This week SOTS will be attending two shows at Key Arena: The Deck the Hall Ball put on by 107.7 The End and the Death Cab For Cutie show. This past year we haven’t been to any shows at the Key or any other big concert venue with the exception of going to Seahawk Stadium to see The Rolling Stones. Generally we avoid large venues for a number of reasons, some of our choosing and some of fate:

1. Large venues rarely host bands we want to see. If that makes us snobs so be it. We didn’t intentionally choose it to be this way, it just is.

2. Why would we go to large venues to see some artist we kind-of like when we can see our favorite artist in a small venue?     a. You might actually get to meet the band in a small venue (should they be puttering around the audience area before or after the show).     b. You might actually get to see and experience the band up close next to the stage instead of 100 yards away when piped through 100 inch speakers and a 40 foot megascreen.     c. You might actually be able to drink a beer right next to the stage while you listen at a small venue.

3. Oh yeah, beer. Beer doesn’t exist unless you are in a “beer garden.” Beer gardens have fences and beer gardens never exist where one can watch the concert while drinking. (Note: Sehawk Stadium thankfully does).

4. Simple access to smoking area. In a closed arena, surrounded by the filth and must of thousands of your neighbors, being able to grab a breath of fresh air without fuss can make an otherwise unbareable show bareable.

5. The shows that we might want to see in a large venue have usually two unattactive seating options:    a. GA (or General Admission if you prefer) which means no seats close. If you want to go close you have to weather the unwashed masses (read asshole teenagers who don’t now that not all songs should be moshed to).   b. All seats. This means you are going to see the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, or The Who.  And you get to be surrounded by Baby Boomers. Sorry mom. You are also likely paying $200 for that shiny seat of yours.

6. Oh yeah, prices. Ticketmaster has no scruples about bending you over in return for the “convenience” of their service.

7. Large venues attract posers.    a. Old people who don’t know any of the bands. Radio station showcases and festivals are notorious for this.    b. Young people because, well, young people like music. Anyone under 19 falls into this category. There are those who are trying to perfectly mime the singer’s style, and then there are those who are there simply because their friends are there.    c. Corporate Spawn. Damn you luxury boxes and backstage-pass-wearers! Let me just seeth a little bit of hate and a little bit of jealousy repectively at you people.

8. If you are stuck in a seat, your seat may be where you can see and hear effectively nothing.

This list by no means exhaustive or complete. Once I got to eight items with subheadings I felt like my case was getting pretty strong. I’m not counting the amphitheatre’s (White River or The Gorge) or The Moore or the Paramount. We have attended quite a few at these medium sized venues. I am talking about the big daddy’s of venues: The Everett Events Center, The Tacoma Dome, Key Arena, Seahawk Stadium. Large venues that are amphitheatres are a completely different bag and in fact contradict many if not most of the items on this list. 

While I don’t consider the Moore or the Paramount of the same nature as arena, they do offend on nearly as many levels. Only number 8 and number 1 don’t apply in the case of those two theatres. In fact just today I learned the Elvis Perkins would be opening for My Morning Jacket at the Moore so I decided I would get tickets. For two $25 dollar tickets, my total price was $76.69. Good god! Their $8 plus dollar convenience fee (per ticket!) and their $2.50 fee for emailing the tickets are killing me. Who ever thought up paying more to get something by email? I wanna get my stuff by email for free.

Apart from the fan’s experience, for the band, playing in a big stadium must be an unusual feeling. Especially for those that don’t have big stage shows or consider themselves anything more than musicians. Filling a stadium with your performance isn’t the same as filling the Crocodile Cafe with it. Everything has to be bigger: your playing, your personality, your movement. And all for an audience who is behind a bunch of security guards and metal fences.

This week should provide an interesting study in how different bands are able to make the stadium setting work for them. I have no doubt My Chemical Romance and Jet will be able to pull it off, but I am not so sure about the Shins or Snow Patrol. I saw the Shins at Sasquatch a few years back at the Gorge and thought that they would have benefited greatly from a closed venue. I was thinking smaller though. I know that Snow Patrol has been doing the big venue thing for a while but I have this feeling that they might just sound like pussies in a stadium. I hope they can prove me wrong. 

It will be really interesting to see Death Cab. I saw them a few years back in the student union cafeteria at Western in Bellingham, on a stage that could barely fit the whole band and with a horrible sound setup. In the subsequent settings of The Showbox and The Paramount they have done well, so it my perspective will come full circle with this band after seeing them at the Key. I have this feeling they can pull it off better than most.

I’ll have a followup post next week sometime.

Related

Key Arena Concert Seating Chart