Russian Teen Age Riot

Just when I had written off this year’s concert offerings in Moscow, I saw something that got my hopes up. It looked like this year would offer nothing more exciting than Ozzy Osbourne, Aerosmith, My Chemical Romance, and George Michael. So imagine how excited I was to see on a billboard along Petrovski Bulvar that Sonic Youth are playing June 19 at ‘B1 Maximum.’

But I can’t go. Sure, I could leave Olga home with the baby for just one night, but I went to the club’s website and discovered to my horror that the cheapest tickets were about $60. The VIP seats start at $240, and the “Super VIP” tickets will set you back a full grand.

Now, I can’t blame the kids of Sonic Youth for being greedy. Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore live in Northampton now, and I remember back in February they played a benefit show at the Academy of Music for arts education in the Greenfield public schools, or some other noble and not very glamorous cause. So I’m sure they don’t have anything to do with it. Maybe it’s a Moscow thing as this is a very big city – tickets the night before in St. Pete are only $39. Besides, Evanescence is coming a week later, and the cheap seats then are $88.

But these surprising prices have sparked speculation within the family. I insist this is another example of the polarization of wealth here, as the rich lead increasingly parallel and disconnected lives from the vast majority. I predict that soon the elite won’t just park their black SUV on the damn sidewalk wherever the hell they like, but will take to zipping around in helicopters like they do in Sao Paolo. Olga suggests the reason is more mundane and less Marxist – that the prices are a matter of the very different priorities Russians place on what they pay for. As I understand her argument (she’s a professional social scientist, so the nuances may have zipped over my head. I invite her to clarify in the comments below.) Russians are used to paying 20 cents for a loaf of bread, and to paying less for beer than for Coke. But it comes with a trade-off. To this day most people only eat in restaurants when somebody gets married, and see no reason to own more clothing than they could wear in a fortnight (granted, clothing is really expensive here for some reason). So for luxury items – things from the West, theater tickets, stuff that is out of the ordinary – a certain class of people are prepared to pay a little more.

But I remain somewhat baffled. I simply refuse to believe that enough regular Russians have ever heard of Sonic Youth, let alone develop enough of a liking for them to drop a huge chunk of money to go see them. They only people that are going to this show are the same ones that would find another way to blow $60 that night. I just hope in my heart that Kim, Thurston and the gang don’t succumb to what I call the “Heroic Visitor to Russia” syndrome, in which you think you’re doing something more heroic than you are. They are not reaching through the Iron Curtain to touch the hearts and minds of Russia’s youth. And unless you are Metallica or the Scorpions, you missed your chance and all you can do now is play your songs to the privileged children of a new feudal elite.

Of course, I could be wrong.