I went to the Crowbar Wednesday to attend the Ol' Dirty Bastard concert. ODB came out three hours after he was scheduled to begin, and as he came out, he appeared to be under the heavy influence of several drugs. Very quickly, it became obvious that he was struggling to stand under his own power. He said nothing to the audience in between the songs he performed and left the stage after performing only four. I left that night thinking to myself, "I just paid $25 for the worst concert I have ever seen." It is instances like this that makes me laugh when artists complain that we are stealing from them when we download their music.

How did ODB not steal that $25 from me? This is not the only instance of this kind of artist behavior. In 2003, a couple of my friends went down to Philadelphia to see Guns N' Roses -- the band never showed up. If artists want to see our respect, then shouldn't they respect us enough to perform for us when they say they are going to? If more people start downloading music, then maybe the artists will get the message and actually give us a good show. These artists seem to forget that consumers are the reason why they are so rich in the first place.