My very first rock concert was the Rolling Stones at Hampton Coliseum in December 1981, when I was 17.

As I’d bought general admission tickets for the floor, a buddy and I arrived about three or four hours before showtime, so we could ensure we’d be right up front. About two hours in, all was grand — everyone was sitting down on the floor and chilling.

Then some doofus decided everyone should stand up, press forward and crowd into the stage. There we stood for five hours or so, through the opening act of George Thorogood & the Destroyers, an hour intermission and then two glorious hours of Mick, Keith and the boys tearing down the house.

It was magnificent, and I was hooked on live shows. Sure, as I’d wisely worn Chuck Taylor high tops, I couldn’t feel my feet for days, and my lower spine disintegrated sometime during “Satisfaction,” but I was in for the long haul.

Fast forward 44 years, and I fear my stand-up rock ’n’ roll days may be nearing their end.

It started a couple of Halloweens ago when a buddy had an extra ticket for Billy Strings at Harrah’s Cherokee Center-Asheville. As my pal’s older than me, I assumed they were for the seated areas, but no, this wild man had bought tickets for all three nights, on the floor.

Thank God I wore Hokas that night, the ultra-soft brand that bills itself, “Cushy shoes for arthritic old farts!” OK, I made that slogan up, but they should.

While I swore off ever standing for a concert after that affair, I’ve since attended shows at the Orange Peel, Salvage Station, the Grey Eagle, the Grey Eagle’s Outpost by the French Broad River, and of course, Asheville Yards, formerly Rabbit Rabbit. 

And I suffer every damn time. Except at the Outpost, where we could sit in camp chairs, and at Salvage Station, which used to offer the same option. Sadly, Helene put a beating on both places, and they’re not open.

Two Fridays ago, my wife Grace and I caught Waxahatchee and Wilco at Asheville Yards, and yes, we stood on asphalt for almost the whole show, about three hours in total. By the end, we asked the nice guy at the ADA area if we could sit in some empty chairs for the last few songs.

It was a little slice of heaven.

I’ll note that right now I’m dealing with sciatica, painful hamstrings and two piriformis muscles in my rear end that are all inflamed and painful. I’d like to rip those piriformis muscles out of my body, slap them on the kitchen counter and wallop the daylights out of them with a meat tenderizer for an hour or so.

I should also note that Grace and I are both 61 and have had our share of orthopedic surgeries. She had a badly broken knee about nine years ago and a herniated disc a few years back, and I’ve had two surgeries for herniated or ruptured discs in my neck and low back, as well as knee surgery a half decade ago. 

We have plenty of company. The University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation conducted a poll in February 2022, asking a national sample of adults aged 50 to 80 about joint pain and arthritis.

“Overall, 70 percent of older adults reported currently experiencing joint pain,” the study stated. “Women were more likely than men to report joint pain (75 percent vs. 65 percent), as were those age 65–80 compared to those age 50–64 (74 percent vs. 68 percent).”

Some good news on the horizon

As Grace and I always see a fair number of gray- or white-haired folks at the shows we go to, and we’ve got a couple more standers coming up at Asheville Yards this summer, I checked in with two of our better known venues to see what they do to accommodate the orthopedically challenged oldsters, and if any changes are on the horizon. 

We’ve got Nathaniel Rateliff coming up in June and Caamp in August at Asheville Yards, so I started with Sean O’Connell, managing partner at Asheville Yards. First, we commiserated over shared sciatic pain and other old-man maladies, then O’Connell dropped some good news on me.

“Your timing is amazing,” O’Connell said during a phone interview. “So, we made a big investment just over the last couple of weeks. We had purchased seats going back about a month ago, and we’ve been working on new ticketing for some shows where we’re going to have just over 450 seats.”

Is it wrong to kiss a man through the phone? ‘Cuz I did.

Before I got too carried away, O’Connell settled me down a bit.

“I think maybe this year we’ll look at maybe five or six shows in the calendar that are going to have seating options,” O’Connell said. “So we do recognize that that is certainly important — and you are also talking to a guy whose sciatica was acting up also during that (Waxahatchee/Wilco) show.”

O’Connell, 53, was working the show, standing on uneven pavement for a long time. He’s nearing the second anniversary of major neck and spine surgery.

“So I get it all,” he said.

But there’s a catch. Asheville Yards has already booked its entire season, and the seats take up a lot of space that would normally go to standing rockers. 

“As you can imagine, making this change after we’ve already announced the entire season of shows, we have to go and renegotiate all the deals, because it really changes — it almost halves the capacity of that whole venue when you do that,” O’Connell said.

He also gave me some great tips on the venue and sitting that I wasn’t aware of. The ADA area, which is on the “house right” side of the venue (as you’re looking at the stage), is for those with legitimate Americans with Disabilities Act needs. 

