Hudson Valley Astrologer

What’s the last performance I’ve seen? Ouch! This prompt hurts. Checking ticket prices for the Knicks upcoming playoff game in Madison Square Garden gave me a pretty good case of sticker shock yesterday. $900 per ticket AND these aren’t even court side, but nosebleed seats. A Taylor Swift concert hit $2,000 per ticket on the resale market, and still concerts ticket demands surged, venue after venue, all around the world.

Orchestra seats at SPAC in Saratoga cost about $200 to see DMB close to the performance date, a little less if you can get them earlier. Plus fees of about 15% to 25% are charged on top of the base rate by third-party resale sites. So while not the exorbitant prices of a Taylor Swift concert we are talking about dropping $750 between tickets, travel, and grabbing dinner. Thank god my wife and I don’t drink or drug because that might push the cost of tickets into Swifty territory. As it is $750 is NOT a cheap date and forces me to carefully consider the opportunity costs.

I was a performer myself once upon a time, the lead singer in a band. I can’t help but imagine the hypnotic rush of blood to the head crooning to 10,000 maniacs. It must be intoxicating! Being at the live show in the audience is intoxicating enough but being on stage? Wow! I’m not sure it’s a habit that is easy to kick and if we look around we see some of the old-timers still touring. Only Michael Stipes of REM fame seems to have the humility to let that part of his life rest. Certainly the old timers don’t need the money, but the system that has grown around promoting and hosting these events has become big business.

As ridiculous as the fray over ticket prices has become, with exclusion and privilege issues abounding, there must be something important about these large group experiences. My daughter and her fiancé went to see the Capitals play the Canes in an NHL playoff game yesterday and she said it was a 10 out of 10 experience. Attending a playoff games in any sport can feel epic. Part of me wonders if there isn’t some grand emotional release at these events, like the big concerts, and perhaps these events serve a larger purpose in our evolution. Are they release valves for unspent energy that might otherwise be redirected by malevolent forces toward ill-will, or worse, war? Or are they merely self-indulgent amusements?

The orderly and harmonious exit of tens of thousands of people sharing camaraderie over a win, or a song does seem like good medicine. In fact, Daisy Fancourt (is her name cannot be a coincidence, can it?), discovered in her research with colleagues that attending cultural events like concerts can increase one’s sense of well-being and boost individual self-worth by 21%-25% and r the benefits don’t stop there. Fans might even increase their longevity. They published their findings in the journal Social Science & Medicine (2019). So, maybe there is a cost of not attending a live performance that exceeds the price of the tickets?

HVA

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