Meet ‘Concert Joe:’ NY Concert Mainstay Says He’s Gone To 24,000 Concerts (and Counting)

Live music is a way of life for many people who read and use Pollstar, but one longtime New York concertgoer is an example of taking it to a whole other level — for decades, since 1971 to be more exact — and he only shows some signs of slowing down.

“I’ve seen over 24,000 shows,” says Joe “Concert Joe” Sarkis, of Brooklyn, New York, on his way to see a Joe Bonamassa gig at The Bitter End, a 230-capacity rock club in Greenwich Village. “My friend Ticket Stub Stewie has seen slightly more than me and my friend Everynight Charley, around 18,000, because he took a 20-year sabbatical. The three of us together have seen over 65,000 concerts.”

Dedicated to getting to as many shows as humanly possible each and every night, Concert Joe rattles off numbers and dates from his hand-written concert calendar, which this month included Portugal. The Man at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, The Hold Steady at Brooklyn Bowl, Wood Brothers at the Brooklyn Paramount, MJ Lenderman, Jens Lekman and many others, often two or three shows in a night. He says he’s seen 369 shows this year — full headline sets, not festivals or opening acts — and 164 consecutive nights, with maybe Christmas Day ending the streak this year.

“The reason I got into so many concerts was Ron Delsener’s Central Park shows,” says Sarkis, 72, crediting the longtime New York concert promoter and show-business fixture for making New York a concert Mecca. “They were a dollar each, 35 shows, and $1.25 for the good seats. I said, give me one for every show at that price, and give me 10 more for these shows. So, for 50 bucks, that’s what started me going on.”

 He credits some similarly minded contemporaries — aptly known as “Everynight Charley” Crespo, who keeps an active website of local concert listings, and “Ticket Stub Stewie” — for showing him the ropes on how and when to get into shows, which became part of the thrill.

“I never knew about early shows and late shows and multiple nights back then,” he says, along with perhaps using a ticket more than once to get in on occasion before the days of scanners and QR codes. “In fact, I missed my high school graduation to go to the Fillmore, the month it was closing, the Fillmore East. I missed my high school graduation to see Frank Zappa.” You can imagine where his student loans went.

With so many stories and experiences, a conversation with Sarkis can go long and be difficult to keep on track, but his love for live music remains unflaggable. In fact, he has no interest in recorded music at all, not bothering to have a personal music player since his Victrola broke in the early ‘70s.

“I call recorded music frozen food, whereas live music is fresh food,” says Sarkis, who admits he will check out a band’s live footage on YouTube or late-night TV to see if he’s interested in seeing them – or he might hear some recorded music in someone’s car. “I’m not in a car very often,” he says.

Appropriately naming the Grateful Dead as his favorite band, his tastes lean mostly toward the rock realm, but Sarkis’ taste varies. He names Pearl Jam among the best current live band.

“To me, he’s the greatest rock singer on the planet today.” Sarkis says of frontman Eddie Vedder. “I mean, he is not as good as Jagger used to be, but today, I might put (Matt) Shultz from Cage The Elephant up there, too.”

A retired telephone repairman, Sarkis hasn’t looked too far ahead to 2026 yet, but is ready for Phish’s annual New Year’s Eve bash at Madison Square Garden. “That’s my big thing, you know?”

Long a fixture in the New York concert scene, still, anyone claiming to go to tens of thousands of concerts – or more than 1,000 in 1992, as documented by VH-1 and MTV at the time – questions will arise. Those in the scene say there’s no reason to doubt his stories, even if some of the short-term memory might be a little fuzzy (Sarkis has been profiled by High Times on multiple occasions as a cannabis innovator) and his hearing is shot despite wearing earplugs since 1988 (“I can’t afford hearing aids”).

“Joe is the real deal,” says Peter Shapiro, longtime concert promoter and owner of the Brooklyn Bowl, Capitol Theatre in Port Chester and respected concert industry figure. 

“No one’s seen more concerts in New York City than Joe,” Shapiro says. “ I don’t think so. I would argue even more than Delsener. When I see Joe at a show, I know I’m in the right place. It makes me feel good knowing what he feels about my role in putting on live music shows in New York City and beyond. And he is early on stuff. He really was early, like with Phish at Wetlands and Blues Traveler, and was early about King Gizzard being a hot up and coming act. When he says ‘Peter! you gotta see this!’ I listen.”

Sarkis says he’s taken out multiple loans solely in order to fund his concert ticket purchases, even though he’s able to get in free to most these days thanks to people like Shapiro. He estimates he’s spent $650,000 on live music to this day. Still, it’s clear the thrill of scoring tickets excites him, and he has a story for nearly each concert he mentions about either getting in or helping someone else get in.

