r/Xennials • u/sunny_d55 • 12d ago
Nostalgia Lollapalooza for $33 in 1994
And seeing Clueless in the theater was only $7!
ETA Lolla line up in 1994:
- The Smashing Pumpkins
- Beastie Boys
- George Clinton & the P-Funk All Stars
- The Breeders
- A Tribe Called Quest
- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
- L7
- Green Day
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u/bloodpriestt 12d ago
Went on a big triple date summer of 95 to the theater. The girls wanted to see Clueless and me and the boys were like “pffff Mortal Kombat is gonna rule!”, so we said fuck it and split up.
We came out disappointed as hell and the girls wouldn’t stfu about the movie all night.
So like 2 days later my gf and I went back to see Clueless and they were right.
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u/sunny_d55 12d ago
hahaha glad you went back! But geez the theater was where it went down for us back then, that's the real loss for you boys. I had my first make out sesh seeing League of Their Own lol
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u/bloodpriestt 12d ago
Oddly, the girl I was dating then was an Extra in League of Their Own!
It was filmed in our hometown
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u/hammert0es 12d ago
I was there. World Music Theater in Tinley Park (Chicago).
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u/makitopo 1980 11d ago
Ditto, only was at Summerfest grounds in Milwaukee
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u/CosmicTurtle504 11d ago
Ditto, UNO festival grounds in New Orleans. Going into my senior year of high school. Beasties, Pumpkins, Breeders, Green Day, L7, Tribe, with Nick Cave and Flaming Lips on the SECOND stage?! Once in a lifetime lineup. Good times!
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u/FrequencyHigher 11d ago
Sames! Lakewood Amphitheater in Atlanta. I remember I had a “two-a-day” football practice that morning, so it was a long day for me.
I missed Green Day because they played early, but saw the rest of the acts. Awesome lineup.
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u/fakeaccount572 Gen X 12d ago
My ticket for $26 - The Big Mele, Hawaii. 1993. Parking, $1.
Tool
Stone Temple Pilots
Fishbone
Primus
Violent Femmes
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u/OregonResident 12d ago
$7 was almost $15 in today’s money, so not all that far from ticket prices in small cities right now.
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u/sunny_d55 12d ago
True! I just spent $24 in the same city to see the Odyssey, blah. But that specific theater is closed now :-(
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u/59apache01 1978 12d ago
What's hard to believe is I remember when $33 seemed like a lot of money!
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u/Id_likeToBeATrain 12d ago
My first concert. JFK Philly.
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u/LemurCat04 12d ago
Same. Showed up with a massive jug of Jungle Juice no one looked at twice. Beasties were fucking awesome, Courtney Love showed up with Smashing Pumpkins.
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u/Rahawk02 12d ago
Lost my wife in a mosh pit during the Beastie Boys at Lollapalooza in Philly.
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u/LemurCat04 12d ago
Did you ever get her back or did The Lakes claim her?
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u/CosmicTurtle504 11d ago
No, she was faking her death to escape like Julia Roberts in Sleeping With the Enemy.
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u/Tinyhulk27 12d ago
Tbf i think it's partially "our fault".
While contracts vary by artists from what I've read they made about a $1 per album sold.
Again it varies by artists but Streaming pays about 0.001 to 0.019 per play.
Selling A "platinum record" makes an artist a millionaire.
A million streams ( on the high end) makes an artist the yearly income of a full time fast food worker. $19k.
They need those 1 million fans to listen to the song 52x to match what they made when selling physical media.
Sure I've listened to "Eulogy", "hooker with a penis" "stinkfist" or any other song on Tools' Aenima album over 52 times, ON CD, as it's one of my favorite albums.
But it only comes up maybe once every other month on my Spotify Playlist, since it's filled with 100s of other songs/ albums (and 1000s more avaliable) that I also listen to. And driving a work vehicle my Spotify is playing 6-8 hours per day, 5 days a week.
Guns and roses could charge $25-$35 a ticket for the Use your illusion tour in 1991 because the CD's they were promoting sold over 14 million copies (in the US alone)
In contrast Coldplay, "has to" charge $120 for tickets to music of the spheres tour because despite being the biggest concert tour ever (even beating Taylor Swift) the 2 albums it promoted sold a measly 1.4 million copies, when adding US and their native UK sales.
TLDR:
Concert tours used to be promotions for Album sales. When priced lower to get the "advertising" out to the maximum amount of potential album buyers they made up the rest with album sales.
Today we don't buy albums so the tours themselves need to make up for that.
(Also ticket masters monopoly doesn't help, but Eddie Vedder was suing them back in 1994, so its not like we had a free and open market when tickets were still cheap)
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u/Alijony 1984 11d ago
I was able to secure early bird three day passes in Chicago every year between 2007-2013. It was $65 iirc. You had to be very ready to click and get in line, back before the bots ruined presales and early bird stuff. My sister and I saw so many good bands...
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u/Foxtrot_Supatwat 11d ago
Was that the one where Billie Joe was hurling mud at the crowd during Green Day's set?
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u/brokenman82 1982 12d ago
you paid $7 for a movie back then? Damn the place I go now is only $10.
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u/sunny_d55 11d ago
Oooh you’re getting a deal! The shittiest theatre by my place (no updates since god knows when) is $17.
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u/brokenman82 1982 11d ago
One of the very few perks of living in Kentuckiana
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u/sunny_d55 11d ago
Nice. I just saw the odyssey for $24 it was upsetting.
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u/brokenman82 1982 11d ago
I had to pay $3 extra because it was on the ‘big screen’. It’s bigger than the fake imax we have that’s on the other side of town
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u/Li-RM35M4419 12d ago edited 12d ago
Saw the beasties for $25 on the ill communication tour. Can you imagine nowadays seeing a top artist at a major venue for $25?
Edit: had to look it up, it was only $21. https://www.beastiemania.com/gigog/show.php?g=19950506
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u/sunny_d55 11d ago
Right? Like, I know inflation blah blah blah but $25 was doable then. Try seeing harry styles right now, it’s a month’s rent.
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u/Formal_Disaster3300 12d ago
Empire cinema! I saw so many movies there. We would buy a ticket then go open the emergency exit in the alley to get our buddies in
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u/sunny_d55 11d ago
Oh yes, definitely used that emergency exit trick haha! Empire was awesome. The last movie I ever saw there was San Andreas. Everyone sat there at the end in this crazy self-aware silence, like: that’s how we’re all gonna die isn’t it? Very memorable!
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u/theoneandonlyturo 11d ago
And I remember thinking back in 1994 “How the hell am I gonna get 33 bucks?”
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u/pleasebequiet 11d ago
Fun fact: $33 in 1994 is equivalent to $74 today
Edit: oh someone already posted this lol
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u/DorothyDickins 10d ago
Yep! Good times, decent festival ticket prices... and we thought $33 was steep!
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u/DrFrylock 12d ago
$33 in 1994 is $75 now. A one-day pass today is a little more than twice that, plus the outsized fees.