For more than 50 years, Joe “Concert Joe” Sarkis has followed the same nightly ritual. He leaves his home in Bay Ridge, steps onto the R train, and heads north in search of live music — sometimes one show, sometimes two, sometimes three in a single night.
“I have lived on the same block on Fourth Avenue for almost 71 years,” Sarkis said. “Since the eighties, almost every night, like 300 nights a year, I spend four or five hours on the subway and go to one or two shows.”
In a city constantly reinventing itself, Concert Joe has become a fixture of New York’s live music ecosystem — a familiar face to club owners, door staff, musicians and fellow concertgoers across Brooklyn and Manhattan. From the Brooklyn Bowl to the Bowery Ballroom, he’s known not as a celebrity, but as a constant.
“They have known me 35 years,” he said of venue staff. “They’ve only been married 25 years. They have known me longer than their wives and kids. I’m some of their oldest friends.”
Sarkis’ devotion to live music began early. His first concert experience came close to home in Bay Ridge in 1970, when folk singer Richie Havens — who famously opened Woodstock — performed at his cousin’s wedding.
“That was like my first show,” Sarkis recalled. “I had dinner with him, and I never heard of a vegetarian before; now I’ve been a vegetarian for 52 years.”
His first formal concert followed soon after: The Byrds at Carnegie Hall in 1971. Later that year, he skipped his high school graduation to attend Frank Zappa at the Fillmore East during its final month.
Those early, formative experiences opened the door to a world he had not known growing up.
“My family never took us anywhere,” Sarkis said. “We never went to a restaurant, a museum or a concert. I had never seen a menu in my life until I was about 20 years old.”
Once he discovered live music, there was no turning back.
“That’s what I live for, you know?” Sarkis said. “The music, I’m addicted to the music.”
A precise system
Over the decades, Sarkis has attended hundreds of concerts each year, meticulously tracking them by “admissions,” his own system for counting shows.
“I count by admissions,” he explained. “If I go to a festival and I see 10 bands, that counts as one show.”
In some years, his total has exceeded 300 concerts — a pace that once led him to petition Guinness World Records.
“In 1988 I applied to the Guinness Book of Records for the most concerts in a year,” Sarkis said. “They had no category. I petitioned them for 36 years to create it.”
Though the record ultimately went to someone else, Sarkis remains undeterred.
“In my lowest year in like 45 years, that’s what I saw,” he said in response to the world record holder.
Concert Joe is equally passionate about preserving music history. He has collected thousands of ticket stubs and shirts over the years, particularly from the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia. He recalled a story where he gave 200 people ticket stubs from those shows relating to the year they were born.
He also loaned part of his collection to a 60th anniversary Grateful Dead exhibit in Los Angeles last summer.
“I found almost 300 stubs,” he said. “They borrowed the rest of my Grateful Dead stubs for that display.”
Despite his immense attendance record, Sarkis has never owned a stereo.
“I’ve never owned a stereo or a music system,” he said. “I used to record a lot of shows … but I never had anything to listen to.”
He prefers to listen to music where he first found it: on stage, in real time, surrounded by strangers.
A city that makes live music possible
New York City itself plays a central role Concert Joe’s story. He credited promoter Ron Deselner with transforming the city into a live music capital, especially through free and low-cost concerts in Central Park during the 1960s and ‘70s.
“In 1972, I said, just give me one for every show,” Sarkis recalled of buying tickets at a now-defunct downtown Brooklyn department store. “You know what it cost me for like 40 tickets? $50.”
Those shows made it possible, he said, to see major acts for little money — sometimes multiple artists in one night.
Even today, Sarkis can map out a marathon evening with ease.
“Last summer, I went from Times Square to Rough Trade Records to Bryant Park,” he said. “That’s three full shows within seven blocks of each other in one night. And all free.”
Asked about his favorites, Sarkis is decisive. Pearl Jam tops his list of current bands.
“I’ve seen them about 50 times,” he said.
Sarkis’ favorite local venues are Brooklyn Bowl and Bowery Ballroom, though he insists there is no better place to see a show than Carnegie Hall.
“There’s no place better than Carnegie Hall,” he said. “In the whole world.”
At an age when many people slow down, Sarkis shows no sign of stopping. As long as New York City keeps putting on shows, Concert Joe will keep showing up — ticket stub in hand, riding the R train and chasing the next note.
