Without being on the floor.
Alabama, in Wichita, early 90's, as a group outing with wife's work; and, Garth at stadium last year. Funny part is I am not a country or western fan at all.
Is it possible for a middle aged person to never have been to a venue with live music? How does one avoid such things? And still know enough about music to want to go see Bob Seger and Billy Joel.
I've been in venues with live music plenty of times, but Robert's Western World is not a "concert."
I'm having trouble thinking of more than two "concerts," in the sense of an event where the primary purpose for attending is to see people play guitars.
I guess I have three: Memphis Music Festival 2002, Blues Traveler and Drive by Truckers at Mud Island in maybe 2004, and Rodney Atkins at the Delaware County Fair in probably 2006. I cannot recall another instance where I went somewhere, much less paid money, for the express purpose of seeing contemporary or popular music plaid live.
I've been going to concerts for 30 years. I would guess my total is in the hundreds. There were times in my late twenties I would see 8-12 a month.
they were teenagers. Which just continues my family’s traditions of going to see a fair amount of live music. I was probably ten when I saw Neil Diamond, but I’m not even sure that was my first actual concert. I can’t even imagine a college experience or pre-children life without going to see dozens of concerts a year.
(Also, I can get to four in my previous post: I saw Ben Folds during undergrad in 2007.)
But almost all of the live music I have consumed has been classical: I've seen the LA Philharmonic, the Chicago Lyric Opera, the local symphonies and opera companies in Memphis and Nashville, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Itzhak Perlman, and a host of other classical soloists and chamber ensembles. We took our then-six-year-old to see Perlman, and my parents took my siblings and I to such things as kids. The Memphis Symphony used to play great summer concerts outdoors, which were a lot of fun.
What I haven't done is devote a bunch of time and energy to popular music, something I simply don't find sufficiently culturally valuable or personally fulfilling to warrant that kind of attention.
Seriously. Would you rather watch a game at the 100 level or the 300 level?
A game has a lot of action, movement. Billy Joel and Bob Seger are not exactly Lady Gaga. Gaga would have a lot of choreography to see. I expect the two older guys to be fairly stationary and was wondering how much I really need to spend to enjoy the concert.
The closer the better.
I wear an ND shirt to a game; is it a violation of concert etiquette or something?
That advice was given to the one and only D-Bob
his piano turns 360 and if you're behind the stage, you get a great view of him and the band. I don't know if the stadium arrangement will have reserved seats directly behind the stage or not given that the floor seats will presumably be standing room and may potentially go all around the stage. But if there are seats behind the stage and close to it, those often go for cheaper but are actually very good seats.
They're not selling tickets south of the 50 yard line
You can buy tickets in Section 11 and 27.
And if it sells well, you usually see concert venues open up one more section on each side.
zone or set up short ways near a sideline. If it’s set up shortways at midfield than the setup obviously won’t provide for behind the stage seating.
Especially in the 2 venues you’re attending. We sat in the upper bowl for Garth and the sound quality was sorely lacking.
Same goes with the UC. Lower is a lot better.
In my opinion if you’re going to spend money on your third and fourth concerts ever, pay more for the good seat.
Venues like Banker's Life in Indy, in my experience, are awful because they go straight up and reflect all the sound back down. I've seen two concerts there ... the first I was in the upper balcony on the side and it sounded awful. The echoes and reverberations muddied the sound completely. The second time was down on the floor and we were right in front of the main speakers and the building acoustics didn't have as big an impact.
Not sure what ND Stadium will be like for a show, but the fact that it is open to the air should help a bit. Bigger concern would how well you want to see the performers --- I'm guessing lower level around the 50 will probably be better than the rear seats on the carpet.
at ND Stadium on TV and it sounded spectacular and was a spectacular show. I don't really remember what people posted about their live experience though.
Somewhat unrelated: White River State Park is my new favorite venue.
at the Garfield park Amphitheater.
Was supposed to see Toad the Wet Sprocket there this summer but the show was rained out.
Nice small intimate venue.
I agree with you about BL. I like White River a lot, but a lot of bigger bands can only do Ruoff/Verizon/Klipsch/Deer Creek or Banker's Life. Fortunately, most of the bigger acts I like tour Indy in outdoor concert season, so I can avoid BL.
If the band can fit into White River, that's great. I've seen CSN, Tedeschi Trucks, Wilco, and one or two others there. Fantastic and laid back.
The only indoor venue I like is the Murat. The seats are terrible, but the sound is 1000 times better than BL. I've seen some great stuff there.
Front Floor > Lower level 50 yard line > Other floor > Other lower level > Any upper level.
The upper level of even an NBA arena like the UC can make you feel disconnected, in my opinion. I was in the upper far section for Billy Joel at Banker's Life, and although it was a great show, it felt dead.
On the other hand, I won't pay the price of transatlantic flight to be really close, either.