In February of 1981, I saw Bruce Springsteen in concert at the old St. Paul Civic Center. My ticket cost me $12.50- an outrageous amount of money for a poor college student, but it was nonetheless money well spent.
On Halloween, 1992, I saw Springsteen again at the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis. My ticket cost me $38.50. It was, again, an outrageous amount of money, but it was Bruce Springsteen, and I was determined to go. And so I did.
On April 18th, 2000, it was my 40th birthday, and Bruce Springsteen was in concert at the Compaq Center here in Houston. My wife, bless her heart, is not a Springsteen fan in any shape, manner, or form, but she bought two tickets at $85 apiece and we went to the concert. Yes, it was an outrageous amount of money, but I could justify it as a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It was, hands-down, the best way to celebrate the big Four-Oh that I could have imagined.
Now, Springsteen is coming back to Compaq Center on November 4th. Tickets are $75 apiece anywhere in the arena, and this time I cannot justify spending that kind of money on concert tickets. It saddens me that concerts have become so overpriced that people like myself are priced out of the market. I would dearly LOVE to see Springsteen in concert again, but then I think of all the other things in our life that $150 could be used for- bills, groceries, gas, two or three nice dinners out. Spending that kind of money on concert tickets is very difficult for me to justify- especially since Susan would go, but only to humor me. Not a great use of resources, eh?
I'll likely be home that night, watching Monday Night Football and wishing I could be at the concert. No doubt I'll be feeling badly, but I think it's the right thing to do. If you think concerts are overpriced (and I do), then the best thing you can do is to forego buying those concert tickets. Perhaps if enough people do the same, musicians and promoters will get the message. Of course, I'll probably end up as just another lonely protester spitting into the wind. It wouldn't be the first time....
