Calgary & Area Upcoming Concerts 2022

[kevman]

Originally Posted by aaronck

Anyone go to the Offspring show? How was it?

It was a great show.

I've completely lost touch with reality because after the initial $180 sticker shock (pit tickets), it seems so reasonable to me. I mean I spent another $100+ on burgers/beer before and at the show, $50 on Ubers, and $65 for a Bad Religion shirt, so what's a paltry $180 for the actual act? Inflation is wild.

Bad Religion was great. They played so tight. Could have been a studio recording. The sound was great too IMO. I put ear plugs in to start, because I'm old, but in the pit in front of the main racks it was a good volume. Loud, but not ears ringing the next day loud. Also the pit was great, in an old guy kind of way, I couldn't believe how easy it was to just get right up there.

Offspring is an enigma.

Smash is my all time favorite album and the 4 songs they played off Smash were great, especially Gotta Get Away, I love seeing that one live.

They skipped All I Want (which they also skipped for a few other shows) which was kind of disappointing. I know they won't play anything off of Ignition or self titled so after Smash, if they don't play Ixnay, there isn't much of their catalogue worth going to see. Hence the enigma, the first half of the show was OK, but it was really just killing time.

I actually thought some of the stuff they did in the middle was fun. They're not a punk band, they're a touring band now. The Sabbath/Ozzy & Ramones covers were great fun. Gone Away was a crowd favourite, and somehow the Hey Jude cover "take a sad song and make it better" just fit.

They obviously finished with Self Esteem, I did some crowd surfing, somewhere in there I got kicked in the face, and I woke up on Monday to tackle a day of meetings with a swollen nose and epic hangover. So yeah, fantastic show.

[kevman]

I should also add that Offspring was way better than when I last saw them in 2017. Dexter lost some weight and he can keep pace with his own music now.

When I saw them in 2017 they were so bad live I vowed never to waste time on them again. I mostly went last weekend to see Bad Religion since I hadn't seen them in over 10 years. Offspring was a pleasant surprise.

[habernac]

Originally Posted by blankall

The last expensive show I went to see was the Weeknd. It was like $250 a ticket for okay seats. I had to buy one for the wife too. This was a couple of years ago, and he was pretty massive at the time.

The audience was mostly Millennials though, so not young kids. Millennials have more money to waste.

Tickets for Billie Eilish, who appeals more to young people, were a similar price though, going from $200-600.

Inflationwise, prices have almost doubled since I was in high school and gone up about 1.5 times since I was in my mid-20s. I think I would have paid like $80-90 for a big show in my mid to late 20s. So you're still looking at a 30-50% price increase on top of inflation.

I always wonder how kids are affording the tickets? Kids with rich parents are going to the shows? Kind of a shame if that's the case.

I kept my old ticket stubs. $18.50 for AC/DC floor seats when I was in high school. They’re 10 times that now.

[Engine09]

More like 21 times more expensive.

I just paid $389.40 for an AC/DC ticket for the upcoming show in Edmonton, that's the price for 17th row on the floor. Of course, the seats in the back are much less than that but you also have to remember, in the 70s and 80s all seats were the same price.

If you waited in line for a few hours before the ticket office opened or got through on the phone you could get 1st, 2nd or 3rd row for that same ticket price. I can't remember when that changed.