I’m noticing that live theater ticket pricing has nearly doubled in the past year. I’m not sure what all is going on, but we “used to” go to no less than 250 concerts/shows a year (and never paid more than $100 a ticket, and that was for amazing headliners) (and yes, I did say 250) - and I think we’ve been to 3 in 2025, with 3 more on the horizon.
We have been going to see comedians for the past 3 or so years. Much more reasonable prices. Mainly great shows. And you sit the whole time.
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I saw the Dooby Brothers, Earth Wind & Fire, and Chicago at an outdoor Amphitheater - they were not free but not terribly expensive. It was the PARKING that would send you to the bank for a loan!
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We have an amazing (and pricey) venue here in Southern CA. H figured out that the artist gets VIP seats that often go unused. We’ve traded/upgraded our tickets by checking with the ticket office if seats/tables were available.
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Some ticket prices are just crazy. I wanted to see Peter Gabriel a couple of years ago, but the kind of seats I normally buy (stadium lower level, not floor, not VIP, not interested in nosebleed seats) were something like $800 (not resale - initial price).
Not even going to go into what some of those resale Taylor swift tickets were going for…
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There’s a bifurcation in the concert/comedy market.
The larger, more established acts are selling well. Baby boomers and millennials have lots of money and are willing to purchase expensive tickets. The success of Sphere in Las Vegas is a good example of their ability to pay up.
Lesser known artists’ ticket sales have fallen off a cliff this year and they’re having trouble filling up venues. There are only a few bands and a handful of comedians selling out performances. Promoters, agents, and artists are panicking. It’s important for them to match venue size to ticket sales since the artist pays for the fixed operating cost of the building. A small crowd might not cover expenses if there is a mismatch. The industry isn’t sure what’s going on. There are probably many reasons, one of them likely being the high cost of tickets.
Our kids go to a lot of Americana concerts. My Nashville country music songwriter friend laughs about the genre as a money making entity and tells me there are more bands than fans.
Look for ticket prices to moderate and fewer large venue performances over the near term for all but the top acts.
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We saw U2 at Sphere for $250 up high and $450 down low. My wife swears Edge winked at her. It’s a lot but given today, it’s not.
More attrocious was my wife paid $125 or whatever for the U2 movie at the sphere.
Clapton - we are paying $160 - side of stage up high. Bryan Adams $75 - seats down low. I was surprised. Rod Stewart - in the grass at an ampitheater $49.50 + $15 seat rental (another scam) Doobies - different ampitheater (like 5k people i think) - in the back - $30+ tax. No grass there - all seats. James Taylor, if we go, it’ll be because i snake seats $60 or less…right now you can get $80…in the back of the same ampitheater as the doobies.
One commedienne - going to see Paul Reiser - no clue if good. $73 - very good seats. I thought of 6 rows further back for $49 but i get end aisle seats - which I prefer. He’s at a casino 90 mins away.
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We paid that to see Peter Gabriel last year. It was a bucket list concert for me so my H got us tickets for our anniversary. I felt terrible he spent that much money until I heard what our friends paid for their Taylor Swift tickets!
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Those prices are really good. I wonder how much venue has to do with it. There is a general feel in the Bay Area that many ticket prices have risen since they started moving concerts from Oakland arena to chase center (following the Warriors move). We paid $350ish for Clapton at Chase (fairly decent lower level seats but nothing spectacular). Probably the worst value for money for a show that I had been so looking forward to - it felt like he was going through the motions and totally uninterested in the audience. It feels like most shows at Chase are in that kind of ballpark (other than Peter Gabriel where prices were way higher). My favorite concert at Chase so far (haven’t seen a lot there admittedly) was Black Keys.
I think we paid something like $250 for U2 at Levi’s stadium on their Joshua tree anniversary tour. That was great. Back when they did their 360 tour, we saw them in Cape Town. We got “red” tickets and were right up against the stage, but at the quiet side. There was a brief moment when the edge was closer to me than anyone else on the planet 
We saw Seinfeld in Reno a couple of years back (his first show back after Covid). I don’t even remember what we paid as it was originally meant to be Nov 2020 and got postponed twice due to the pandemic etc. It was a really good show actually and a fun weekend away.
Edit: oh, on venue. We saw Trevor Noah at the Masonic once and then at Chase a few years later. Big difference in the ticket prices.
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We’ve found that outdoor music festivals are a great value. They are usually multiday events and admission tickets are reasonable. Most have several stages, so you can get at the front easily for your favorite acts by getting there early. My favorite is Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, held annually in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. I’ve been about ten times and it’s free. Moon River Festival in Chattanooga is another good one. There are others all over the country.
