For about a month now, I had been debating whether or not I should check out the “Troubadour Reunion” tour by James Taylor and Carole King. I’ve always wanted to see Carole King in concert, and she doesn’t really tour all that much — at least, she hasn’t played in Boston in a good long time. James Taylor, on the other hand, lives in Massachusetts, and he seems to pop up everywhere. I’ve seen him in concert more times than I can count.
Tickets for this tour were priced pretty high, and because of that my choice was fairly easy to make. Over the years, I’ve become kind of a seat snob. I hate sitting way up in the balcony, and I prefer my tickets to be free whenever possible. Having spent a fair amount of time in the industry, I guess I’m pretty accustomed to comp’ed tickets. But I’d heard rumors that this tour wasn’t selling to the levels people were hoping for. On a whim, I looked around online for tickets, and was somewhat shocked by what I saw!
A quick search on Craigslist showed a LOT of tickets for sale far below face value. Most of ’em were alluding to being out of town, couldn’t make it last minute, and stuff like that. But then, when I started looking on the bigger 3rd party sites, I saw tickets for that night’s show as low as $15.
Ultimately, I ended up splurging, and spent $35 (each) for a pair of tickets in the second row of the loge. Face value on EACH ticket was $125! For $35 I was confident that I’d get my money’s worth. And, I think I did.
Seeing James Taylor is sort of like welcoming back an old friend. The songs are familiar, you feel like you have a long history with the guy, and it’s all just so gosh darn happy. Problem is, eventually something new has to happen, otherwise your friend gets boring. Retelling the old stories over and over and over, isn’t really fun anymore. That being said, certain James Taylor songs have a virtual reverence to them that’s unmatched. Hearing “Sweet Baby James” live is still a great thing — which is impressive considering how many times he’s performed it over the last 40 (!) years.  As an aside, James said that his -entire- family was in the house.  Considering he’s got a bunch of musical family members, do something spontaneous and invite ’em onstage to sing with you.  Alas, spontaneity isn’t a term he seemed all that familiar with.
Carole King was an entirely different story. She seemed genuinely excited to be on that stage. And when she starts to sing, you realize very quickly that she wrote a stack of incredible songs — legendary, history making, era defining, monster songs. Few people can cover her songs convincingly and without sounding like karaoke, but when she performs, it’s a realization of how impressive her songs (and her writing…) really are. Â How many artists can claim to have an album top the charts for 15 weeks and have written 118 songs that hit the Billboard charts? Â That’s what Carole King has done, and it shows when she reels off song after song, hit after hit, and makes them feel as valid today as they were -50- years ago!
I applaud both performers for taking the act on the road, but while one artist sought to win over the crowd and entertain, the other was doing the same ol’ show. That’s why you get $125 tickets for $35. And quite possibly, it’s one of many reasons the music industry is suffering.
