More than three years after pandemic lockdowns, Americans are still revenge spending on live events — and especially on concerts. Entertainment spending is estimated to grow 23% from last year, thanks to pricey tours from Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen and of course, Taylor Swift.

And yet, more than half of Americans say they’re going to cut back on entertainment spending because of rising costs. That’s according to a new survey by Credit Karma.

So, will we remember 2023 as that one year we spent way too much on that concert we couldn’t miss, or is there a new post-lockdown premium on seeing something live?

18-year-old Dylan Kay is not proud of how much it cost him to see the pop punk band Blink-182 reunite in Cleveland earlier this year.

“I actually paid an embarrassing amount for tickets … I paid $400. Yeah, $400 not even for pit tickets, it was for seats decently close to the pit but not quite there,” Kay said.

That doesn’t include the $100 Kay spent on gas for the three-hour drive from rural Ohio. Kay said it was totally worth it. He loves Blink, and the pyrotechnics were apparently pretty sweet.

But would he pay that much for another Blink concert in the future? 

“No, I have gotten that out of my system. If they came around for like $100 maybe, but $400 for Blink again? No,” Kay said.

That “I got it out of my system” feeling is especially true for fans catching older artists who might be on their final tour.

USC marketing professor Stephanie Tully forked over $250 for Elton John tickets. She couldn’t actually get a great view of Elton all that well from her seat, but …

“Now I can say that I have seen him. And it’s that feeling of, if I don’t do it now, I’m never going to get to do this. And we know that consumers respond very strongly to scarcity,” Tully said.

But consumers can only YOLO their way through very high ticket prices for so long, said Jason Mercer at Moody’s Investors Service.

“This is not a sustainable economic phenomenon that’s happening. The inflation prices are well above even what we’re seeing in the general economy,” Mercer said.

But while concert prices may eventually calm down, Mercer said the pandemic may have just given consumers a permanently bigger appetite to spend on live events.

Pediatric nurse Courtney Daniels said she’s paid well over $400 for Brandi Carlile shows around the country this year.

“Would it be have been a better use to make a payment on pre-existing debt? Maybe. But I also decided to spend it on this instead,” Daniels said.

Daniels said there’s just something special and communal about being there live with with the Bramily — that’s what Brandi Carlisle fans call themselves.