Part 2 - Green Day concert
From the previous post: Synopsis: McGinitys has a disdain for the band Green Day. Reconciles that even though their sound is not original, no one's is. Cuts the band some slack.
So I am at the Green Day concert with my wife. Their opening salvo is a the singer yelling at the people in the audience to get on their feet and enjoy themselves. Something about you aren't sitting at home, surfing the net, sitting in some movie theatre, watching quote unquote reality tv, you are watching a real concert. For once, live, get up and dance, and shout and take the most from this night. Not vicariously through someone else but through yourself. I have to admit, I agree with a lot of what he was saying. A little too much in fact.
Through the next 2 1/2 hours, continually the band pushed the envelope, pushing against apathy of just enjoying the show, to being a part of it, to being the most important part of it. This was demonstrated over and over through the show, with the singer forcing crowd participation. Eventually the crowd was on its own, holding the fervor by itself. And at points of the show, several people were brought up to sing verses and choruses of the shows. One lucky guy got to do that and came up again later to play guitar on an entire song.
Green Day never once assumed they were a great band. By having fans on stage singing, they even showed they don't have a particularly great singer, that anyone can do it. What they did show is that you can accomplish anything if you work real hard and you can remain real and not sell yourself out. Some may think of Green Day as sellouts from their "punk" roots because they have hit the mainstream, but they showed reverence to their roots, especially in an homage video of all the great punk bands that never sold out (i.e. became really famous, which included shout outs to Fugazi, Gwar, No Use for a Name, among others).
Maybe they are keen marketing geniuses or maybe they believe in the punk credoes, but Green Day tickets were half to 1/4 what other bands with their experience and popularity (and often much less popularity) charge. In a market charging (at least where I live) $100 to $300 a ticket in a city that honestly can't support ticket prices that high for every single show that comes through the city, they charged $60.
And I will agree, that was the enticement to see them. To go see a band my wife loves and to have to throw in $60 of my own dollars so she has someone to go with, that was a minor expense.
Now I have paid as much as $150 to see a show. It was a special occasion and it was to see Eric Clapton.
I have not gone to see many performers I really wanted to see because the shows were $100 plus dollars.
I have gone to see several dozen shows that charged $5 to $50, sometimes on bands I was taking a chance on. I will see many more dozen shows in that same range and take many more chances.
The biggest thing that came out of the Green Day show was: you paid good money to see and it is our job to earn it. We are pulling all the stops out, we are going to do everything to make sure every single person in the building is having a great time. We may not be the best band in the world, but we will try our hardest to have a good time with you.
How come anyone thinks they can charge so much for a ticket and do nothing but stand behind their mic stand and strum along in a lackluster performance. How can a band charge up to 4 times as much as a band that works 4 times harder.
It really feels like the bands think they are doing the audience a favor when the only reason they can be on that stage is because we put them there.
And how can I go spend that much money on a band I have never seen before live on the off chance they may suck live. If you buy a stereo from the store and it has shitty speakers, you can bring the stereo back and buy another one.
I mentioned this to someone at work the other day. If I was king, I would force these overpriced bands to take Green Day lessons on making a show work. Force them to be at one of their concerts and see a band work to earn your dollars.
I know when I played, I came from the school of earning the audience's dollars and I put a lot of effort into every show. We weren't always good, but for my part I pushed myself every single show to be as entertaining as possible, to get the crowd going, to have a good time.