Sunny Day Real Estate is playing in Austin, TX on Wednesday.
That's a mere 750 miles from me, give or take. Tickets aren't expensive.
What's the furthest you've driven to see a band? Is ~1500 miles round trip and a motel stay a reasonable thing to do?
drove about 300 miles to go see the Grateful Dead and Little Feat up at Oxford Plains Speedway up in BFE in Maine back in the late 80s... :o
I've driven 4.5 hours several times to see Snapcase play in Buffalo. I drove 4.5 hours (each way) to see Drag the River in Covington, KY and then 5 hours (each way) the very next night to see them in Morgantown, WV on my birthday. They broke up after that show. I was glad I went.
Check prices on a flight from Southwest. It might be cheap to fly in.
I've flown Sydney to Melbourne a bunch of times to see bands - that's ~800km (500miles) each way.
I rode to Adelaide to see Ani diFranco a bunch of years back - that's just over 1600km (1000miles) each way.
Recently the girl and I rode to Newcastle to see The Mountain Goats (even though we'd seen them the night before at a place withing walking distance of home).
big
Germany to see Marilyn Manson
philly to dc quite a lot to see bands
Philly to Balti to see bands a fair amount (slept on the couch in the hilton because it was 3am and I had no $$$ when I went to virgin fest last year)
then again the girl (at the time) and I had rode to Baltimore to use a chili's giftcard
It's all about the adventure
In high school some buddies and I pooled together and did a 350-mile road trip to Austin for a Metallica show in '94. If you are going to go that far or further to see a show, go with friends to make the drive tolerable (or intolerable, but hilarious on recollection).
I was a pretty avid concertgoer in college and did a number of road trips to San Antonio for various shows. Now that I'm older and a little more cranky it takes a real class act to lure me out of the house. Austin City Limits is this weekend and there's not a single band I could give a make the beast with two backs about, so I don't mind missing it.
At any rate the concert road trip is an american tradition. If you wind up making it to Austin hit me up if you need a place to stay. I got an air mattress.
In my teens I was a deadicated deadhead.
From my home base(D.C.) I traveled and saw their 1980 west coast tour, including 3 days in Red Rocks CO, a concert in OK, and several in Cali. Round trip for the tour was 7000+ miles.
The next year I traveled their european tour,starting in London, which included a concert in Berlin(before the wall fell).
900 miles round trip, BFE maine to Philly, to see the dead play in 1988
400 miles each way from Santa Fe, NM to Denver, CO to see The Tragically Hip in 2000.
Flew from DC to Albany, NY to see John Hartford and what was a reunion of most of the Aereo-Plain album band -- Norman Blake, Tut Tayor, Vassar Clements and either Sam Bush or Mike Compton (I forget whether my memory was ever any better than now) on mandolin instead of Randy Scruggs. I'm pretty sure it was the last or nearly last show he played, and very much worth the trip.
These days, most shows I really want to see aren't coming to our town, so it's 100+ miles to Flagstaff or Phoenix, or 200+ to Tucson to see anything.
My boss a few years back did the DC to Berlin trip -- twice -- to see Rammstein, and plans to go again this year; keep an eye out for him Ivan V, he'll be the one who looks LEAST likely to be at a Rammstein concert...
Man I feel pretty unacomplished as I went from LA to Tijuana acouple of times to see a few bands. Though techincally another country, not in your guys league mileage-wise. On time a buddy and I went to SD just to kick back and happened across a friends band, so for the longest we bugged her about being her most dedicated fans [beer]. Ironically they accidentally got booked at a nazi bar. The whole thing was a hilarious disaster of blues brothers proportions. [laugh]
Not far, about three hours. Every Christmas season, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra comes with a 2-3 hour drive from where I call home.
JM
Summer of 1970 went to Jackson, Michigan to the Goose Lake Rock Festival.
Some say it was almost as big as Wood Stock.
It was a 3 day Festival. Someone showed up with a Semi full of Boone's Farm Wine, but the Panama Red was the best.
It was an 8 hour round trip.
Dolph :)
Did a road trip with some friends from New Haven to Chicago for the Blues Fest when I was in college. I didn't even stop at home (grew up in Chicago). That's ~1000 miles each way.
Boston to Los Angeles to see Motorhead
Boston to London and then drove to Manchester to see the Sisters Of Mercy
Boston to Las Vegas for Social Distortion