One particular instance imvolved trying to get into a private charity gig by The Who.

“There were like 500 businessmen there who paid like 1,500 bucks for a dinner, and it was just (Roger) Daltrey, (Pete) Townshend and a drum machine,” he says. “I asked somebody who was leaving for their bracelet and tried to get in. Everybody in the place has a tuxedo on except me, I had a Who shirt on,” he says. “So the security grabbed me and took me outside. I see cooks taking out trays from the kitchen. I offered one of the cooks 20 bucks for his jacket . He just gives me the jacket and he gives me a tray with some stuff on it and says go around the front. I walk right in the front door with the tray, with the waiter’s jacket and the wristband. I just walk right in and I caught 32 minutes of a 52-minute Who concert. And I still have the jacket.”

“Now, we just let him in,” Shapiro says with a laugh, also mentioning Concert Joe’s generosity, penchant for buying merch and bringing thoughtful gifts and keepsakes for staff. “He is one of the few people who’s just on a permanent list, because he’s Concert Joe. I trust him. I really do trust his opinions about different bands coming up, and it means a lot to me when he compliments us on what we’re doing. He’s not afraid to give feedback on how to improve. He doesn’t hold back, and it’s the truth.”

With a story for seemingly every artist of note of the last 60 years, Concert Joe answered some more questions for Pollstar. 

Pollstar: How do you physically go to so many shows? 
Concert Joe: The thing is, in New York, there’s so much free stuff going on. Over seven nights in Manhattan last summer I was able to catch three shows within the Times Square area about eight blocks from each other within four hours. They have jazz shows and rock show right in Times Square, four or five nights a week, five to six o’clock. They got Rough Trade Records, six to seven o’clock, four blocks away. I got Bryant Park, 42nd Street, 7:30, another show. You could catch three shows, full shows in four hours for free within like seven, eight blocks of each other, you know? All free. Otherwise I couldn’t do it, you know?

Tell us more about how you were early on Phish after seeing them play the Wetlands in 1989. 
I went and told Ron Delsener about them, because I used to go to his concert club every week to buy tickets. I said, “You gotta see this new band Phish. I’d never seen a following like them except the Grateful Dead.” I broke his balls for a year and a half. He never booked bands unless they were signed by a major record label. I broke his balls for a year and a half, got him to book three bar bands — Blues Traveler, Spin Doctors and Phish , and they all became big. 

It was the end of ‘90 at a place called The Marquee. Delsener really made them famous. He booked them as the opening act of Jones Beach for Santana with 15,000 people. Phish never played in a big place like that. And then he brought Trey out for the encore with Santana.  That’s how Goose got famous, too. (Phish frontman) Trey (Anastasio) had Goose open up for his band all over and jam with them. Now, they say Goose is pushing Phish out and then Geese is pushing Goose out!

You have your “tubs of stubs” with thousands of ticket stubs. Does it bum you out that you don’t get stubs to some shows anymore?
You know, I have so many, like I said, It doesn’t mean so much to me now. In fact, my most valuable stub I gave to Peter Shapiro. The Grateful Dead in 1977 played Cornell University, it’s supposed to be the best Grateful Dead concert of all time.

What where your favorite shows of 2025?
Allman Brothers Reunion @ MSG
Paul McCartney @ Bowery Ballroom
Cage The Elephant @ Capitol Theater in Port Chester

How do you afford to attend so many shows?
I’m lucky, I know some club owners and heads of security, they know me longer than they know their families. They know me 35, 40 years. You know what I’m saying? So a bunch of places here take care of me, or I couldn’t do it, you know? 

I don’t go as much as I used to. I did almost three full shows every night for 10 years. I used to be able to get in way more stuff than now, because I’m retired from the electricians union. There were about 20 places in New York that had all electricians working as security. So I would go to all these places, clubs, theaters — not Madison Square Garden —  but a lot of small places, maybe even the Beacon and stuff. There’d be guys there worked with me and they’d let me into all these shows. It is the only way I afford it. I took three loans to buy tickets. 

You’ve been seeing shows a long time, and a lot has changed since then. What don’t you like about shows these days?
 I don’t like the light systems much. Now they have so many more lights, all the videos, because if you try and get a picture of a band, even if you’re in front of the stage, you can’t get a good picture because they always have blue or red lights on them. I go to a classic show, it’s all white lights. 

You say you can’t make it to quite as many shows these days, but you’re still putting in some real work.
Keep putting on these concerts for me. I got no other reason to live (laughs). We want fresh food. Not frozen food. I’ll probably see like 375 by the end of the year.