Tag: Red Rocks Amphitheater

The Summer Concert Series

Growing up, I would always get excited around March when the newspaper came out with its special section that announced which bands would be coming to Red Rocks that summer. My siblings and I would look over the list and find the ones that we were most interested in going to, when tickets would be sold, and how much they would cost. We could only afford to go to two or three per summer, so we had to be choosy about which ones were the most important to us. It was a part of our summers and I was lucky enough to see some amazing shows during those summers.

Of course, the concert scene was a little different back then. We still had to go through Ticket Master, but this was long before you had to set up your computer and hope that you would get a ticker on-line before the scalpers snatched up all of the good seats. Instead, we had to set our alarms to get up early, run to one of the many Ticket Master locations, and stand in line with other eager concert goers with just the right amount of money in our pockets so when they opened the doors to the location we could get the best ticket available. It was almost as fun as going to the concert itself. We would talk with the other people in the line, ask how long they had been there, get excited about which songs the band would play, and ask if they knew anything about the opening act. It would be a couple of months before the concert even happened, and we would already getting pumped up for the event.

It became a right of passage. We would go home with our printed out ticket, and put it in a safe place until the day of the concert. My was always next to the collection of past concerts that I had gone to that I kept tied tight with a rubber band in my sock drawer. That collection was more valuable to me than any collection of football or baseball cards. Each ticket told a story about an amazing event and would bring back to that moment from a previous summer, and the shows that I had watched, what friends came with to that show, and what songs connected with me the most. The concert scene was not only fun, but it was also a culture that I bought into and is part of the reason for my love of music that I have to this day.

The concert scene has changed quite a bit back from those summer days of my youth. I do not know if it has much to do with the way that tickets are sold today, and what happens when going to a concert, or if it is more about me not having the same energy I used to have for these shows, but I do not look forward in anticipation for these shows that I used to. Yes, I still look for what shows will be happening over the summer at my favorite venues, mainly Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado, and Hayden Homes Amphitheater in Bend, Oregon. These are also the two locations that I will be at during the summer, so that limits my options as well. I also have only a couple weeks at both locations, so I really have to hope that the bands that will be playing at those times are somebody that I really want to see. In the past, I would go to almost anybody I had a passing interest in, but that was a lot due to the cost of concerts back then. In the eighties and nineties, I could see a good band with an up-and-coming opener for somewhere between twenty to thirty dollars. That is including the fees that Ticket Master tagged on to the ticket prices. Now, those tickets have jumped up to almost one-hundred dollars, and those are for the second tier bands. When you start to look at the top tier acts, the price gets out of control. I wonder how people afford to go and see acts like Taylor Swift or Oasis because the ticket prices for acts like this have gotten completely out of control.

The ticket prices are only affordable if you jump on-line during the first few moments that those tickets go on sale as well. Where in the past, Ticket Master worked on making a system that limited what a scalper could do, it almost seems to welcome them with open arms today. Computers allow the scalpers to set up mills where they can snatch up the premium tickets as soon as they go on sale, making it really difficult for the true fans to get any tickets, even if they are able to be there when the tickets go on sale. I know systems have been set up to allow those fans to get the tickets that they want, but they are not usually through Ticket Master. This means that if a person wants to get a ticket to go see one of their favorite shows, the price for them is increased by scalpers who are now acting as a middle man and making money on a show that they do not care anything about. To add insult to this injustice, people are not even given a physical copy of the ticket, so they can have that little memento of the show that they watched. It is digital copy that will disappear off of their phone the day after the show, leaving no real record that the band wander through the town in the first place.

Even when I get to the show, the plundering of my wallet does not stop. Prices of concessions at shows has always been high, but it has reached a new level in the United States today that force people to really consider how much money they are spending at one of these shows. I went to a show just a week ago, and a beer was $15, and a single taco was $7. I have also been seeing shows in Peru, and the prices there for concessions are much more reasonable, and I was able to afford to enjoy myself more at these events. And it is not just concerts where this is happening. Movies and sporting events have also hiked their prices up, making it almost impossible for any below a certain tax bracket to go to these events. It makes it even worse if it is a whole family that is going to the event. If it can happen for certain families, it will only happen once a year if they are lucky.

