We had two major back to back events this weekend. Fluffy performed his standup show on Thursday, followed by the Craig David concert on Friday night. Most of the feedback I’ve heard and seen has been pretty positive, with the main complaints being traffic and parking, which is pretty common for big events anywhere in the world. Although having these events in Kuwait is pretty cool, one thing I noticed when I initially posted about them is the negative comments. Yeah, it’s the internet and that’s expected, but I feel like this negativity also exists in the real world.
When I posted about Blue and Craig David, a lot of people criticized the choice of artists. Why them and not someone more relevant? I get where that’s coming from. I’m super picky with the music I like too, and if I’m going to a concert, I want it to be a band that matters to me, like Nine Inch Nails or Foo Fighters. But realistically, neither of those bands are coming to Kuwait anytime soon and that’s ok for now (think baby steps). Some people also mentioned that being seated for the concerts didn’t make sense. The reality is, seating at concerts isn’t the end of the world. I’m seeing Nine Inch Nails this summer and I’ve got seated tickets — no big deal.
But honestly, I’ll take whatever we can get here because we don’t have many of these events.
When Sting performed in Kuwait back in 2017, I thought that was going to be the start of more live shows. That didn’t happen, and things stayed pretty quiet until just now. It’s still only May and so far we had Blue, Fluffy and Craig David perform in Kuwait. I didn’t go to Fluffy, but I did go to Craig David. From the videos I saw of the Fluffy event and the crowd at the concert, it looked like everyone was having a blast.
This weekend proved there’s a real appetite for live shows here, and as long as this momentum keeps going I think it’s good for everyone, even though we aren’t getting Taylor Swift or Dave Chappelle.
8 replies on “This Weekend Proved We Need More Shows”
I went to the Gabriel Iglesias show and it was great! I also really enjoyed the Mo Amer show last year but this was clearly a different tier of comedy event.
I love how he skirted around the “prohibited” words
i think you may have just changed my mind about seated cocnerts, seated concerts are better than no concerts
On the topic of Foo Fighters and Nine Inch Nails- back in 2007 you had blogged about them playing a concert in Dublin, Ireland. I knew Foo Fighters were going to be playing, but when I saw your post and saw that Nine Inch Nails were also going to be there, I had to go.
I’ve been a big fan of both bands since high school, and I managed to convince my parents into letting baby teenage me go with my brother to my first concert.
Just thought I’d share. 🙂 I’m still here, following your blog 18 years later.
oh wow I totally forgot about that!I remember NIN in Ireland but forgot foo fighters was with them! I never ended up going to that concert, but did watch Foo Fighters in Madisson Square Garden from the bleeder seats and then again in Cape Town standing front row. NIN I watched in LA back in 2017 but it was the day I arrived and I was too jet lagged and too high I was falling asleep while standing like 20 mins in so ended up leaving. But watching them this July in Berlin! The fact that NIN and Foo Fighters was your first concert is so fucked up because nothing after that is gonna ever match that combo lol
Heard through the grapevine that Take That is coming. Can’t wait for that!
Although at this stage of my life, I’d prefer it if Sam Fender or Fontaines DC come.
I think what these events showed also, is that they need to set the right prices for events.
I paid KD50/ticket (and would have paid more for a better ticket) for Fluffy because I wanted to go. It was expensive but there were over 95% of tickets sold which reflects on being a good choice of act to book.
At KD40-50/ticket for the same level seat at Craig David, for me and a number of friends it was a push to pay the equivalent of $175/£100 for a nice to have ticket. This was reflected in circa 50% of tickets sold despite progressively bigger discounts being offered on tickets throughout the week before.
If Take That come, I will happily pay KD75+/ticket and go multiple nights if they visit Kuwait.
So to sell out they need to find the price point which balances committed fans and low enough to tempt the “nice to haves” if the acts aren’t immediately going to sell out 75% of a 5,000 capacity.
I’d pay KD 100 to see Sam Fender and Fontaines DC.
Or Charli XCX haha brat