Anyone else prefer listening to their system more than a concert?

I still enjoy going to see certain artists live that I like and are playing in the right venue. I long gave up going to arena and stadium concerts for various reasons: 1) competing with scalpers and ticket bots to get decent seats, 2) ridiculous ticket prices 3) sound quality of the venue. Recent concerts have been in more intimate venues like Tipitina's or smaller theater venues like the Civic in New Orleans. Last best "loud" concert I saw was New Order's last tour. It was a phenomenal show where I had great seats and the sound system was properly dialed in. 

All that being said, it's just much harder to justify going to a live show in the middle of the week considering I have kids still in school and work the next day. Where I live now in Lafayette, LA, I  go to Festival International and Festival Acadien et Creoles, which means I get to hear several great acts during the daytime hours, and expose my kids to music they don't hear on streaming or radio. My youngest loves dancing to Cajun, Zydeco, Swamp pop when we go to the festivals. I love hearing of new international artists that don't have wide exposure as well. It's a win-win situation, and the festivals are free and family-friendly events!

Otherwise, at my ripe old age of 53, I prefer the comfort of sitting in my chair with headphones on and listening to whatever I want while sipping a beverage of choice and not having to convince my wife to go with me to see a band she most likely has no interest in seeing live. 

Depending on who it is (and how much the tickets cost), I'll go to a concert. But I live in a sawdust and horse manure-smelling city that only books fake country music, so the chances of going to a great music concert here aren't very good. I'd consider traveling, but only for an act that I truly admire. I'd also have to wear ear protection since my ears ring a little all the time.

The last live music event I attended was for a bar band in Jenks, Oklahoma, and they pushed the volume level up to 105 dB, so that was painful. Plus, they played a lot of 70s rock that I don't care for, so it definitely wasn't worth the free admission.

All in all, I get the most pleasure out of listening in my music room. Based on my personal experience in music, my system reproduces the music realistically, and it didn't cost too much (about $10-$12k total spent over several years). I can also keep the volume level at a comfortable 40-55 dB, so I'm extremely happy.

My goal is for it to sound like a concert in my room. Either the musicians are in the room with me or I’m in the room with them. It can happen with a great performance, a great recording, and a good system. Always looking for the impact of a live performance. 
 

But we miss out on the immediacy of a live performance. Particularly with jazz, You’ll never hear that solo again. My rig sounds great and I can spend hours stuck in front of it. But the presence and emotion of live musicians playing… Hard to beat.

I’ve been to some good sounding concerts but far more bad ones.  I went to see Talking Heads at a small acoustically good 3000 person venue.Their voices were terrible.  The albums were very good recordings.

My current system will play just about anything without strain.  You can feel drums being struck.  Full Orchestra is awesome.  Concerts are expensive.  Definitely a homebody now.

Totally surprised at how many of you do not like live music! Yes, there are shows where it sounds bad, others that sound sublime! 

Usually go to at least one show a month, in the summer many more. In the Seattle area we have a ton of great venues. The Gorge is an experience! We also have a handful of smaller places. Saw Black Pistol Fire at Elks Temple in Tacoma, not only did they sound wonderful, I was 10ft away. The experience of seeing a great performance is worth it! 

A couple Christmas's ago, got some "audiophile" earplugs. These block the harshness, and let the music come through. It really makes the live experience better! Really think some shows EQ the music to earplugs. If you wear them, it will sound better. I know when I saw jack White at the Paramount (3000seats) it was LOUD, sounded like poop without earplugs. With earplugs it was wonderful.