The Lady Doth Protest Too Much

I've just had an unbelievable experience.

If you read my posts on the Hairball John website, you probably know that I recently penned "An to Open Letter to Ticketmaster."

The angry letter was in response to my bad experience purchasing Def Leppard tickets to their Cincinnati show on July 27.  I logged on at 1o a.m. and ended up with really bad seats at the back of the pavilion. I went ahead and purchased the seats - $150 for the pair - and seethed all afternoon.

For whatever reason, I was clicking around www.ticketmaster.com today and decided to see if the seats for Def Leppard were sold out.

Um, no.

In fact,  I scored seats in the first 10 rows!

Angry, I grabbed my phone and dialed up the money mongers that run Ticketmaster. I demanded a ticket exchange. For the first ten minutes of the conversation a woman with a southern accent argued with me, saying all sales are final.

I kept protesting and she put me on hold. When she so kindly resumed our conversation, she said I could trade my tickets but I had to pay for the convenience fee again!

This really made me mad.

I argued for ten more minutes, but she wasn't budging on this one. I gave up and repaid for the over-priced ticket fee. Now, I'll be seeing Def Leppard in the 8th row at Riverbend in the Queen City.

It only cost me $175.

Experiences like this ruin rock music - all music - for your average fan. I can't afford many concerts at $175 for two people.

I would imagine that there are many people that can't afford one concert at these sky high prices.

It's one thing for DL to put a $71 value on their tickets. It's another for Ticketmaster to add $30 to every order just hit the print button on a computer.

For many people, $30 is a week's worth of groceries. Or a tank of gas. Or a babysitter.

If die-hard music fans can't afford to support live music, then who will? The music industry as a whole is crumbling on itself as album sales slump and kids turn to iTunes to buy one or two songs of the latest release by their favorite band.

Concerts costs have sky-rocketed, and commercial radio plays the same, manufactured bubble-gum garbage at every turn. New bands are dropped by their labels before even amassing a loyal fan following.

Something needs to be done, and quick.

Oh, and I'm conducting an non-scientific experiment. Poison/RATT/Vains of Jenna are coming to Cincinnati on Tuesday. I'm going to the show, but I haven't bought tickets yet. I want to see how close I can get on concert day.

Me thinks I have a good chance at being within the first ten rows.

Comments

[Christian Graus]

Wow - that really sucks. I saw GnR last week, I had to buy tickets on the floor, because all seats were sold out. The place was half empty on the night, I still don't get how that works.

[aXe mAn]

That sucks. But at least now you are in the 8th row!
I agree, ticket prices are getting way to high for the average fan to pay for.
I am going to a Ratt/Poison show this summer!
In Muskegon, Michigan. It is July 24! I am really looking forward to it!

[bobvinyl]

Wow, you sound like Eddie Vedder!

Seriously, tickets should be priced that the average teenager can afford to go to a couple shows a month. If it's unaffordable to kids, it can't be good rock n roll. Often, the bands are only a small part of what's driving up ticket prices. Venues, promoters and ticketmaster are much more culpable.

[Rob Rockitt, Hard Rock HIdeout]

I tried to get tickets to the same show, and I had the advance code to by tickets before they went on sale to the general public. On that day, the best I could get was section 900, which is a horrible place to sit. I said to hell with it quickly.

[P-Licious]

These ridiculous ticket prices are why I've all but stopped going to concerts.

[Trena]

I ended up buying tickets to the VOJ/RATT/Poison show last weekend just hours before the show was to begin. I have never done that before, but another event we had scheduled for the day ended up being canceled.
My seats ended up being 5 rows behind ORCH which I thought was really good. I'm going to have to try that more often.