Did you get away without paying a booking fee. That’s another rip off they’ve introduced. Don’t do many gigs these days for the same reason as you Steve. Plus, there aren’t many bands I’d want to see anyway.
Accountants are the scourge of entertainment / enjoyment. Thank God they can’t make money out of sex. No - wait…
I’ve made my living, provided for my family, purchased music gear/CDs/Cubase licenses, attended concerts, and generally supported the arts with money earned as an accountant/auditor for 30+ years.
Accountants get a bad rap … an unwarranted bad rap. Anyone engaged in business without proper accounting support is begging for bad trouble.
“Accounting” is not the reason for expensive concert tickets.
Somehow I just knew you’d have a comment to make 
Couldn’t agree more about the need for a good Accountant !! 
I rarely see "big ticket’ shows these days - in fact I haven’t been to a stadium type concert for a very long time. For all the above reasons plus a general lack of desire to be in amongst large crowds. As Steve says the tickets are indeed expensive these days, parking is always a hassle the cost of which is often inflated, refreshments, if desired have to be purchased onsite also at inflated prices. It’s the same deal with sports events too which I also don’t attend.
I find I get more out of the smaller more intimate shows these days. Last show I went to, a few weeks ago was at a local indoor venue (bar), $20 at the door (though I had complimentaries), a cosy fire burning (its Winter here), the choice to sit or stand without an obstructed view, a great sound, beer in hand and about 50-60 patrons. That suits me nicely. 
+1
Totally agree. I went to a neighborhood night club a few weeks ago to see my drummer performing in another band, and a couple of the members of Crack the Sky showed up. They ended up playing a couple of their songs just for the hell of it. That was a night to remember. 
I find the very large shows very impersonal.
WOW! Crack The Sky!
I love that band!
What songs did they play?
$20 at the door and about 50-60 patrons.
So about 1000-1200 $$ made for the night.
Perhaps a bit more with CD/DVD sales added in.
Kinda hard to pay your mortgage and send your kids thru school
making that amount of money.
The venue probably made more on the beer sales.
Hope the band also got a piece of that pie.
{‘-’}
Wow I miss that place… 3 cheers for the Yay-Area !
These guys are all retired/semi-retired and all have other income sources from past successful music careers etc. The band and associated gigs are more of a “hobby” interest for them these days so earning a $ is not really a major consideration.
Divided by 5. They’re a five-piece band so that’s around $200 each.
Personally I’d be pretty happy with that for a couple of hours work, but I know for most of the guys in this particular band it would be nothing more than loose change.
Concert prices and the subsequent costs of drinks, parking, etc are really out of control. The problem is, so long as people keep paying for it the price boundaries will keep being pushed. Until people stop going to the shows due to the high prices nothing will change. I think the most I’ve ever paid for a show was $80 each, can’t even remember what show it was. It’s funny, as a musician you’d think I’d want to get out to shows more but I absolutely can’t stand them from the spectator’s perspective - meaning I love playing out and having shows just not being the fan in the crowd. I pretty much gave up somewhat recently. I went out to see Nine Inch Nails and the venue turned out to be rather small, never had been there before. But there were three levels so I figured we can watch from above since they had glass barriers. We got there pretty much about opening time and the layers of people around the glass barriers prevented us from even seeing NIN peform!! I had to jump up to catch a glimpse and I am 6’ 2" tall. I looked around and everyone not in the first two layers at the glass barriers was watching the concert on the LCD screens they had. We walked out after only a few songs. F that!! Then… then they charge you $10 for a 12oz of beer and you have to tip $1 or they’ll never serve you again or even curse you out. I always tip, but this gets ridiculously expensive. I too feel way taken advantage of. I know shows cost money and venue rent/taxes, electricity, staff, etc all cost but come on - $10 a beer on top of pricey entrance fees? And then I can’t even SEE the band??? No thank you.
Heck, I don’t even go to the movies anymore unless it’s something I absolutely have to see. $5 for a small bag of COLD popcorn that costs what, 50 cents or less to make? Same for soda. Pfft, nah I don’t think so.
Rev.
Thats why I have volunteered as crew for the last few concerts I attended (except for Dave Matthews Band, but I was invited to that one and got a free ticket for being her escort - massage included)…
Luckily the last Lalapalooza or whatever I volunteered for had a bartender not show (AKA he got in and failed to report to his post - hahah)…
Being LUCKY enough to be one of the only of-age volunters nearby I was assigned to beer-tap duty that day!
That was a VERY nice assignment… made many many new friends, got to see… umm… rather EXPERIENCE the concert and for some reason I never got thirsty 
Volunteering works great to see many venues - including Reggae on the River… for those who missed Woodstock… you can get the feeling from this 3 day yearly concert-experience… and the highs… . . . and lows (running out of cash… or tradeable goods - hahah)…
Piracy is popular because people are greedy, and that being the case, greedy people have no right to complain about ticket prices, since they are directly responsible for them.
You’re putting the cart before the horse. When greedy people decide that your hard work should be free, you have to make up the difference somewhere. More piracy = higher ticket prices. Anyone with a mildly functional brain can make that association.
I noticed that no one here made the deep associations required to actually think about how much it costs to tour these days, and factor that into their decision to complain about ticket prices.
And I noticed here in this forum people just love to instantly insult others any chance they get
But, let’s pull this back down for a moment. I was a kid in the 80’s so I don’t know what ticket prices were like - say for a Michael Jackson concert. Also, the internet didn’t exists then so searching for this info is a bit more involved and I don’t have the time. So can you tell me for a fact that ticket prices for major artists back then were that much cheaper? I’m asking you, I’m not doubting you. I would honestly like to know. Like, countering for inflation, can you say that a ticket to see Michael Jackson at a major venue in the 80’s was only say, $30 of todays cash and not 100$ of today’s cash? Again, not saying you are wrong, because I honestly don’t know, but I have a sneaking suspicion it still wasn’t considered cheap then either. I also wouldn’t be all that surprised to hear drinks were also priced 6-7x higher than retail price in major venues back then.
Rev.
I agree with all this (except the insult part )
It’s interesting that you should cite Michael jackson, because I clearly remember the tour after Thriller was released where his ticket prices set a new plateau… it was widely discussed, and frequently condemned. But people paid it – they wanted to see the new “King of Pop” afterall. I don’t recall the exact price level, but I do recall it was well under $100 – I want to say in the $50 range.
I kind of don’t get the complaints about ticket prices, because all the worthwhile artists are ones you can see at much more reasonable prices. It’s the mainstream, corporate mega-sellers that gouge you. I can live without seeing Taylor Swift or Madonna live, thanks
That’s interesting. Thanks for sharing that since I had no idea of the big name/big venue prices back then. Considering inflation I would guess that would be relatively similar to a lot todays price differentials. I know the price of milk, rent, gas, movie tickets, cigarettes (way waaay higher - I don’t smoke, just sayin’), and a number of other things are twice the price now then they were then. Of course, technology prices are way down and we all know why. But wouldn’t that make the concert ticket price just as high, relatively speaking of course, as today? And they didn’t have the piracy thing like we do today. Cassette copies were nowhere near as damaging as the online piracy of today.
Rev.