I have a friend who was laughing at me for spending a ton of bucks to see the Rolling Stones and the Hurricane Sandy benefit when I could stay at home and watch both of these shows on my 60 inch HD Tv for fifty bucks (in the caseof the Stones PPV) or nothing (in the case of 12-12-12).
I find it unbelievable that there is even an equivalency. Watching a concert on TV is to watching it in person is exactly what watching porn is to having sex. Even the least intimate of venues, even Hydepark at the back of 500,000 people is more intimate than watching it on television,if, for no other reason than you are among other people.
And if you are in a small club, the experience is so clear and close, so strange than when you check your email on your phone you interfere with the band on stage.
On television you are a consumer but you are as uninvolved as you are in the production of a movie, say "The Avengers". You have nothing to do with it, live you are so deep into into it that you are, on whatever level, a part of it.
A good live performance instantly changes my opinion of a band. He did at Jingle Ball where years of distaste for Jason Mraz disappeared half way through a cover of "Three Little Birds". And a poor live show always effects my opinion, always. If you are a music lover the live show is around a billion times bigger than the video. Maybe I am showing my age here, but a bad video is a matter of complete irrelevancy and the best music video on earth can't save a bad song, But a great live performance can sure help.
So, my friend is simply wrong. He is neither luckier nor smarter than I am. He can watch porn and I will be getting laid. Next.