For the most part, the concert scene has changed a lot over the years, and it does not look like things are going back to the way that they were any time soon. But adjustments will have to be made soon in the entertainment industry if they wish to survive in this changing economy. Movie theaters are the first to experience these growing pains. Theaters are no longer packed, not even during the summer blockbuster months. Streaming has a lot to do with that, but I also believe that the price of movies and concessions also keep a lot of people away. I would be curious to see what would happen if theaters lowered their prices, and how packed they would be if they did that.

The movie theaters are not the only places that will feel the repercussions of these prices. Eventually other forms of entertainment are going to price themselves out of the common man, and there won’t be enough wealthy people around to support musicians and athletes. It just makes me wonder when that break will happen because I cannot figure out how they have been able to sustain such high prices for so long. Until then, I will go to the shows when I can, and for those shows that I have been priced out of, I just hope some day the price will drop so I can see my favorite bands.

On the Rocks – Around the World Day 24

I was very fortunate growing up. I live within driving distance to what I consider the greatest concert venue ever built, Red Rock Amphitheater. Every summer, I would pull out the concert schedule and pick one or two shows that I would go see in this iconic place. I have seen some of the greatest artists perform here, bands from Radiohead to the Grateful Dead, and artists from Ben Harper and Beck. If I consider all of the moments I have at this place, a few of my fondest come while I was here.

But I would not only come up here while there was a concert. I would come up during cross country practice in high school so we could run up the hill that is used as a load in station for bands, and though some of my students who run for me right now might disagree, it was the most difficult hill to run up. We snuck in a couple times on weekends during the fall to hang out with friends on the stage. I did a report on the place during my seventh grade, and I remember coming up during the winter months and watching the snow gently fall down on the empty seats and breathe in the silence. When I think of Denver, I instantly think of Red Rocks, and if I can share the same joy that bubbles up inside of me when I think of it, I want to do so.

If you have never been there, it is a natural amphitheater built during the 1930s as one of FDR’s ABC projects to get people back to work during the Great Depression. Two huge red rocks stand on either side of the seats creating perfect acoustics for the bands who play there. The venue cannot seat that many people as there are just under 10,000 seats, but even if you find yourself in the back of the theater, you still can enjoy the sound because there really is not a bad seat in the place. It is the Mecca for many bands, and if they get to play there that means that they have made it. During my disc jockey days, I actually got to perform a wedding in the restaurant that is situated in the back of the amphitheater, so when I talk to my musician friends about the fact that I had the chance to do this, they always get really jealous. To get there you need to drive through the quaint little town of Morrison that only get busy when an event is taking place at the venue, and when you are there you can look out over the plains as the light of Denver start to wake up for the evening. Many iconic bands have recorded live albums at the place including U2, O.A.R., Moody Blues, Mumford and Sons, and Dave Matthews Band (too separate concerts are available from him). And it has even hosted the likes of the Beatles and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. How can this not be the best venue in the world?

I still think about the place when I come home every summer. Around March I start to look at what bands have been scheduled to play there as I try to find one that I might enjoy, but all the good ones seem to be coming either before or after I am there, and if there is a band that I might be remotely interested in seeing, they are charging way too much to see their show that I wait until something better comes along. This is why Movies on the Rocks was a better option this time around.

Movies on the Rocks is a series of events that is put on by the local radio station, KBCO. They find six or seven cult favorite movies to show under the stars, but the party starts a little earlier than that. They also book two bands, and last night when I went to the event, they also brought out local favorite, and winner of the Last Comic Standing, Josh Blue. After all of this, they played one of my favorite Coen Brothers’ movies, The Big Lebowski. It might not have been one of the amazing concerts that I was able to catch in my past, but it was still a fun time. People came dressed up as some of the characters, and they served white Russians so people could feel like they were part of the story. It is a great way to get into the venue if you find yourself here for a short time, and there are not any bands that really appeals to you. It was one of my favorite nights so far on this trip because it was reminiscent of times that I used to have here. It will always be one of my favorite places.