What's the farthest you've ever traveled to see a show?

Cafe Society
1

Last summer I started this thread about lining up super early for concerts.

Now I’m traveling a bit of a distance for the first time ever to go to a concert and I’m curious as to how far anyone else has traveled for that specific purpose. I’m starting to feel like a nutty groupie, but I really want to go and I can afford it, so why not?

I’m making a trip from NYC to Richmond, VA to see a show the first week of April. Six hours by bus. Shouldn’t be too bad since I’m originally from the DC area and travel by bus from NYC to DC which is around 4 hours, so another 2 hours won’t kill me.

Anyone else travel a crazy distance to see their favorite artist? Or is that just flat out crazy?

2

I flew from Washington State to Las Vegas for a concert once, and my wife flew from Chicago to Seattle once to see the same band.

3

Cool, which band?

I realized that I didn’t mention that I’m seeing Morrissey.

4

San Francisco to London to see the Nice on their reunion tour. It was totally worth the trip.

5

I drove 5 hours each way to see Weird Al and took a 6 hour train trip each way to see Okkervil River perform twice in the same day.

6

We’ve traveled from Chicago to the east coast to see Hap several times, to shows in Troy, NY, Albany, NY, New York City and Philadelphia (multiple times).

Other travels include…

I traveled from Kansas City to Detroit, Cleveland and Cincinnati to see Genesis.

I traveled from Kansas City to Dayton, OH to see Peter Gabriel.

We traveled from Chicago to Detroit to see Jane Siberry.

We traveled from Chicago to Toronto to see a live Christmas concert with Jane Siberry, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Holly Cole, Victoria Williams and Rebecca Jenkins.

We traveled from Chicago to Kansas City to see Tori Amos. Same to see Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band.

We’ve traveled the longest distances as Kate Bush fans. We went from Kansas City to Winnipeg for a fan convention. Then traveled from Kansas City to New York to meet her when she was in the US to promote Hounds of Love. Then we traveled, twice, from Chicago to London for fan conventions (she was there both times but we didn’t know in advance she was going to attend).

As far as willingness to travel, we were all set to go on tour with Hap to New Zealand, but that tour fell through. We’d travel anywhere in the world to see Kate Bush perform.

7

The only distance out of town I’ve traveled was a fairly special occasion. I won tickets to see the Goo Goo Dolls Millenium show at the Hard Rock Vegas on New Year’s Eve 2000. So yeah, we made a trip from Chicago for that.

8

My brother and I flew from Kansas City to London to see Pete Townshend’s orchestral production of his long-postponed Lifehouse project at Sadler’s Wells. He’d never been out of the country and I had been to London a few times, so I was mostly his guide.

9

Rome to London by train and ferry, with an overnight stop in Paris, to see Pixies at the Crystal Palace Bowl in 1991. And then we went to Amsterdam after that. Man, that was a good holiday.

10

Weekend trip between Philadephia (airport) and London to see Brian Wilson at the Southbank Centre.

I got so used to having to fly over to the UK for West End shows, exhibitions, and concerts that it’s an amazing luxury now to nip up to town for a play, or 15 mins’ drive over to Portsmouth or Southampton for a concert.

With the cost of rail tickets, though, I might as well being flying overseas :mad:

11

That’s awesome- Kate Bush doesn’t tour much though does she? I read that she only did concerts in 1979. Does she go to conventions, etc. to meet people but not perform live?

12

Back in my Phish days I rode in a VW microbus from MD to New Orleans to see them play in jazzfest in the mid 90s.

13

You’re right, Kate’s only toured once in 1979. She’s done a tiny handful of one-off performances for television shows and benefits. The few times she showed up at fan cconventions was to meet and greet, Q&A, and to express her appreciation for support. At the 1990 convention she performed a short acapella song she wrote for her fans there. You could have heard a pin drop between the notes. And the roar of the crowd when it was over shook the building!

14

I drove from Columbus O to NYC last year to see Ben Folds. We made a little trip out of it and saw the Empire State Building and Niagara Falls but still, it was about a 10-hour drive to the concert. Totally worth it, too.

15

I drove for 3 hours to see Pinetop Seven (Pittsburgh to Cleveland).
They weren’t playing in Pittsburgh so I emailed them and asked why not. They answered, were very nice, and asked if there was any way we could make it to the Cleveland show, they’d get us in.

My cousin has driven from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia to see shows (about 5-6 hours). I don’t know who though.

16

Mine was Phish also. 18 hours by car to Colorado to see them in Denver. Also memorable was Iowa City, when an icy blizzard closed down the interstate on the drive back home. Being stuck on the highway in a crowded Jetta in the middle of nowhere Iowa at midnight in an ice storm was an experience I’m not crazy to repeat.

17

I traveled from Schenectady to Boston to see Pink Floyd.

For plays and musicals, I often travel to NYC.

18

I drove 10 hours from Boston to Toronto in the mid 90’s to see Metallica play a warm up show for the Lollapalooza tour in a club for less than 500 people.

Drove 4+ hours for Woodstock 94

From Boston to NYC to see The Big 4 play at Yankee Stadium

19

Drove from College Park Maryland to Boston to see Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Travelled from Mainz to Berlin to see Roger Waters perform The Wall after the Berlin Wall came down. Not as far but it was a much bigger pain in the ass. The Wall might have been down in Berlin but travel from West to East still wasn’t open for soldiers. Had to travel through checkpoints Alpha and Bravo.

20

I drove from Rochester, NY to Albany, NY once to see the Ramones. It was supposed to be their last concert but they subsequently did a farewell tour.