Or: Why I’m Going To See The Local Natives This Saturday Night
I was recently watching the Baseball playoffs when a commercial came on that featured fans and their dedication to their teams. One fan boasted that he’d been to at least 1000 games. Now, with season tickets, at 81 home games per season, with a few seasons of playoffs (not many though, he was a Red Sox fan) let’s assume an average of 82 games per year, this would take him about 12 years to accomplish. Chances are, his boast was hyperbole and he has in fact not been to that many games, but that point is moot. What’s important was my initial reaction to his claim. I didn’t question it’s validity, nor did I think about how depressing that must have been for so many years as a Red Sox fan.
Nay, what I thought was: “Wow, I bet he could’ve bought a car for all that money.” I did a few quick calculations in my head. Let’s say each game costs about $30 – averaging out the cost of games over the years, and assuming he’s not in the worst, but not the best seats – there’s $30,000 right there, or a Lexus IS11 (starting at about $32,000). I think about sporting events like this all the time. When friends go to 10 basketball games a year or 4 football games, or a ton of baseball games, I always calculate the yearly cost of their attendance. It’s not that I don’t love sports; this is just something I do in my head,
And until this morning, I didn’t think of the obvious hypocrisy of my fiscal judging. I, your humble blogger, attend concerts. I don’t go to shows every week, but I do try to average one a month. The yearly cost of my concert-attending is more than I’d like to share (damn you Pearl Jam for charging so much!) and is made worse by my impulsive need to purchase some merchandise at the show – either a t-shirt or a poster. And yet, it’s entirely worth it. I wouldn’t trade any of the concerts I’ve attended for anything in the world. (Ok, I’d probably trade by Coldplay experience for the $200 I was offered for my ticket, but I digress.)
And thus, I will be heading into Boston proper this evening to pick up my Craigslist purchased ticket to Saturday night’s Local Natives show. I’ve seen them before, but that’s not stopping me from going again. They put on a magnificent show last time, and I’m quite excited to be able to see them once more.
Enjoy the bootleg from their 2010 SXSW performance, and go out and see them if you get a chance.
Download the entire show here.
Troubled Souls Unite 
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