Pulse - Dead Nation

I studied it in school and spend most of my waking moments with it pulsating through my mind.

During the summer months, I spend my weekends touring the northeast and beyond in order to get my yearly live music fix, but no matter where I am there is always a special place in my heart for Saratoga Springs premier live concert venue SPAC. For it is the place where I witnessed my first concert, not to mention where I first saw the remaining members of the Grateful Dead perform together live.

Nonetheless, in recent years it has become increasingly hard for me to find a show that inspires me to make the journey over to the picturesque venue and empty out my pockets for an overpriced lawn ticket.

Since 2000, I have averaged around four shows a year at SPAC. However, since Live Nation took over, the number of shows I attend yearly has drastically gone down and last year I attended just one concert. Myself, like most people in the area, continue to find it harder to pay for overpriced tickets to see a band that I wouldn’t even listen to if it came on my car radio, let alone if I had to sit on the hard ground staring at a screen for three hours. The way the lineup is shaping up this year, I probably wouldn’t even step foot inside the venue if it wasn’t for Jazz Fest.

From what I am told, SPAC’s concerts were not always like the way they are today. I am too young to remember the “good old days” at SPAC that my parents often reminisce about. I never knew a time when the venue allowed people to bring in backpacks, umbrellas and coolers full of an array of beverages. The only SPAC I have ever known is the one that forces you to arrive empty handed, go through three sets of security and spend upwards of $6 on a bottle of water.

Nonetheless, there are still a few good times to be had at SPAC. For instance, the parking lot can still be an enjoyable experience if you make sure to stand quietly to the back, so that some other group of intoxicated freaks draws more attention to themselves from the swarm of police officers patrolling on ATVs than you do.

SPAC is undoubtedly one of the northeast’s jewels in terms of concert venues. The problem does not lie in SPAC, but rather in the Live Nation promoters who are in charge of the venues concert series. For they are the ones who have filled our favorite venues throughout the country with corporate rules and the same old dull acts year after year, forcing one to question whether wasting four hours and a days worth of pay to see some retched cover band being pawned off as Journey worth it.

Right now, SPAC is in its last year of contract with Live Nation. They will soon be free to rid themselves of Clear Channel’s obsession with ruining not only our nation’s airwaves, but its live music scene. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t expect anything to change, because the venues board of trustees is already considering re-upping their contract with Live Nation for the next 10 years, which undoubtedly means higher ticket prices, more rules and a lineup full of the same old acts for years to come.

I do have faith that when the final lineup is released, the ticket will offer at least one unique show worth attending — if not for my own sake, for the sake of rock music in Saratoga.