This is how I never miss a concert from my favorite bands in my city

For the first 35 years of my life, I lived in Lebanon, where big international bands and artists rarely hold any concerts. We’d get one or two big names a year, and it was easy to know who was coming and when because it would be all over the radio, billboards, and WhatsApp groups.

Moving to Paris, however, opened up a whole other world of live music for me. What was a once- or twice-yearly activity became a monthly — weekly if you have the budget for it! — possibility. Every artist, every band, big or small, will stop by Paris on their “worldwide” tour (which likely only includes a few US cities, Paris, London, and Berlin, but I digress.)

The first few months I was here, I missed opportunity after opportunity to nab tickets for some of my favorite artists. Each time I’d learn of a new concert, I’d open TicketMaster and other local sites, naively hopeful to find some tickets, only to be slapped with the “sold out” notice. How very first-world problem of me, right?

Eventually, after missing out on Imagine Dragons, Metallica, and a few other big names, I decided that enough was enough. Surely, someone had solved that problem already? After all, there’s an Android app for everything. So, I started looking at services that could alert me whenever one of my favorite artists would put up tickets for a concert in Paris. The two services that I settled on are Bandsintown and Songkick, and they both have websites as well as Android and iOS apps. Why two apps instead of one? Because there are a few indie artists missing from this one or that one. Having both covers all of them.

How I use Bandsintown and Songkick to monitor concerts

Bandsintown and Songkick are extremely similar. I set up my location as Paris, connected my Spotify account, and let them import all of my followed artists. Boom, done. If you don’t use Spotify, you can manually go in and search for any artists to manually add them. Oh, I still quickly went through the lists because I wanted to remove a few artists that I do listen to but wouldn’t like to see live.

I did that nearly three years ago and let Bandsintown and Songkick do their magic. I chose to be notified by email, too, not just by an Android notification (because I’m afraid I’ll dismiss that when I’m busy and then completely forget about it). The first emails started arriving soon after, usually two or three days before the tickets went on sale. So, I made it a habit to check the details and snooze the email until 15 minutes before the tickets actually go live; that way, I always get a new email notification on my Android phone and nab my seats before they sell out.

I still remember the first email I got for Kyo, a French alternative band I was addicted to in the 2000s that split up and then rejoined forces. Whoa! I would’ve never known about their concert or remembered to check tickets for them if I had done my research manually. Done, bought, attended, and loved every second of it.

Then it was The Faim, an Australian alt-rock band that I would’ve never expected to come to Paris. But they did, and I saw them. Then, a joint tour by Evanescence and Within Temptation, Tarja Turunen’s solo concert, the Italian singer Diodato, the Ukranian folktronica band Go_A, Jack Black and Kyle Gass in their Tenacious D band, and more. I even managed to catch the little-known Blind Channel when they were opening up for the more popular Electric Callboy because, you guessed it, I got the email about it. How rare is it to know about one of your favorite indie bands’ appearances not in their own concert but as an opening act?

Thanks to Bandsintown and Songkick’s connection with my Spotify account and their emails, I’ve attended more than 20 concerts and seen some of my and my husband’s favorite artists and bands live. From smaller indie artists doing a pop-up concert at a 200-person club venue to well-established bands filling up the Stade De France and Accor Arena, I’ve caught them all.

I’ve also made it a habit to open up Songkick and Bandsintown when I’m planning a new trip. I start monitoring the city I’m going to, just in case an artist is showing up while I’m there. That’s how I caught Three Days Grace in Luxembourg, Keiino in Turin, and Sunrise Avenue in Berlin — three bands that almost never come to Paris.

And last year, when Imagine Dragons announced a concert in Paris, I was heartbroken because I knew I’d be out of the country and miss them again. However, a new date was opened up because of high demand, and I got the email when no one else knew about it yet, so I caught some pretty good seats before the official sales rush.

Over the last three years, I haven’t noticed that either Bandsintown or Songkick have abused their access to my inbox. Most emails I get from them are relevant, and if sometimes I receive something a bit outside of my wheelhouse, I just stop tracking that artist/location. In exchange for a few extra emails every now and then, I’ve gotten dozens of very useful notifications about live shows I can attend and hundreds of fun memories with my husband singing and rocking to our favorite tunes. You can’t put a price on that.

Next on my list? Sum 41, Gåte, Smash Into Pieces, The Kolors, and Anastacia. Yes, my music taste is all over the place, and I’m glad I get to enjoy it live without missing out on concerts because I didn’t know about them.