Hmm—to eat, or to buy tickets to Roger Waters’ legendary show The Wall? That is the question…
Pfft, eating is overrated.
It’s AT this this time of year that world tours are announced in droves, and this week, we’re looking at how much is too much to pay for a concert ticket when you’ve got rent, food and expensive textbooks to fork out for.
Concert ticket prices are higher than ever. For big shows that rarely play south of Auckland, the total cost of getting to one of these shows is beyond many students’ budgets. Tickets to Roger Waters’ The Wall cost between $99 and $399; last week, Foo Fighters and Tenacious D tickets went on sale with the tickets starting at $108.
With the rising cost of living, it’s not cheap to live in New Zealand at the moment. It’s hard to find work in Wellington when jobseekers check their emails to see “We regret to inform you…” staring them in the face for the umpteenth time that month. It’s quite disheartening, and thus, the “can I have it for my birthday/Christmas/insert-special-occasion-here” card is being played a lot now.
Of course, there’s always the “meh, not eating for a week won’t kill me” line of reasoning. It’s not like you can buy much for your student allowance dollar now anyway. (Cucumbers were more than $4 each at a certain supermarket—let’s call it Wew Norld—at time of writing).
So now comes the question—how much is too much to pay for a concert ticket?
Well, ultimately, a lot more factors come into this decision than you’d think—for instance, one cannot go longer than 20 days (give or take) without food. So, it is altogether inadvisable to pay for a concert ticket if it’s going to cost you a month’s food money. It is also inadvisable it prevents you from doing the following: paying rent; paying internet and power bills; and paying your Student Services Levy (otherwise, Student Health won’t treat you for malnourishment). However, in saying that, one doesn’t have to leave Wellington, or starve, to have a good time.
Most bands that come to the windy city like to play at certain small venues around Wellington. San Francisco Bath House has played host to everybody from The Misfits to Peaches; Bodega has presented us with the likes of No Use For A Name and Nick Oliveri (formerly of Queens of the Stone Age). On top of these we’ve also been graced by the likes of The Black Keys, Helmet, and Sufjan Stevens.
The point is, concerts are affordable for students. Sure, Wellington may not get all the massive names, but this has allowed the underground and indie scenes to flourish. So have some dinner, pay your rent, and go to an awesome gig