknot as an "Edge Head," for $10.31 as a Halloween promo the radio station ran. I needed hearing protection for that one.
Brian wrote: This reminded me to look for X Ambassadors at the State in Ithaca. It's sold out and not listed on stubhub.
I saw them for the second time Sunday night, they put on a good show. It's worth it to see them if you ever have the chance.
On a related note, a lot of people ask me how I keep track of who's touring. Twitter (which we're discussing here) helps a ton. Ticketmaster also does a regular e-mail blast, and through their settings I have it fairly well tailored to my tastes. When I get it, I read it. Bands In Town, which I think comes from Facebook, also lets me know who's touring.
Don't go to a lot of concerts, but usually purchase from the artist or venue website. Have one coming up in May which I've already paid for months ago...a Miku Hatsune Vocaloid concert. Really need to find my special hearing protection: had a pair of Yamaha EPH-50 in-ears that the wire got messed up and broken on - cut the wires and the work great as ear plugs, attenuating noise well while still having a nice sound quality experience... Currently lost though...
Ticketmaster and stubhub. I've gotten better seats cheaper through ticketmaster than stubhub, but sometimes things are sold out. We went to a hockey game 2 winters ago, bought 2 seats on the glass for like 220 each through ticketmaster, the seats directly next to us were over 400 each on stubhub at the time. Shows and concerts are usually bought at the door, as it's extremely rare I'd want to go see someone who would sell out of tickets.
So I'm going to resurrect this thread. I was on strike at work from mid April until just last Wednesday. I hadn't bought tickets for the show and still haven't. I'm not sure if we will be able to afford going to the show but my son still wants to. Would I be smart to wait till closer to the show date hoping prices may fall, or is that not how it works? The show is on July 30th.
Chris
Mazdax605 wrote: So I'm going to resurrect this thread. I was on strike at work from mid April until just last Wednesday. I hadn't bought tickets for the show and still haven't. I'm not sure if we will be able to afford going to the show but my son still wants to. Would I be smart to wait till closer to the show date hoping prices may fall, or is that not how it works? The show is on July 30th. Chris
Reseller prices may fall off but the venue price never goes below the advertised price.
For sold out shows I have quite often been able to go on ticketmaster the day of show and get great seats because the venue set tickets aside for VIPs or whatever and then they weren't used so suddenly they are available. I have often ended up with first or 2nd row tickets at face value this way.
Stubhub for the buyer protection. We purchased a set of Bristol Nite race tickets for 2015 and when they hadnt arrived the week of the event and Fedex/UPS(I dont recall which was handling delivery) couldnt locate the tickets, SH got us new tickets in an even better section with overnite delivery. The original tickets showed up almost 3 mos later. YMMV
In reply to Mazdax605:
I don't know if you've been but the Melody Tent in Hyannis is a really cool venue that brings in a lot of eclectic acts. I used to go pretty frequently back in the day.
Guy yelling at me on the corner outside the venue.
Stubhub is expensive (they charge about 25% of the ticket price in fees, split between the buyer and seller) but they appear to be trustworthy. I would definitely go there if I wanted tickets that were not available on a first-sale basis. I've used them multiple times for sports events (most recently for Stanley Cup finals tickets), although not for concerts.
Hey guys,
So I found someone on local Craigslist that has 4 tickets in the mezzanine level of the stadium for sale. They are at face value according to the seller and they are ticket master download tickets. She says she can provide a credit card bill showing she bought them. Do you think I should take her word for it and trust a credit card receipt,and accept the printed tickets she has, or take her at her word and accept her emailing me the ticket master download, or run away?
I've traded several emails with the seller and we live very far away from each other, but were trying to plan a meeting location for the deal. Dumb idea, or wise? Seems legit in emails and I'm generally pretty good at picking up if someone is scamming, but you never know.
Any help, or advice is much appreciated.
Chris
We went to the show last night, and it was awesome!! Wasn't sure what to expect really, but was blown away!! The stupid wristbands they handed out were fun with how they would all light up at the same time, creating a sea of lights in the crowd. They really put on a great show.
The only issue was the late start time. We left our house at 4 pm to beat some of the traffic getting to Gillette stadium. Made great time, and strategically parked a little further away from the stadium than I normally would have. Had a bit of a walk, but no big deal. Got into the stadium around 6:15. Show was supposed to start a 7, and was pretty close. Two opening acts which were pretty good, but forced Coldplay to start after 9 pm. Not too big of a deal for the wife and I, but my 10 year old was getting stir crazy. Once the show began he was doing much better.
Ear plugs for both kids, and I had some for both my wife and myself, but we didn't use them. It was loud, but not painful. We were pretty far away from the stage, but the big screens to the side of the stage helped.
Got home late due to crazy traffic. My plan was a solid one, but some jack ass in a VW broke down on Route 1 causing all sorts of trouble. TDI possibly?
Chris
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