Like any college student, I enjoy the opportunity to see my favorite musicians in concert and follow them with their new album releases and insider gossip. At what cost, however, does following a band and enjoying music go from passion to obscene obsession?

Allow me to clarify.

I love the Dave Matthews Band. This is not a rarity at Fairfield, and with their millions of fans is clearly not a rarity throughout the world. It all began in September of last year when I attended the Central Park concert with a free ticket. The trip to the city cost at least $50 between train tickets and food. At the time it seemed expensive, until this year.

A dear friend and future housemate of mine has a more severe obsession with “Dave” and with his influence, I joined “the Warehouse,” the DMB fan club, which cost another $30.

From here came the announcement of the new summer tour. How many concerts? One? Two? How about one in Harford, Conn., one in Camden, N.J., and two in N.Y. City. Four concerts will cost me another $200. In just one semester I have spent over $230, and that’s not the end. Then came the biggest “Dave” announcement in perhaps all of “Dave” history.

On May 9, the evening before the release of their new album “Stand Up” (yes I am plugging it, buy it!), the band will be holding an album release party for just over 3,000 people at Roseland Ballroom in N.Y. City. Oh, so exclusive! A full live set in an intimate venue! My dreams have come true!

I would be mere feet from Dave Matthews playing “Crash into Me”! Then I read the announcement from the fan club ticketing that “a very select number of tickets are available.” DECLINED. Heartbroken, I prepared to sit on Ticketmaster.

One day later I’m clicking through the Ticketmaster website and found the concert tickets sold out in less than five seconds. Ouch. Well we must once again ask ourselves, how much are we willing to spend? I got ballsy and began looking through ticket scalping websites. Two tickets for $300 each, on an originally $50 or so ticket. I’ll take them despite the service charge. Time to enjoy the rest of the weekend. I wish my story stopped here.

Monday morning I called the company to confirm and was given the run-around. I was told that Ben from Texas would call me back in five minutes. Well, 30 minutes later I called back and received the heart-breaking news: my tickets were no longer available. Long story short, the website was outdated and sold the same set of tickets twice, so I got screwed. I was too deep to give in now and I had one final option, a professional scalper.

A few phone calls later I had access to two tickets for $375 each. Why not? We’re already in for so much, why not a few more? So add another $400 to my total, plus the new album cost and we total around oh, $600!

So at what price does the love for your band become too much? To each his own. By the way, does Sodexho have any job openings?

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