1000 Concerts! Whereby Oatsdad Praises Himself

How many Toto concerts have you been to?

 

Since I am over the 1000 mark, here goes:

1. Furthest Distance-I have seen shows in 6 countries but the furthest I ever travelled to see a show specifically was this past May when I flew from Miami to London for two of the Clapton RAH shows. Prior to that was flying from NYC to San Francisco in 2016 to see the Neil Young Bridge shows. But I routinely fly from my bases in NYC and Fort Lauderdale to see shows. For example, we are flying to Atlanta to see a benefit show in September with the Drive By Truckers and Drivin and Cryin and in November we are flying to Vegas to see Lady Gaga and Santana.

2. Most paid for a ticket-500 for Springsteen on Broadway. Truth be told, I refuse to now buy tickets for large arena shows when they first go on sale. I wait toward the day of the show.

3. Number of times in the first row-Too many times to mention but it happens more infrequently now because I won’t pay the price. At a club show, I am always in the front.

4. Best piece of memorabilia saved-It includes my Bruce pick from 1978, Kiss picks from 1977, and the list goes on. My house has tons of frames signed items that my brother collected and graciously gave to me including signed guitars and pickguards. One item I absolutely treasure is a Chuck Berry album on Chess signed by Chuck and Johnny Johnson.

5. Oldest artist-I want to say BB King at the end of his life. Lately, it would be Buddy Guy who is 83 and I plan to fly in January from Fort Lauderdale to Chicago to see him at his annual Legends shows.

Youngest? Derek Trucks and Marcus King when they first started out. That is off the top of my head. Maybe the New Kids On The Block when they first started out opening up for Miami Sound Machine in Boston. My wife was a fan of the latter.

6. Largest group? Polyphonic Spree and the smallest would be too many solo artists to mention

7. Loudest? No hesitation. It was The Who at Giants Stadium in 1989.

 

I'll count openers toward my artist-specific total if I eventually like them.

I saw NIN open for Bowie 11 times in 1995, and I count those, even though I couldn't name a single NIN song before the start of the tour!

But within a few shows, I was a fan, so they count for me!

 

Surprising, since Macca doesn't have a reputation for loud shows.

Though neither does Ringo, but the 1989 Ringo show I saw was stupid loud!​

 

How are you guys using that site to calculate your totals? Just going through each artist you've seen and checking off the shows you've attended?

 

Ha!

I admit I like lists - I enjoy keeping track of stats. It seemed natural to do so in this category!

 

After the first 10 concerts... they're all the same...
If you started in 1970 like I did.

 

Not sure how to interpret that "whoa"!

Spice Girls were the toughest to get into the top 10 because 2 of their 4 tours didn't come to the US. 11 of those 25 shows were in the UK!

 

That's how I'd count it. As I mentioned, I'd include each artist in an "artist specific" tally, but a multi-artist show still only counts as 1 concert toward the overall total, no matter how long it runs and how many people play.

I've never been to a multi-day festival, but I'd agree that each day counts as one concert - unless the music literally never stops, that is. If there's 3 straight days of music without a break, that's one concert!

 

If you have an account, you just go to a show/setlist and click the "I Was There" button. Then everything you've indicated you attended will show up on your profile, along with charts and stats and other nerdy things, like this: analogwalrus's attended concerts | setlist.fm

 

If I'd gotten married and had kids, no way my total would be nearly as high! Heck, even if I just got married - no way I'd spend as much time out of town on my own if I'm married.

Unless she's as into concerts as I am, which could happen.

Back in 2001, I met a woman who was more of a Springsteen freak than I was/am. We're about the same age - she's slightly older - and I'd seen Bruce like 25 times by that point.

She was already close to 100 Bruce shows, and IIRC, she went to the 1999-2000 tour 40+ times! I'm sure she's gotta be well past 200 Bruce shows, and probably is close to or over 300!

 

In toto? Zero!

I saw Lukather with Ringo a few years back - I think that's the only time I've even seen a member of Toto on stage!

 

Don’t like crinkled-neck syndrome. I’m more of a panoramic view kinda guy.

 

I like the Spice Girls. Impressed you saw them that many times. My wife throws things at me if I dare watch Spice World when she's home!

 

I think I’m around the 1000 mark. Setlist.fm says I currently have 3056.......but as they count each setlist as a concert, there’s a bit of opening acts, festivals, and various artists shows where each is listed.

I forgot a fair amount to shows I’ve seen as well.

The New Orleans Radiators - 466
Grateful Dead -264
Patti Smith -125 (about to be 129 once I get home from France)

 

If I'd not dropped $500 for the Stones this summer, my $400 Bruce on Broadway ticket last year would be tied with my 2015 Stones in Pittsburgh ticket - in actual dollars on ticket, that is.

As noted earlier, I spent $250 for the Stones in 1989. According to various inflation calculators, that = $511 today, so about the same as my ticket last month, but because I made literally like 10% as much money in 1989 as I do today, it ate up a lot more of my savings!

I go through all the presales and initial onsales, but I only buy tickets if I get what I want. If I don't get what I want, I wait.

I mean, if I get a pit ticket for the Stones during presale, it's not like I'm going to get a better seat later! I guess it's possible prices drop through 3rd parties, but that's unlikely for the really good seats!

Same here - to a degree. I'll pay the big bucks if I really think it's worth it - like pit for the Stones, since the cheaper seats a) were still expensive, and b) were a looong way from the stage.

But if I can get decent cheaper seats - like side/rear stage at an arena - I'll take those!

I viewed "largest/smallest" to mean crowd sizes, not band sizes!

 

Here’s a recent article about my 60 years of attending concerts, FYI

The man of 1,000 concerts - David Carroll's Chattanooga Radio and TV

 

Only problem is that setlist.fm won't include everything you might've seen.

I looked for Antigone Rising and found almost none of their shows on the site. Same for a few other smaller artists!

 

Gotta add 'em! I've added tons of shows. You don't need the setlist to add a date.

 

I'm all about being as close as possible. As a running gag, when I'm in the front row, I'll send a pic to friends of my POF and complain I'm too far from the stage.

I could sit on stage and I'd still whine that I'm not close enough!

 

Go participate in the Spice Girls Weakest Link I started!

 

As Walrus says, add them in! If you've got your old tickets or can be certain of the dates, set them up yourself. I put up loads of shows when I set up my account.

 

But you'd need your own data to remember the dates of the various shows!

I guess that was my point: setlist.fm doesn't substitute fully for your own record since they won't include everything you saw!

 

Let me do the math: 1000 concerts equals 12,000 times you heard some idiot yell out "Free Bird" if I am correct.

 

I was at that show! It was a very hot and humid July day for Milwaukee.