Performers like casino shows, especially later in their career. It pays well and there’s no travel. The crowds can be a little dicey depending on the locale. The Encore Theatre at the Wynn in Las Vegas is the best for performers.
You’ll enjoy Paul Reiser.
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We saw Billy Idol at House of Blues in Vegas, I don’t remember exactly when but sometime pre pandemic. That was a really fun show and I absolutely loved that venue - one of my favorites. I don’t believe we’ve seen any other casino shows (although we saw Seinfeld in Reno, he was at the convention center and not a casino).
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In my town, we have the Pilgrimage Fest - this year John Mayer (not interested), Kings of Leon (not interested) and a bunch of people I never heard of. Too old. 80 minutes from here is Bonaroo - I guess a modern woodstock. I’ll never go so don’t know…it’s campiing.
But definitely the outdoor ampitheaters are reasonable. We say Styx/Foreigner/Jon Waite in Cleveland. Their ampitheater (Bloosom) is massive - like 20K people It was cheap…we left early because all the reviews said it’s an hour-two hours - to get out.
The Live Nation $30 (was $25) is a good deal too…for old or lesser know bands.
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Well you’re only as old as you feel…I’m almost 70! I get it, though.
I do have one tip for good seats. Most venues comp the performer a certain number of seats for shows. There are exceptions, like charitable events, the Grand Ole Opry and some Vegas venues. Those seats are used by the performers for family, celebrities, industry people, etc. The performers usually release the unneeded tickets the day before the show by announcing it on social media to their followers. Follow the performer on Instagram and you can pick up a great seat at face value if you missed the presale window.
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Oh he’s here with Bob Dillon and someone else i don’t know. $30. no thanks 
)
Will tell my wife about the instagram thing. Of course, we’re U2 fan club members - apparently - only way to get in early. Money grab.
We got lucky at Duran Duran. They played the 5K ampitheater - only a year or two before they packed MSG. They didn’t pack our place. We had the seats on the grass and they asked as we walked in - do you want to move up to the 5th row? Sure - how much. Free.
Turns out, we were seat fillers - for seats they didn’t sell.
Honestly, they were average - going through the motions. But Nile Rodgers and Chic opened - and let me tell you - his story telling - his music - FANTASTIC!!!
I hope he comes back…what a treat.
Went to Blossom once - NEVER again!
Another tip…there are usually seats set aside for the press. And those seats will show as still available but you can’t click on them and buy them up until the time of the show. (I don’t know if this works at all venues of course)
So, for example, at Peter Gabriel in the United Center a few years ago, I saw that nearly an entire row in section 112 was unsold the day of the show and assumed that was for press. We had decent seats for that show in section 113, but the 112 seats were better and we moved there. A couple of press peeps came but there were still empty seats in that row so we stayed there for the whole show.
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I’m so over overpriced concert tickets. That said, I just bought tickets to our symphony. A live orchestra will be playing the score from Flow the movie with the movie being shown on the screen behind it. There is also a touring ballet group… and of course our opera house and the 5th. Stuffs!!
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I refuse to pay more than $75 for a concert ticket, the exception being a festival (my hard line on those us $300). I’m thankful I went to so many concerts in my youth, when $40 could buy you a great show.
Nowadays I’m all about the $45 lawn seats at open air pavilions or a local venue has an outdoor summer stage that gets some great names.
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This is true for Broadway shows and even our ‘big’ Theater for Broadway touring shows here too. These, and unsold tickets, are half price on the night of the show for students, military, teachers and old people. I’m an OLD PERSON and I prefer to take my chance because usually the unsold tickets are good seats. They used to have ‘pick your own seat’ options on the sale days (about once a quarter) and I’d buy them then, but now those seats are all in the balcony and I don’t like the balcony. Hey, beggars CAN be choosers!
I check out the seats available a few days before the show and then pick the night I want to go with the best availability. Sometimes there are hundreds of seats, other times not much available.
Doesn’t always work. Mama Mia was a recent popular show. My daughter wanted to go and there really weren’t a lot of seats available. Then for opening night there were suddenly about 300 seats in the front of the orchestra. Then about 100 were gone, then 200, then almost all of them. Oh well, it wasn’t my favorite show.
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Another tip that folks who live in Nevada know is you can join some sort of group and get last minute really cheap tickets for shows (so they will fill the venue). Sometimes the seats are excellent and they’re always a fraction of the marked price that the tourists pay. My friend and her BF live in Vegas and that’s how they see top performers.
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