Thursday, May 17, 2007

Shenanigans!

Taken from an email I sent to Baker this morning.

"Don’t you know how much I hate it when people sell tickets for a ridiculous amount above face? Not that I care if you do it, I don’t wanna go to your crappy show. Haha. But living in NY, that shit happens with every fucking show. There were 2 Amy Winehouse shows last week, tickets were $20 face. In NYS, there’s a law that says you can’t resell a ticket to an event in NYS for more than face+20% or $5, whichever is higher. Every single person with an extra ticket to those shows was trying to sell it on craigslist for $200-$300. What the fuck is that? And I hear the shows only lasted about 45 minutes and it took an hour and a half after the opening act for Amy Winehouse to start her set. I call shenanigans.

I wish there was more enforcement on that shit here because it happens with every fucking show in town! It’s really annoying and has made me seriously cut down on the number of shows I’m going to this year. Last year, we went to like 15 shows (only about 4 or 5 of which were a couple local bands we like who have shows in small clubs). This year, so far we’ve got:

Secret Machines on May 17 (tonight) @ The Annex $25/ticket (I just bought tix for this yesterday cause the place is a tiny bar downtown and it’s kinda weird they’re playing there. Their big show is on Saturday at some new ballroom)
Kings of Leon on June 5 @ Roseland Ballroom $25/ticket
Deftones on June 8 @ Roseland Ballroom $25/ticket
Earl Greyhound on June 15 @ Bowery Ballroom $13/ticket
The White Stripes on July 24 @ Madison Square Garden $50/ticket

Last year, I spent $100/ticket to see the Chili Peppers and $125/ticket to see the Foo Fighters acoustic show. No more! Someone who I really really need to see is gonna have to come around for me to shell out anything like that anymore. Otherwise, I’m gonna pay face or I’m just not gonna go. Fuck it. It’s just not worth it anymore. Everyone’s just out to make a buck here. Buying tickets from people used to be more civilized, there was a certain scale of supply and demand, and some level of respect for the fans. But now everyone’s trying to charge over 10x face value, just because everyone else is? Fuck that. I’m tired of it. I don’t want to be standing next to someone at a show who would have sold their $20 ticket for $250 if they couldn’t make it."

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