Not Really Sold Out- Elton John

[Marc Martyn]

My wife and I have for decades liked Elton John's music. We always thought, well someday we can see him live. A couple of months ago, they announced that he was going to be in Spokane tonight, April 8th. We waited for the tickets to go on sale and found out the show was sold out in one hour!#-o Oh well, maybe next time.

This morning my son who lives on the coast sent my wife a text. He said that he had heard on Facebook that there were some unsold tickets to the show tonight. I checked the paper and online and it said the show was sold out. So I just decided to call and check if that was true. They told me, yes they did have a few tickets available. I bought two over the phone and downloaded them. What surprised me was that they weren't that bad in price compared to some of the other icons of the music industry. I got two for $79.00 each. This last year I checked what the tickets were for Paul McCartney. I won't be seeing him, they start at about $250.00 and go up to about $1,500.00 EACH depending on the venue.

[Amx]

It's great that you got the tickets. :thumleft:

But NOBODY is worth over $100 per ticket, regardless who they are. [img=http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/ima ... ns/tsk.gif]t[/img]

[kevinb]

Enjoy the show!

[Rich McVey]

I paid like $7.50 to see Brian Adams in the Tacoma Dome when I was a sophmore in HS back 84 or so. "The Summer of 69 Tour"

[Amx]

The most I've ever spent was $20 to see Neil Diamond. TWICE. TWO days in a row. [img=http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/ima ... boogie.gif]r[/img]

[Marc Martyn]

Ya, and I paid $8.00 to see Three Dog Night in 1965, but then again, bread was 15¢ a loaf and gas was .24¢/gal. too.

[Amx]

Shows how long it's been since I went to a concert, and paid for it. The last one was Eddy Rabbit at the Enumclaw/King County fair in about '95. And THAT was free.

[Mike Carey]

good for you, should be a great show.

My wife and I will be seeing Paul Simon next weekend at the ShowBox in Seattle. Simon is touring small venues this year and when I saw he would be at the ShowBox (capacity I think is around 400 or so?) I jumped on getting tickets, despite having to pay the TicketMaster rip-off fee (which amounted to 16.5% of the ticket price, ouch).

I saw him in the 70s in Milwaukee with Art Garfunkle (reunion tour) in a full 60,000 capacity stadium. This will be a little different LOL.

[rockjiggr]

I might have been willing to pay $1500 to see McCartney if it was in the Abbey Road studio where he made that very interesting video just him with a small audience.

Saw Elton in 1980 and he had Bernie Taupin with him. Excellent show. I think he is a little past his prime but probably puts on a good show nonetheless.

[Marc Martyn]

Wow! All I can say is if seeing him live isn't on your "Bucket List", get it on there now. It was fantastic. He kept the audience dancing and on their feet for most of the show. His band and backup vocals were excellent. His version of "Rocket Man" was absolutely unbelievable, with transitions throughout the 7-10 minute song that made you think it was ending a couple of times, only to build it up more and stronger, eventually coming to the finish which blew the roof off of the arena. Amazing!

"Candle In The wind" had the entire audience singing along with him, all 11,000 of them. I looked around at the audience and there were thousands of cell phones opened and shining in the darkness. People were holding up lit cigarette lighters and waving them gently back and forth.

His voice is strong, his playing is superb and he looks like he is really enjoying himself. His finale, left the audience calling for an encore for more than 2 minutes. He stepped back on the stage, walked from one end to the other signing autographs while the crowd cheered and evenually sitting back down at the piano. As the crowd quieted down, he humbly spoke to the audience. He thanked everyone for their support for over 42 years and said that he was truly humbled. He gently said to the audience, "This song is for you" and began a beautiful rendition of "Your Song" from his 1970 album "Tumbleweed Connection". As he finished, he was met with another of many standing ovations. He bowed gracefully and waved while leaving the stage.

I have witnessed Elton's evolution over the decades transforming from a shy young man at the beginning, going through his flamboyant costume and antics era, finally settling into a superb aging entertainer. The evening was 2 hours and 45 minutes of nonstop music. He is at the top of his game and still going strong. It's not for the ego or the money anymore, he loves his audiences and they keep him going. Admirable.

[Mike Carey]

cool, glad you had a great time and performance. If these older entertainers haven't blown out their voices (or have learned to compensate for the limitations age has done to their voices) I think they have a perspective they couldn't have had when they were younger and because of that can put on amazing shows.

I don't know if anyone saw American Idol on Thursday, but the best performance of the night wasn't the young, strong voices of the contestants, it was Iggy Pop running around shirtless and belting it out. The charisma was unmistakeable.

[Marc Martyn]

Here is the Spokesman-Review of the concert last night.

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/spotligh ... rt-review/

http://www.spokesman.com/picture-stories/elton-john/

[Dustin07]

Elton John is probably about the only show I'd pay $100 to see. The man is a musical Legend. Last month I paid about $25 though to see one of my fav rock bands play in Vancouver, BC. that was a great trip because I've never been to Canada before, and went up for 1 night only just to see them!

I try to get to at least 1 show per month and I usually pay $20-30 max.