“We also are very aware that standing isn’t feasible for long periods of time for everyone,” O’Connell said. “So we actually have another designated area. We don’t call it ‘ADA,’ but anybody with medical needs, you can just bring a small camp chair, and you can tell us at the gate.” 

They are counting on folks being honest and not abusing the area, which can hold about 150 people and was full two Fridays ago. It’s on the “house left” side of the venue.

“We don’t ask for doctor’s notes or anything else,” O’Connell said. “That’s where we’re trusting everybody to be respectful.”

Asheville Yards also has a balcony area of premium seating near the entrance. It holds about 70 seats, but you pay extra for that privilege.

The venue also has a couple of artificial turf areas that feel good underfoot and lend themselves to people who just want to sit and chill. Additionally, Asheville Pizza & Brewing, which adjoins Asheville Yards, keeps its outdoor picnic tables open for those needing a rest, but you can’t see the show from there.

Also keep in mind that the most popular shows are going to be packed, so that may affect these medical seating and turf areas some. The venue has to have the big shows to even out the smaller ones that bring in less revenue but allow for more seating.

Asheville Yards has a capacity of 4,000.

I also asked about adding more artificial turf, but that would not work. O’Connell pointed out that the trucks bringing in the amps and other gear have to enter through the front gate and would be driving right over it. 

Orange Peel: ‘We hear the pleas for more seats all the time’

Liz Whalen Tallent, marketing and special events director at the Orange Peel, an indoor venue also on the South Slope, gets the need for more seating.

“I totally understand,” Tallent said. “I’m in my early 40s myself, and I understand — it’s tougher for me to go stand for an entire show than it used to be.”

I mentioned that, hey, at least the Orange Peel, which has a capacity of 1,050 people, has a nice vintage wooden floor, which definitely feels better underfoot than concrete or asphalt.

“Not to give you too much background, but this is the original floor that was put in for the skating rink when this place was opened as Skateland in the late ‘40s, early ‘50s,” Tallent said. “And we just baby this floor to take care of it and preserve it.”

As she noted, if you’ve ever been to a sold-out show where people are really dancing, “it has a natural spring in it.”

“It bounces and that, I think, really makes for a softer experience on your knees and your back,” Tallent said. “We have a structural engineer come check it every couple years.”

Regarding seating, Tallent mentioned the same economics that Asheville Yards wrestles with.

“You cut your capacity by 60 to 70 percent when you do seated shows,” Tallent said. “And that makes it economically impossible to bring the same kind of artists that you could get (for all standing).”

For a fully seated show, they would offer 440 seats, compared with welcoming 1,050 standers.

“Even if there’s an artist that’ll do two shows, you don’t get to (the level of) one sold-out show standing room,” she said. “So I think that is the trouble that all the standing room venues have.”

The Orange Peel has tried to be “really intentional about looking for artists that do seated shows and partially seated shows and can make their guarantees work with capacities that are 700 and under for a partially-seated show,” Tallent said.

The Peel does have some seating.

“It varies,” Tallent said. “We usually do between 16 and 32 (seats) that you can reserve. And then additionally, we usually have another 30-ish that are first-come first-serve.”

The venue is considering putting in a riser under the front of house area, by the sound booth. That would extend the area a bit and allow for another row of stools that people could reserve, Tallent said.

“We hear the pleas for more seats all the time,” Tallent said. “And it’s just an ongoing challenge to see, ‘Where can we make space?’”

If you cut into the space of people standing, that makes them feel more crowded.

“So, it’s a delicate balance,” she said.

Tallent also offered some good tips on seating, noting that as soon as a show goes on sale the seats are available. They sell them only through the box office, via phone or in person. 

It’s a $15 upgrade, and well worth it to those of us who have all the elasticity of uncooked spaghetti.

“I will say for a lot of shows, they don’t sell out,” Tallent said. “The seated section does not sell out until a month or two before the show — even sold-out shows — because people don’t necessarily get right on it.”

Also, the Orange Peel has an “Insiders” program, which costs $99 a year but gets dropped a couple of times a year to $79. 

“And that gives you two complimentary seats to any show you attend, as long as they are left,” Tallent said. “So people that come to five and 10 shows a year, two seats a show, they get their money’s worth. And then you also get priority entry and free tickets and some other great perks.”

On shows that don’t sell out, Tallent says they have more than 100 stools they bring out on a first-come, first-served basis. They might not bring out all 100-plus, though.

Tallent and O’Connell also highly recommend wearing comfortable shoes, like my Hokas, the official shoe of aging orthopedic train wrecks everywhere. OK, maybe Skechers has some claim to that territory, too.

The upshot is I’m not giving up my rock ’n’ roll standing card just yet. But I am thinking hard about a Jazzy scooter. 

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Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. John Boyle has been covering Asheville and surrounding communities since the 20th century. You can reach him at (828) 337-0941, or via email at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

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