I was at a 4 day music festival last week and this question occurred to me. I think I’ve seen more live music than most people so I thought I’d post a poll to check that assumption.
Rules are: only time actually listening to music counts; time spent sitting in the audience pre-show, post-show and during intermissions doesn’t count. Professional performances only; listening to your mom play the piano doesn’t count. Time must be spent as an audience member; if you’re a musician, time you spent playing doesn’t count. Deliberate attendance only; if you can hear music from the arena near your house, that doesn’t count.
Unfortunately it’s hard for me (and I imagine hard for a lot of people) to come up with an accurate estimate. Unlike some people I know, I haven’t kept track of every concert I’ve attended, and memories of how many shows I was seeing 30 years ago are fuzzy. After quite a bit of time thinking about this, I’ve come up with this (probably conservative) estimate:
Grateful Dead shows (1987-1995): 90 shows at 2.5 hours per show
String Cheese Incident: 40 shows at 2.5 hours per show
Other jam bands: 60 shows at 2.5 hours per show
Festivals: 40 days at 8 hours per day
Other music: 30 shows at 2 hours per show
Total: 855 hours. I think my total is actually quite a bit higher than this, but I’m going to be conservative.
I’ve got no idea how I would begin to calculate it. Definitely in the thousands. Saw a ton of live music as a kid in Chicago, and while in college/law school.
I would also have no idea how to begin to calculate this. The first show I saw was in 1964 (the Marvelettes at a county fair in Michigan). That’s 55 years and counting…
I’m happy claiming 600 - 1000 hours but it may well be more. The first gig I went to was back in 1971 and I’ve seen hundreds since.
And then there’s not only classical concerts but operas, musicals, ballet performances where the players may not be the main focus of attention but you do watch them at times.
Ha, my first show was also in 1987 (Parkwest UT, 8/20/1987) and after that I saw 160 other shows until '95, and I think 27 (maybe it was 29 or 29, but just shy of 30) various Jerry Garcia Band shows.
I have also attended the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (“Jazzfest”) annually since 1997 although I missed this year as I had just gotten married a week earlier and was in Greece on our honeymoon.
I have also seen Bob Dylan play live over 70 times, in over 20 different US states and 7 or 8 different countries, and Van Morrison 80 times, also all over the world, and 9 different times here in Europe just since 2016.
I have been seeing Widespread Panic since 1992, and have caught them something like 60 various nights, probably at least 15 or more at Denver’s celebrated Red Rocks Ampitheater alone, another dozen just in New Orleans
Neil Young and Los Lobos are two more that I am at least at 20 shows apiece with.
(I had some connections with Delta Airlines which helped a lot, but the vast majuority was on my own dime. I had never been married until this spring, no kids, so travel for live music was where virtually every penny of my disposable has gone since I was 17 years old. no regrets at all)
I put 300 - 600, but it could well be higher. I really enjoy music.
My kids all played in their middle school/ high school orchestra, so that’s about 100 hours. Then outdoor music events like the NGA’s Jazz in the Garden series is 100 more, at least. When I lived in Chicago, I saw a lot of blues acts at bars and festivals. A few big names like Rush back in the 80s.
It’s really hard to say, I have been to a lot of small club shows, a few big concerts, lots of events that also had bands playing, etc. I’d say between 601 and 1000 rough guess.
If I go to a contra dance with a live band, does that count? How about if I go to a religious service mostly to hear the music? (The cantor/choir are paid, so it’s sort of a professional performance.)
Probably 1000-2000 hrs for me. I spent several years in my 20s as a hipster barfly in the local music scene, seeing multiple bands and multiple bars/clubs a week, in addition to dozens of major venue shows per year.
Yeah, as an oldster I’m now wrestling with tinnitus and bad hearing, but FRONT ROW FOR THE RAMONES, MAN!!!
Remembering to guesstimate concerts, bar bands, and all-day festivals (and multi-day festivals for that matter) mostly in the bluegrass vein, I put myself in the 301-600 grouping. Closer to 600 than 301.
Oh, well, sure, if you’re going to count bluegrass as music…
(just kidding, I was in a “newgrass bluegrass” band).
But my total’d be way low, if it weren’t for Summerfest (Milwaukee).
Non-stop bands from noon til after midnight, going almost every day since 1972… kind of adds up.
I didn’t count times I was chatting with friends and not listening (seriously, I have NO idea what The Doors sounded like, because Jim Morrison had just died, so they had some fat guy wailin’ away… My pal Feenie’s weed, and his description of a Floyd concert he’d just been to, were much more interesting).
It’s gotta be over 1000. I spent about 10 years going to shows almost every weekend, and worked in theatre for many years doing musicals and opera. Probably close to 500 hours just in rehearsals.
I use to go to a lot of concerts and to see live music in bars and even some musicals.
I also have helped with over 30 Music Festivals over the years and probably another 20 fundraisers with 5-10 hrs of music. All this barely gets me over 1000 hours so I am amazed by those over 4000 unless they are semi-pro musicians or sound guys types.
Ooh, you were touring a lot. I was lucky to live in the San Francisco Bay area, so almost all of my 90 shows were local. My first show was Shoreline, 10/3/87. I probably saw about a dozen JGB shows without traveling too. In 1981-82 I was living within walking distance of the Keystone in Palo Alto where Jerry played a bunch of shows, but sadly I wasn’t into the scene yet and didn’t attend a single show there.