Corporations and Rock Concerts

Interesting post. Admittedly, half the reason I like it is it gives me fuel for my rage against the corporations, because every young person needs something to rage against. I'll just add that corporations dehumanize everything, and humanizing things is good. Like when you call Dell tech support, and it says "everyone is busy, please hold", you get pissed. If you went to your computer store and said "hey, can you help me?" the guy would say "sorry, I'm real busy" and he'd be taking apart a computer or something, and you'd say, okay, he's busy, 's cool. Or if he was real busy for hours, you could get on his case, and say, hey buddy, give me some time here. But with Dell, all you can do is get mad.

Am I too old for rock concerts? Rephrase: am I too boring for rock concerts? I'm more and more losing my desire to go to them. Now, Ratatat last night was awesome, as rock concerts go. They had a video projector with that sort of video stuff you sometimes see at concerts, synced to the music. They were going nuts on stage, super-theatrical. Their songs were punchy, smooth, and tight: no noodling! They played all their hits, plenty of new stuff, and finished off with "Seventeen Years" which you could tell everyone was waiting for.

But the waiting time is very long and difficult. It's loud, so you can't really talk; it's a lot of standing, and you never know when it'll end. And you often have to wait through openers you don't want to see (although, for the record, I dig openers). Plus, it's always ear-ringingly loud. It's expensive, and prices are often +$10 once you go through Ticketmaster, or you run the risk of being sold out. And what do you really get out of it? That you don't get by listening to recordings?
- the ability to see them perform, because they're awesome: not a big deal to me
- the opportunity to really lose yourself in the music: doesn't happen a lot to me at concerts. I thought Ratatat would be perfect, but not so. I feel like there's a lot of self-consciousness at concerts, for some reason.
- the chance to see the artists as real people: maybe. but most don't even talk much.

Conclusion: not worth it! So why do I keep going?