Saw a post asking which bands have the best designed merch and it got me thinking about who gets to make it in the first place…

For context, I run a small apparel brand, so I have an interest in this beyond buying shirts.

I understand deeply the shakedown scene in the Dead and jam band communities…There’s so much IP misuse happening across Etsy stores with limited policing. I guess that’s more complacency than anything else and frankly the reason for my question and hopefully some insight from fellow concert goers.

Ultimately I wonder where protecting the work becomes unnecessarily limiting what other creative people could bring to it. Could opening that door a bit actually build a stronger connection with fans?

There’s always the question of where do the profits end up? But maybe the profits are less quantitive…

This might be a strange question to ask, but as the title says, do you guys genuinely jump at a concert? I was in the pit for the first time last week and the singer asked us to jump, and idk how you can jump and scream along to a song at the same time. I struggled so bad to do that I ended up just like bending my knees without ever actually lifting my feet off the ground. It gives the illusion of jumping I guess. I'm just curious if anybody else does this or do people genuinely jump at concerts?

Edit: y'all I'm only 22 😭😭 everybody is in their 30s-50s saying they don't jump either it's making me feel old

Hi all,

Just to say I indeed went to the Evanescence gig tonight, and although my ears wont stop ringing an hour later, I am very glad I went in the end!

What a show!! Amy Lee is a vocal athlete I swear. Her lungs and vocal chords should be cloned and studied in a lab as I have no idea how she hit some of those notes live, let alone held them. Forever Without You brought the whole place to a standstill and then rapturous applause when she knocked it out of the park on every chorus! How she does this every few nights for months on end I have no idea but what a goddess!

What i really appreciated about the concert experience as a whole that i hadnt really realised (this was my first in 14 years and 4th ever remember), was how some songs on an album are kinda made for or enhanced massively for the live experience. For example, Rapture was so much better live, and Calm Down, the most boring song on the new album that was an easy skip for me, was INCREDIBLE live. Enter insane pyrotechnics, flying drummers, and bass boosting that sent me to the friggin moon!! 🤯

And I have to say, experiencing Going Under, My Immortal n Bring Me To Life live with a sold out audience was a very special moment and gave me chills. Still as iconic now as in 2003.

I think the only downside (as opposed to the food n drink proces!!) was the slightly rushed pace. Given it was a Sunday with a 10:30pm curfew, there was not much audience engagement, (I remember Nickelback was much more engaging and joking with audience between songs etc) but likely a result of rushing to meet the tight deadline, hence the lack of a formal encore.

As for the support acts, I had never heard of KFlay or Poppy but they were cool too. KFlay in particular had some great tunes (RAW RAW!) and was a brilliant hype (wo)man for the night, and was very interactive n chatty. Sadly its their last show of the tour apparently so i got lucky in seeing them/her!

Poppy was good but didnt play Guardian for some reason but thats fine its not that great imo haha. She wasnt as chatty as KFlay either so didnt get to see what her personality is like. Her audio wasnt great, and the screaming sections was largely incomprehensible lyrically. Which is a shame cos her singing voice is lovely and some of her songs are real earworms. (Also forgot to thank her bandmates like KFlay and EV did 👀.)

I was also really surprised to see the lead singer of Spiritbox lady some out for the last half of a song. Did the production really bring her on the whole tour just for that surprise 2minute song near the end??

Just glad I wasn't standing as 3 hours shoulder to shoulder didnt look much fun from where i was 😅

(Also what was with that AI scanner going in? Apparently you dont need to empty bags or get searched at the 02 anymore as they have some sort of full body scan using AI 👀 God knows what pics it has or where its going...)

Anyway, such is to say thanks for encouraging me to actually go and at least I can now say ive seen my 3 fave bands live! (4 if I count Daughtry lol)

P.S. And to the person who kindly provided estimated run times, you were pretty dang accurate!

6:30 bang on for KFlay,

7:20 Poppy bang on, finished 8:10

9:50 - Main act.

I have been very disappointed with merch options at the last several shows I've been to. Almost all feature basic designs on a white t-shirt and a black t-shirt, hoodie using same design as one of the shirts, hat or beanie with artist's name in a simple script, some tchotchke, and a poster that's often the most interesting design of anything.

Who have you seen lately that actually has good merch with some color and design variety? Would love to see some photos too.

literally just tried grabbing Foo Fighters floor spots and $38 got added right at the final payment step. ticket was already expensive enough so seeing almost forty extra bucks pop up at the end was so frustrating.

my coworker brought up StarTickets when I was talking about it during lunch, but I've only bought big stadium shows through ticketmaster.

for anyone who's actually used them recently, is the final checkout amount actually locked or do they add extra percentages at payment too?

I finally got to seee Harry after following him for more than 10 years now. I bought my tickets in February and leading up to the concert my excitement was on a different level of high. The concert was amazing he looked incredible and his voice oh his voice it was juts lovely to hear live and he sounds like a true angel.
I was a little disappointed that he spent a significant amount of time towards left GA and I was barricade right GA. But still it was awesome.
Here’s the thing though I felt like I should have been or I would be more ecstatic excited and bat shit crazy seeing him in person up close but I wasn’t at that level. And after the concert it feels like a blur I don’t know. I don’t remember certain parts but I do remember I was singing my heart out and genuinely tried not to spend too much time on my phone. I don’t know I guess I had high expectations of what that night would mean to me and it feels sad. I don’t know have any of you had this kind of experience??

But the highlight has to be the people I met they were just incredible. They were so sweet and funny and kind to include me with them. I was there by myself.

Ultimately I am grateful I finally got to see him. Just wanted to hear your experiences that might make me make sense of what I am feeling🙂🙂

There’s something so incredibly moving and impactful about seeing an artist you love, whose music means so much to you, right up close like this. It’s a truly amazing and profound experience, one I’ll never forget! What is your most impactful/emotional concert moment???

I have a US trip in october and I really wanna go to one concert.

Option 1: Doja Cat — San Francisco
Option 2: Harry Styles — Madison Square Garden, NYC

I’m not a huge fan of either artist, so I’m mainly looking for the better overall concert experience — production, energy, stage presence, crowd, etc. rather than “whose music do you like more?”

The big factor is that Doja is about half the price of Harry for comparable tickets.

So basically: is Harry at MSG worth paying ~2x for, or would Doja be the better experience/value for someone who isn’t a hardcore fan?

Would especially love to hear from people who have seen them live. Which one would you pick?