Small-Town Music Fans...Doesn't It Suck?

[pax]

As some of you know, I live in a fairly small town in Pennsylvania that is equidistant from New York City and Philadelphia. I've seen concerts in both cities (Philly is where I saw the 4 Irish lads, of course ), but it sucks that to see decent shows, I usually have to travel.

This is not to say that there are never good concerts close to home; I didn't have to leave my city, for example, to see Fiona Apple, Natalie Merchant, or Barenaked Ladies. But in the past few years, there have been fewer and fewer concerts around here that have piqued my interest (forget about Coldplay, Ryan Adams, Queens of the Stone Age, or other cool groups coming around HERE), and it's expensive to go to the cities to see live music. In addition to tickets (expensive to begin with), you have to factor in the costs of travel, food, sometimes lodging (if you're going with a few people and you can't all crash at someone's apartment). Thus, I can't afford to see more than a couple of shows a year.

Is anyone else living the small-town life and insanely jealous of fellow Interlanders who seem to go to cool concerts every other week?

 

[Elvis Presley]

Well, Cincinnati isnt by any means a small city, but most major artists have refused to come here in the past couple years due to the racial issues surrounding the city. So I often have to travel to Louisville, Columbus, Cleveland and other cities to catch a good show......but I dont mind...

 

[MrBrau1]

Well look on the bright side, you may not be near a big city, but you'll never have to pay $1,300/Month rent for a shoebox size studio apartment.

 

[u2popmofo]

Is anyone else living the small-town life and insanely jealous of fellow Interlanders who seem to go to cool concerts every other week?

I'm in Utah, there are no big cities in Utah... SLC is a freaking joke.

I'm insanely jealous of anyone who has more than like 6 good concerts come any where near them in a years time.

 

[meegannie]

I'm from Kentucky, where bands almost NEVER go, and every major city is 10+ hours away.

 

[daisybean]

My area sucks in terms of concerts. There was a Tori concert on Saturday that I missed because I didn't find out about it until that day.

But yeah...I'd have to drive four hours to Albany to go to a decent show. We have a stadium big enough to house a good concert, however, the demand isn't here for good groups. Country acts, on the other hand sell out in minutes here, however, there isn't much demand for U2 or Coldplay to come here.

I need to move someplace cool.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

Is anyone else living the small-town life and insanely jealous of fellow Interlanders who seem to go to cool concerts every other week?

Argh.

Yes.

I live in a pretty small town here in Iowa-it's not extremely small, but it's small-we do actually get concerts here, when music acts come to our county fair every year (that's where I saw Styx and Weird Al in 2001 and 2000, respectively). And then there's concerts that come to the lakes area right near here in the summer (which is where I saw a triple header: Head East/John Waite/lead singer of Bad Company in 2000).

But I've never gotten the chance to go to a big arena and go to a big concert. The concerts I mentioned above are the only ones I've ever seen.

So yeah, I'm definitely envious of those of you who live in big areas and get to go to concerts every other week, practically.

Another thing that ticks me off about living in a small town, that is totally off this topic-the fact that the stores in your town do not carry much in the way of merchandise for your favorite bands. I mean, I'm a fan of U2, and yet I have no U2 T-shirts at all! And the CD variety in the stores here is really wimpy, and they don't sell many of the DVDs or videotapes that I'd like to get, and...grrrr...

But anyway, back to the topic at hand...

Angela

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

I've got

Moby
David Gray
The Stones

Confirmed to be arriving. I'm not going to see any of them. Tickets are way too pricey for the Stones ($500 for the best seats) and I'm not all that familiar with Moby and David Gray.

Rumoured:

Oasis (cancelled last year because of Bali bombings)
Coldplay (HURRAH!)

But yeah, we're still getting Shaggy concerts and stuff. I wish Radiohead will run down here. And U2.

 

[cass]

I was with you up until the last sentence. I think it's great people go to shows...and I love hearing about it. I
Distance and money, are both limiting factors for me. My friend who goes to a lot of concerts, tried to tempt me with the Rolling Stones ticket for Brisbane last night. She said I could pay her $5 a week. I just couldn't do it. What a bummer.
I am happy with the local bands, thank goodness. Bourbon Street in the 80's , were unreal, Los Garbos was fun, and I still like pennyblack ( only seen them twice).
Bands here really only perform in pubs and some of them are awful venues. The best one was burnt years ago now and they never rebuilt it. The Parkview, the best of a bad lot, burned down last year. They plan to rebuild it. I hope someone with knowledge about setting up a PA and acoustics gets to have a say in it's design. Access and sound, I pray both are good.
I only go to one show in the city every few years. I went through a stage where I took the boys to lots of shows one year in Brisbane. I'm glad we did that for them. But yes, it cost a fair bit.
We have a nice club about a 2 hour drive to the south of here, they get some good bands. I saw Tommy and Phil Emmanuel, Yothu Yindi, Dave Hole...not that many really, but it does me.
2 hours the other direction, is another area they have some good bands. I saw Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris in 2001 there...that's not THAT long ago. It's not far to travel really, so it's more the cost that limits me I think.
Thank heavens for stereos ...pump up the volume

 

[joyfulgirl]

I had to, or will have to, leave the state of New Mexico to see Tori Amos, U2, Bruce Springsteen.

But I like road trips.

 

[IWasBored]

most shows i REALLY want to see are in hartford or boston. it's about an hour and a half to hartford, about 2 hours to boston. but i don't have a car. and none of my friends with cars like remotly the same kind of music as me.

there have been a few rare times when there's been a show actually IN my town, and the university. in two of three of those cases i've been living literally 5 minutes up the street (where my dorm is).