Any Josh Groban fans here?
Josh is coming to Manila for two nights as part of his Awake tour (his previous stop being Australia), and I'd dearly like to go and watch him in concert, except a) the gala night (October 17) is a by invitation only affair, and b) the cheapest tickets for October 18 were extremely limited and sold out within days of their release for public sale, and I can't afford to pay 20,000-25,000 pesos (at an exchange rate of 45 pesos=1 USD) for the expensive seats at better seating locations.
You know what's so funny? Josh's main fanbase is composed mostly of 20 to 30 somethings, and maybe a smattering of teenagers with good taste in music. But for his concert in Manila, the organizers decided to turn it into a black tie affair for Manila's elite, just like the Andrea Bocelli concert in Manila a few years back. Which is all well and good, since Warner Music is marketing Josh as a classical crossover artist. The crucial difference between Josh's concert and Bocelli's (which I was able to watch, and at a seat that wasn't so far from the stage area that Bocelli ended up looking just like a tiny speck of humanity on it), though, is that Josh's will be held in a much smaller and more exclusive venue (the Philippine International Convention Center or PICC) compared to Bocelli's, which was held in the Araneta Coliseum.
Now, the "Big Dome", as we locals fondly call the Coliseum, has a seating capacity which is double that of the PICC's (as it's also used for PBA and inter-collegiate basketball games), so fans like myself who weren't as richly lined in the pockets were able to watch Bocelli perform, because there were simply more "general admission" seats available. Not so for any concert held at the PICC. I wish that the concert organizers had considered that maybe the fans from the masa (a local term which roughly translates to "the masses") would like to be able to watch the concert as well, instead of pandering solely to a bunch of perfumed socialites who can afford to pay top dollar for their tickets.
*sighs*
Oh well. No use crying over something that can't be changed though. But I hope Josh comes to Manila for another concert soon, and that tickets won't be so expensive (or he performs at a bigger venue) the next time around.
You know what's so funny? Josh's main fanbase is composed mostly of 20 to 30 somethings, and maybe a smattering of teenagers with good taste in music. But for his concert in Manila, the organizers decided to turn it into a black tie affair for Manila's elite, just like the Andrea Bocelli concert in Manila a few years back. Which is all well and good, since Warner Music is marketing Josh as a classical crossover artist. The crucial difference between Josh's concert and Bocelli's (which I was able to watch, and at a seat that wasn't so far from the stage area that Bocelli ended up looking just like a tiny speck of humanity on it), though, is that Josh's will be held in a much smaller and more exclusive venue (the Philippine International Convention Center or PICC) compared to Bocelli's, which was held in the Araneta Coliseum.
Now, the "Big Dome", as we locals fondly call the Coliseum, has a seating capacity which is double that of the PICC's (as it's also used for PBA and inter-collegiate basketball games), so fans like myself who weren't as richly lined in the pockets were able to watch Bocelli perform, because there were simply more "general admission" seats available. Not so for any concert held at the PICC. I wish that the concert organizers had considered that maybe the fans from the masa (a local term which roughly translates to "the masses") would like to be able to watch the concert as well, instead of pandering solely to a bunch of perfumed socialites who can afford to pay top dollar for their tickets.
*sighs*
Oh well. No use crying over something that can't be changed though. But I hope Josh comes to Manila for another concert soon, and that tickets won't be so expensive (or he performs at a bigger venue) the next time around.