I've been to thousands of rock concerts and have seen it all.
Or so I thought.
On Wednesday, I went to see the legendary Dave Mason at the Vilar Arts Center in Beaver Creek, Colorado (a resort town so magnifico-eleganza it makes tony Vail urban street cred by comparison). The Vilar Center is a gorgeous edifice, with a concert hall unparalleled in intimacy and wood-paneled majesty. Box office is at street level, and you head down a grand staircase to get to the floor seats.
Once there, to the immediate left of the center doors, was the perfunctory "Merch Table" (that's it just below), resplendent with t-shirts, CDs, posters and like. Max price: $25. One color: black.
But on the other side of doors was another souvenir vendor, one that gave new meaning to the term "Rock" Concert (see below again). There, behind two shining showcases, were rope-thick necklaces of emeralds, rubies, sapphires and diamonds, multi-strand tennis bracelets, higher-than-high-end watches, and gold earrings the size of walnuts. Many pieces were worth WAY more than the gross potential of the evening's entertainment (that's 530 seats at $55 per).
Way way way way way way WAY more.
Out-of-the-ordinary indeed, but easily rationalized I suppose, since Princess World Jewelers, the people behind the showcases, are also the people sponsoring the winter's season of entertainment at the Vilar. Even easier rationalized given the household income of most of the concert's attendees would dwarf the GNPs of many small nations.
And, as the pictures kinda reveal, guess which Merch Table had more traffic?
Getting "stoned" at a concert never cost this much before...but I suspect the high lasts a whole lot longer.
Ka-ching!