Pearl Jam just released tour dates for next year. £160 is the rumoured price for a ticket. If this is the case, I’m done with big gigs by huge bands. I saw PJ in 2008 for £45. I don’t remember inflation being at 300%.
I’m going to save my money and support local bands.
The saddest thing about this is that this is Pearl Jam we're talking about. The band who actively fought Ticketmaster and lost. And now that same Ticketmaster sold me tickets for Pearl Jam. In 20+ years I've been going to gigs this was, at the same time, the worst ticket I've ever bought (nosebleed tickets) and the most expensive ticket I've ever bought (I'm even counting some tickets where I had to pay something extra, like FC membership for AC/DC in 2008).
I haven't seen them before and, for personal reasons, this is a tour I had to see (not that they are my favorite band ever, but... reasons). But, Pearl Jam tours less and less and they have a huge fan base in Europe. I just got into the waiting line and when I saw the prices, I had my doubts.
A couple of things I need to add. The ticket itself is not expensive and Pearl Jam really did everything to fight ticket-scalpers. For a long time now, they have a lottery for their fans. Meaning, that you apply when tour dates are announced (I guess you can choose a couple of gigs only) and a couple of dates before the gig, you can see your chances (in percentage) will you get the ticket or not. Pretty cool stuff. Then you get a presale for fans, and this year they even added a presale for fans who applied to their newsletter (which I won for Barcelona). Even more so, I think the ticket limit for each gig was 4 tickets (but it could've been different for different venues). Even more, I still haven't received my tickets. A couple of days before the gig, I'll get the QR code which I'll use as a ticket. Even if I can't go to the gig, there is their official F2F (fan to fan) resale where you can sell the ticket but only at the price you paid for it. Still (I don't know how) there was a ton of scalpers.
But even with all that... 180 euros for standing?! I know concert ticket prices are going up rapidly (something that started around 2010, so no, it's not inflation or something) but this was too much. What annoyed me even more is that they had this where Ticketmaster said they are going to jack up prices but only for certain parts of the venues (like first rows and so on) but still, it seemed like it was jacked up in the whole venue. Add to that that the ticket itself was below 100 euros, but then add a couple of euros for some PJ foundation, a couple of euros for venue fee, fee fee ticketless fee (what's the point in that, shouldn't paper tickets be more expensive, not paperless?!,) a big chunk to Ticketmaster and there you go.
But I completely understand your frustration.
For example, in 2009 I was just a student and managed to travel to 5 gigs that year (AC/DC, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Iced Earth/Saxon, U2).
15 years later, I have an OK job today and I'm having second thoughts about going to Dream Theater in my home country in six months.
Concert tickets, just like football tickets, or movie tickets have really become a luxury (and I'm not talking about transfer and accommodation costs).
