Live music is something that many people enjoy and participate in. Whether you are playing for a crowd or seeing your favorite band perform, where you are matters. Some places have a better stage, some places have a better space for an audience and some places have better sound than others. But, should you pay money to see a show at a small venue or a large stadium?

When you go to a concert at a small venue or concert hall the tickets are usually much cheaper when prices are compared to a concert at a stadium or amphitheater. For example, there’s a concert at Pop’s Nightclub in East Saint Louis. General admission tickets are $30 in advance and $35 at the door. At a similar concert at the Chaifetz Arena downtown by SLU, the tickets cost $50 to $200, depending on what section you buy your tickets in. The price markup is due to the price of setting up the concert. Large concerts usually have big light shows, road crews and more speakers to fill the bigger area with sound and visuals. Concerts like the one at Chaifetz Arena also seat up to 10,600 people, whereas a place like Pop’s only seats 1,000 to 2,000 people, meaning the price for stocking concessions is also much higher.

The other major downside of bigger concerts that doesn’t happen with smaller concerts is that you end up watching the whole concert through a screen. At concerts in stadiums, like the Enterprise Center or Busch Stadium, without spending a ton of money on tickets, you’re probably going to be sitting pretty far from the actual stage. Since you’re so far from the stage, the concert you paid money to see is going to be pretty hard to see, thus you’re going to be looking at the big screens that are spread throughout the stadium. At a smaller venue like The Pageant or Delmar Hall, you’re most likely not more than 200 to 500 ft. away from the stage at any given moment, so that’s not really a problem.

Some may argue that the light shows and the pyrotechnics at bigger concerts add an experience that you don’t usually experience at a smaller concert or make the concert that you’re seeing better. However, some concerts with over-the-top lighting and pyrotechnics can distract you from the actual concert and sometimes even hurt your eyes or make you sick. Overall, smaller concerts will not only get you a better experience for less money, but it will also let you be closer to many fans who are like you. When you leave a concert you should be happy and you should feel closer to the artist. You should feel like you got exactly what you payed for. The only way to achieve those feelings is to go to a smaller, more personal concert.