John Schaefer can live without live baseball (sort of), but not without live music.

I am a lifelong Yankees fan; but I can’t remember the last time I went to Yankee Stadium. It’s just too expensive. The bleachers are still cheap, but they’re uncomfortable (especially on a hot day); plus it’s way easier to get my baseball fix from the TV. I am also a lifelong music fan – but that is not something you can get from TV. Even if you liked Bruce Springsteen’s set at last night’s Super Bowl, I guarantee your experience does not compare to the people who were there to hear it live.

I’ve seen Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser on PBS, but it is in no way similar to the experience of having seen it at the Met. The latter was a birthday thing, and a pretty extravagant one, given that we were seated in the orchestra level and not up in the Family Circle, which is the Metropolitan Opera’s equivalent of Yankee Stadium’s bleachers. But that’s the point of Alex Ross’s recent article: even an august institution like the Met has cheap seats.

True, the seats are cheap because they’re not very good. If you’re taking your kid or a friend or a date to the opera and hoping they’ll learn to like it, sitting behind a pillar and seeing only half the stage is probably not the way to go. But if you’re a music lover and want that experience of hearing the live act of music-making, it’s a pretty good compromise solution.

What’s your solution to the rising cost of live music? Do you have a favorite music club, or concert series, that is free or low cost?