Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Aerosmith/ZZ Top Summer Tour


Are Aerosmith insane? They recently announced their tour dates with ZZ Top for a summer tour of arenas and amphitheaters and naturally, I was excited. I’ve seen Aerosmith several times and I know how great they perform in concert. I was thinking this would be a worthy summer show. The boys in the band are getting older by the day, so who knows how much longer they will be touring?

I was disappointed that they decided to stop working on their new album (their first in a long while) to go on tour, but I was still interested in seeing them. ZZ Top doesn’t sell the ticket for me, but it would be nice to watch them open, since I’ve never caught one of their performances.

I hopped online to check the prices and see if this was a show that I could attend. I almost gagged when I saw the price. For the arenas, tickets range $125 - $175 per ticket. For the amphitheater shows, tickets range between $35 (for lawn seats) to $200, before ticket-bastard fees. What the hell is wrong with these guys? Are they so out of touch with the rest of the nation that they don’t realize people are not currently loaded with disposable income?

Now, I’ve seen Aerosmith in concert quite a few times, but I’ve never seen them put on a $200 performance. That’s pure insanity. Are they just cashing in because they think they can, or because they are at the tail end of their career? Do they just not care about the fans?

Am I wrong here? It seems to me that these guys have lost touch with the faithful ones that made them rich in the first place. It is bad enough we’ve had to endure 5 greatest hits collections over the past 10 years, but now they want to overcharge us to see them in concert? I just don’t get it. And I know it’s not just Aerosmith. Other bands are overpricing their tickets as well (U2 and AC/DC come to mind right away). Can’t some band just give back to their fans and say “$40 a ticket (or less), that’s all we will charge.” Is that even possible anymore?

It’s putting me into a position where I am only going to be able to see bands that are playing the small venues and clubs near my house. It lacks the punch of a big arena show, but choices are limited. $200 can buy a lot of necessities for most families right now. Somehow, I don’t think an Aerosmith concert ticket is on that list.

It just irks me that the guys sitting on top of the world forget all about the fans that got them there in the first place. At the very least, offer a fan club membership (for REAL fans) and then offer them discount tickets or something. Somehow this needs to be fixed, or it will be the rich and only the rich watching these concerts. I can imagine how rocking it would be then.

All right, rant over. Keep me in check, readers. Am I insane to think these prices are unreasonable, or am I right on the money? Comments are open. Feel free to post some.

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