I was recently asked the question, 'Is it worth going to see artists perform live?'
what with the cost and travel etc, is it really worth it.... Well yes, yes it is. So, off the back of that I decided to write a little post about why I feel this way, maybe giving you an insight into the pros, and cons of attending live shows, I'm mainly referring to singers/bands whether famous or unsigned.
Now before I get stuck in, I just want to clarify something, if for any reason you don't/won't/can't go to any live shows, that doesn't make you less of a fan than anyone else, so don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Ok, now the legal part is out of the way :-) I can begin.
Earlier this week I was lucky enough to go to a Lady Gaga concert, I'm from Newcastle but the closest place she was performing was Manchester, so months in advance we booked the tickets, and a hotel roughly forking out £120each, 4 of us were going. Now please bear in mind that we then had to travel to Manchester, and then eat for 2 days, so all in all we probably spent about £700 between the 4 of us, all for one night to see an artist perform live, crazy eh? Well it is crazy for me, I'm certainly not used to spending that kind of money randomly, but I NEEDED to add Lady Gaga to my list of gigs attended, she's a legend. And I had a feeling she would be worth it.
I wasn't wrong.
What a show. It was more than a gig, it was a full on stage show, it was fantastic. She got the fans involved on more than one occasion, she had numerous costume changes, props, dance routines all while singing live, then in amongst all that she managed to fit in an acoustic set so you get a proper chance to here her voice, and there's no doubting her talent. Not one bit.
Overall my view is that until you've seen an artist perform live, you can't have a full opinion on them, you can say you like/dislike them as people, or you like/dislike their songs, but you can't 100% judge them on their vocal/performing ability without actually being there to witness it. And I'd recommend it to anyone. Seriously.
I went to my first stadium gig a few years back, went to see Pink at Sunderland and it was one of the best moments ever, trust me there's nothing quite like standing in an open roofed stadium with thousands of people all singing along to Pink singing 4 Non Blondes 'what's up' they put the flood lights on and from our seats we could see the whole stadium swaying there arms and singing 'and I said HEYYYYY EEYYYYYYY EYYYYY EY EY', this may sound ridiculous but I was so overwhelmed by it all it brought a tear to my eye, maybe it's just me but I just love the whole atmosphere. I often find myself crowd watching at concerts, just to see the amount of passion and emotion coming from all of these fans around me, it can be a special moment.
There's also something special about going to smaller venues to see artists that may not be quite as 'big' as others, they've got less to work with but sometimes it ends up being better as its more personal.
However as with everything in life, you have pros, and you have cons. And in this case it tends to depend on the artist you are seeing. Not all of them make a good enough effort to make your ticket worth it. We went to see Enrique a few years ago, paid quite a lot of money and got tickets right at the front, very exciting. However he basically came on and sang about 1/4 of each song, the rest of it he pointed the mic at the crowd, once or twice yea it's a crowd pleaser, but every song? I paid to hear him sing, not 10,000 people I don't know!
There's also the fan base problems, I'm not judging here but generally you can kind of guess what kind of fanbase certain artists/bands have, and by this I mean - whether you need to worry about bottles of wee being thrown around, or possibility of fights starting. I know my boundaries, and there's certain people I just know I wouldn't be able to enjoy being at their concert because of these concerns. I wouldn't fit in anyway :-)
Generally though the pros outweigh the cons, you just have to remember that there's never EVER a concert that is the same as the last. Even if you are daft enough to go to the same Pink outdoor tour at a different location like me. The exact same show, different location, totally different experience, different atmosphere, the unpredictability of crowd reactions, everything is different for every show you go to. Fan bases are different for every artist, and for different places. The Lady Gaga concert this week at Manchester, I felt the crowd weren't as loud and feisty as a Newcastle crowd, but it didn't spoil the show for me.
If I were to summarise this up into a onliner it would be as followers:
Make a conscious effort to attend at least one live gig, you won't regret it - and if you do then keep trying until you 'feel it'
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