I was able to get a couple tickets to the New Year’s Eve Flaming Lips/White Stripes show in Chicago. It looked like it would be a fun show and my boyfriend and I could have a fun weekend trip.
The execution (by the Aragon Theater), however, was terrible.
First, getting into the theater was a pain. I expected to have my stuff looked in, but they made everyone segregate by sex. I understand the principle of using same-sex screeners, but considering many attendees were in groups of mixed sex, it caused a big puddle of people to congregate after the screening area. And they did a shitty job of screening me, where my boyfriend got patted down twice. If they’re not going to screen women well, what’s the point?
Then, getting beer. Hey, it’s New Year’s Eve! Maybe some of it wasn’t their choice, as it looks like it’s a pretty old theater. But the areas where beer was often resulted in lines crossing major pedestrian pathways. And at every bar, regardless of size (there was one that looked to be 20-30 feet long) they had no more than 3 people tending it. But I guess it would matter much how many people were working, because at all of them they had only 2 taps. And it didn’t look like they had any runners or anything, so if one of the taps went dry, one of the bartenders would have to go leave to switch kegs.
If lots of people buy beer, lots of people will need to use the restrooms. There was only one of each kind. Once again, it’s an infrastructure thing, but it was still annoying.
Last, and worst of all, was the coat check. First, it’s location–in the basement, with only one staircase leading to it. That staircase was right by the main one that led from the theater down to the lobby, so there was massive congestion.
I didn’t witness much of this, so I’ll have to paraphrase from what my boyfriend told me. There were maybe 6 people working, so approximately that many lines formed at the counter. No one worker was assigned to each line, so it was chaos as the people behind the counter tried to help people, not knowing if they’d been helped yet. I went down with my boyfriend to pick up our coats, but left to wait in the lobby after our line didn’t move for 15 or so minutes (he’s a great guy). It was about 1 AM when I went to the lobby. When he got to the counter (about 1:15), he handed off the tickets. Evidently, when they took all of the coats, they didn’t hang them up in any sort of order. So they were able to find his coat, but they couldn’t find mine (which is weird, because you’d think they’d be together). It wasn’t until 2 AM, when almost everyone else had left, that he finally got mine. Even at that time, when there were maybe 15 people waiting to still get their coats, management wouldn’t let them behind the counter to look for them (hey, the coat owners at least know what the coats look like).
He didn’t have it as bad as some other guy. Evidently he was there even longer. He was picking up three coats, and he could see where they were. He kept trying to tell the coat person that, but they were oblivious. He saw a worker grab them and walk away and he tried to get their attention. They didn’t hear him and when he saw them next, they were empty-handed. In the meantime, another worker came up and asked if he could help him. But he didn’t have his tickets any more, because he had given them to the original worker who tried to find his coat. Eventually it all worked out, but my boyfriend saw that this poor guy was getting close to blowing up.
By this time, I’m really starting to wonder what happened. I didn’t see anyone come out of the coat-check area any more, so I started to worry that I missed him (I was sitting down in the lobby and thought I lost him in the crowd). So I went through some doors to be in the main entrance. He wasn’t there, and they wouldn’t let me back in. And I didn’t have my coat.
So, in short, when you have a sold-out show in Chicago on New Year’s Eve you[ul][li]know how many people are coming, because you know how many tickets you sold[]should expect a lot of coats, because it’s cold[]should expect a lot of people to buy beerand therefore, should expect a lot of people to need to piss[/ul][/li]
If you can’t handle that size crowd, maybe you shouldn’t sell as many tickets. Or maybe you should take the $$ you made and make your facilities a bit more organized.
P.S. While the show was fun, it wasn’t nearly enough to make up for all of that bullshit.