Madison, Wi to Chicago to see the Clash , with four out of six people on mushrooms(I wasn’t informed of this because I wasn’t included in that part of the 'trip")
Madison to Milwaukee to see Elivis Costello.
Not very. Last year I saw Jimmy Buffett at a venue about an hour away from me. Ke$ha will tie the record for me next week, as she’s performing at the same venue.
About 125 miles from San Diego to Burbank, to see a church-musical – a song-cycle based on the Book of Ruth – which a friend had written, produced, and was directing.
Once you start traveling to see shows, it becomes addicting.
We’ve flown from Albuquerque to Hoboken (well, flew to Newark and then drove to Hoboken) to see the dB’s. I think that was our longest trip, but we’ve also flown to San Francisco and to Atlanta to see R.E.M.
We once planned an entire family vacation around a They Might Be Giants show in Park City, Utah and ended up driving up past the Grand Canyon, through Death Valley, through Yosemite, up through north-central CA into Oregon, through Portland, and then back down through Idaho into Utah. That doesn’t really count, though.
At the height of my concert going I lived in New York and from there traveled as far north as Massachusetts (Tanglewood, Cape Cod) and as far south as DC. Which never felt all that far.
Other than a few years living in different time zones I’ve never really ventured away from the eastern seaboard for an event.
Not that I wouldn’t… there’ve been a lot of concert threads lately. Those and a few other factors are giving me the musical equivalent of wanderlust.
New record for me: I traveled to Tampa (1000 miles away) this weekend to see Ke$ha for a second time this summer. I really went down there to see some friends that I’d been planning on visiting, but I picked this specific weekend because Ke$ha was there, so I guess it fulfills the OP’s criteria.
I drove two hours there, and two hours back, to see Gettysburg when it came out in limited release in 1993. It was mostly worth it.
Drove two hours, about 120 miles, to see Yes play in West Texas once.
How about the shortest time? When we lived in the Bangkok suburbs, it was just a five-minute walk to the venue where Elton John and Roger Waters played on different occasions.
I went from L.A. to Havana to see Bamboleo. (And some other groups.)
170 miles, from OKC to Wichita, KS to see Jan Akkerman (former guitarist for Focus.) Show sucked. Next time, he can come see me.
My wife bought me tickets to see Hawkwind last time they toured Australia. I live in Perth, they were playing in Sydney - 3300km away (about 2000 miles).