Stray Kids

This is a Korean pop band that I was able to see recently. They put on an excellent show and I am going to use it as an example of changes in concerts.

Growing up I saw a few concerts in stadiums, places that were packed to the brim with 1000s of people, and music blasting loud enough to hear a few blocks away. Today those same things exist but the experience is much different.

There used to be opener bands, and the stadium would be three quarters full up. The band would play at one side, and the people sit on the others. The opener starts first, warms the crowd up and then the main band comes out. The entire thing takes 5-6 hours and then you go home, hopefully having purchased a lot of merchandise for the bands.

About a decade ago the stages started to evolve. You got walk out stages so the band could walk to the center of the stadium and then have an almost 360-degree view. Opener bands started to disappear and so the length of a show shrank. Now only one band performs, you can pre-order merchandise, and something called sound check exists.

The latest invention are stages which are circular, used by bands such as BTS and Stray Kids. This allows the entire stadium to be filled, selling more tickets. You still have people on the floor too - they sit in the center of the circle and simply turn and watch as the band moves around. This also means that there are fewer bad seats in the house to see the band.

It isn't a bad change, just interesting that it took so long to be considered.