The Aging Road

As soon as word broke that Stevie Wonder was playing the United Center in November, my wife and I did what we've been doing with big-time concerts since 1972.

Hopped into our car and drove on down to the United Center to buy our tickets directly from the ticket seller, who sits in a little booth behind a plate of glass and sells you your tickets directly. So you buy them at face value from the venue where the act will be performing.

Well, it wouldn't have been the United Center back in `72. Would have been the Chicago Stadium--the United Center of its day. Whose owners, as rich and greedy as they may have been, felt no compulsion to call it anything other than what it was...

The Chicago Stadium.

As opposed to selling the naming rights to a corporation. Could it be that the idea to make even more money by selling naming rights just did not occur to them? Or, have rich people grown even greedier with the years?

Feel free to discuss...

That's how I got tickets the first time I saw Stevie. Back in 1972. He was touring with the Rolling Stones. The opening act. Can you believe that? Stevie was an opening act!  

I think we'll all agree that Stevie Wonder is more talented than the Rolling Stones. As talented as the Stones may be. But Stevie was no fool. He understood that opening for the Stones was the fastest way to expose his music to young white people who love Black music, so long as it's played by white people.

And that's why to this day pretty much the only Stevie Wonder song you'll hear on a classic rock station is Superstition, which was a major number back on that tour, when the geezers, who listen to classic rock, were still

Elvis at the Stadium…

While we're at it, 1972 was also the time Elvis played the Chicago Stadium. I did not see that concert. But I heard about it from Greg, a high-school friend who loved--no, not strong enough--worshipped Elvis.

As we sat dining in the Evanston High School cafeteria, Greg gave me his dramatic blow-by-blow account of the concert, culminating with his riveting description of 20,000 or so Elvis fans pleading for another encore. Only, alas, to have the Stadium people turn on the lights and declare what's now become an immortal line. All together now, Boomers...

Elvis has left the building.

Anyway, enough Boomer reminising. Back to reality...

At the United Center box office, the ticket seller told us--sorry, sold out. Sold out within a few minutes of the tickets going on sale online. Bought up by the Big Boys, who're now selling tickets on the secondary markets for twice the face value. So what you gotta do is hope the prices fall as it gets closer to the November concert.

Proving once again, that every supposed technological step forward is at least one or two steps back. 

When I told this tale to millennials and Zs they howled with laughter at the dumb Boomers who don't know how the world has changed.

I'm happy to say my wife and I were not alone.

There was another Boomer couple in line with us--along with their millennial daughter. They too thought they could get tickets at the venue. 

As we stood there empty handed, we reminisced about great Stevie concerts we've seen and our favorite Stevie songs and I heaped them with praise for having raised a millennial who appreciated Stevie Wonder. You'd be surprised how many Zs and millennials don't even know who he is.

And then we spent a few minutes mourning the continued devolution of society as measured by the barbarities of capitalism.

It's not enough that they make money by selling tickets at a more or less reasonable price so ordinary people get to hear live music. No, they had to figure a scheme in which they double the price. Greedy bastards.

As we parted, the other Boomers said they were going to a ticket outlet down the street. Hoping that one had tickets.

I wished them luck, though I had no faith they could get what they wanted. It's not 1972 anymore. No, consumer-friendly ticket prices have left the building. 

And just like Elvis, they're not coming back.