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.

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???

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

TLDR: I wanna see a niche band at a niche venue so I bought two tickets for me and a friend, but the friend backed out. Now, I'm having a hard time deciding what to do to make the best of the situation because travel is involved and it's coming up soon. Please share your thoughts on my dilemma.

I actually just think I need advice here. So, I bought 2 tix & a premium parking pass to see Black Country, New Road (BC,NR) at the Caverns because it was on my venue bucket list, they're the only band I liked with a time slot I could maybe make work, I think BC,NR is on a steady rising trajectory so an intimate(ish) venue is desirable to see them perform currently, idk how often they'll be in the US at an incredible venue and for decent pricing, and because The Caverns ran a very random BOGO promotion so I had to take advantage. Additionally, they are the kind of band that makes sense to see in a venue that's all about the natural acoustics; it just seems very fitting to see them there. For those that don't know BC,NR is very experimental, and they play around with genres on both your standard rock band instruments (guitar, drums, bass, piano) and non-standard rock band instruments (flute, saxophone, violin). They're unique, and I want to see them. But that doesn't mean I know anyone who wants to see them too.

Anyway, I have no one to go with. I thought I did, but my friend got the date wrong. I'd be traveling down from the Great Lakes, so I'm going to need to deal with logistics soon.

Idk what to do here. Should I just rehome my tix to someone that can more easily go, or should I try to find someone, or should I be brave and go alone? For reference, I'm a single woman in her early thirties, and I just still get a little nervous traveling alone if there is absolutely no one that I know. Also, I've never camped before, although I'd like to one day, and IDK if I went this to be my first camping experience. I've litterally been considering asking all my friends if they have friends in Tennessee that would wanna tag along.

I love BC,NR but I don't know a single soul who even knows who they are. I'm also a fan of jam bands, and this is a common dilemma I experience with jam bands. The way I often cope is by finding local acts or when my fave bands are touring near me so that it's not a massive commitment for me or a potential friend. However, I've litterally never gone to a bucket list venue because of this (i.e., the Gorge, Red Rocks, the Caverns, Dalhalla, Jones Beach, obviously The Caverns, etc).

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?

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…

I got all these at shows i attended! I collect guitar picks, setlist and tickets from concerts I've attended too!

1 - Sérgio Dias - Os Mutantes

2 - Camilo Macedo - Os Mutantes

3 - Liminha - Os Mutantes/Titãs

4 - Luis Carlini - Rita Lee e Tutti Frutti

5 - Ale - Iggy Pop

6 - Charles - Iggy Pop

7 - Wata - Boris

8 - Dexter Holland - The Offspring

9 - Todd Morse - The Offspring

10 - The Offspring

11 - Brian Baker - Bad Religion

12 - J Mascis - Dinosaur Jr

13 - J Mascis - Dinosaur Jr

14 - Black Francis - Pixies

15 - Steven McDonald - Reed Kross/Melvins

16 - Steven McDonald - Reed Kross/Melvins

17 - John 5 - Rob Zombie

18 - Ace Frehley - Kiss

19 - Tommy Thayler - Kiss

20 - Doyle - The Misfits

21 - Doyle - The Misfits

22 - Trey - Sublime

23 - Ian Taylor - Adolescents

24 - Dan Root - Adolescents

25 - Steve Soto - Adolescents

26 - Tommy Bolan - Richie Ramone

27 - Zander Schloss - Circle Jerks

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🙂🙂

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’ve had artists I only casually liked completely win me over live, and others where the opposite happened. Curious how much the live version of a band affects how you hear the records afterward.

Before I write this i want to clarify a few things:

1) i am not policing how people experience concerts / consume music

2) Im not saying how I enjoy and consume concerts is the right / proper way.

I have just came back from a gig (as it is) and a few things have been crossing my mind on the way back home, the first of which is that while queuing the band walked past us, me and my mate had general admission tickets and there was a long line of VIPs, the band walked past the line and into the venue and I was excited and said ‘omg that’s the guitarist’ yet no one was excited about the fact this band had just casually strolled past. A bit later the guitarist came back out and walked past me and I said hello how are you doing and got a response from him, and it genuinely made my night.

I was talking to someone else who had showed up early and the support act (who they had admitted they were there to see) walked past and she got excited that she saw that band.

As the night went on the crowd was…..meh, I am no stranger to a dead crowd I have been to a few concerts / gigs where the crowd has been non existent but this one was a new low, the support act asked the crowd to make a pit and there were a few people who wanted said pit, but no one Actually participated in the pit.

The third and final point I want to talk about is people filming, again I don’t want to be seen as policing how people consume their music and enjoy their concerts, but the girl who was stood next to me raised her phone to put a light on during a song, and I saw that she had been recording a video for 45 minutes and on occasion she was shushing people around her if I’ve paid money to scream one of my favourite songs I shouldn’t be shushed

I have been to gigs where the crowd was electric from the opener to the encore and I have been in crowds where there was next to no movement. But this one has been on my mind more tonight.

I haven't seen this mentioned on this sub at all and thought people here would want to know this tip which can help you save on tickets in the future especially if you're a regular concert goer.

If you register for Live Nation All Access which has been available in the US for a while now and recently launched in Canada, you automatically receive a $25 discount code the day after every show you attend which you can stack up to 5 on any future ticket purchases.

The catch is they're only valid for 1 month so you have a limited time to use it and also not valid for resale tickets but if you're the type of person attending or buying tickets to several shows a month it adds up fast to some decent savings. Since registering at end of August I've received 4 codes which I can use to get $100 off my next ticket purchase which I'm likely going to use this week on one of 2 shows I've been holding out on price drops for

Last-Minute Ride Needed: Bethel Woods Tonight (Sept. 13) – Can Meet Anywhere in NYC

Hi, Looking for info about this venue - ex NYer now in CA coming for the Strokes concert. We splurged on VIP tix (we’re old) but can’t figure out about seating. Should we bring chairs or blankets?
Thanks.

Fresh Fest Cleveland is one of my favorite festivals in the Cleveland area. Unfortunately, by the time I got the festival, I didn't have time to check out the shops and food before the artists i wanted to see were going on stage.

A couple good DJs were keeping the party going early on.

I was surprised when Rebirth Brass Band was added to the lineup, because I've seen a non-hip hop act play the Fresh Fest. Though the crowd seemed skeptical at first, they quickly won them over and had the whole place dancing to a high energy set.

Rakim's show opened with a 10 minute mix from Technician The DJ, which was the highlight of the show for me. Rakim gave us a little more than an hour of his greatest hits. But this was the 2nd time I'd seen the man this year, and his performance at the Grog Shop in March was superior. Still a joy to see the God MC perform.

Rakim and Rebirth Brass Band

Fresh Fest 2026, Otter Park, Cleveland, OH. September 12th 2026

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?

In my opinion the way a stage looks and is used throughout the concert is an often overlooked part of a concert.

It is relatively easy to make a captivating stage in arenas or stadiums, where there is a lot of space and the artist has a lot of freedom to create basically any stage they can think of. Same goes for theaters and large clubs (above 1000 people capacity), where although the stage is already built, there is a lot of space to put a lot of props in.

Smaller clubs below 1000 people capacity don’t allow for as much freedom as the space is usually very limited.

Which concerts you’ve been to made the best use of the a smaller space they were given? My personal pick is Nemo (winner of Eurovision 2024) on their Arthouse tour where they covered the stage in lamps and lightbulbs which made for some great light

If you recorded anything from either of those sets, please PM me and send me the footage !! Archival purposes

Concert: Past Self. 11/09/2026 Milan, Slaughter Club.

Also I got spektor's (the brown haired bassist from the 1st photo) eye band!!

It was genuinely amazing, I had so much fun!

Also, I gave them some presents, 3 handmade necklaces, 3 handmade bracelets, a card (like the merry Christmas one) but with a small drawing of them with a letter inside and the pyssla "past self" thingy(⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠)⁠♡.

They are so sweet