Tom Waits gigs have just been announced for Dublin. I’m a huge fan and was extremely excited that he was playing until I saw the ticket prices. Tickets are a minimum of €116. That’s US$182, AU$190, or £92. What a fucking rip off. Fuck you, fuck ticket master, fuck Aitken promotions. Fuck the lot of you. By the way the gigs are gonna be in a big tent, not in some intimate venue. Fuck*.
*And yet if I had €116 on my c/c I’d be lining up Tuesday morning on the Ticketmaster site to secure a ticket.
That’s not too bad in today’s market. I just ponied up over $300 US big ones for the wife and I to see some lady* who’s almost 70 sing some rock and roll and blues songs.
*Lady = Tina Turner - If she’s half as good as she was when I saw her 5 years ago its worth it
I watched Fast Times at Ridgemont High last night, and the scene where a kid buys two front-section concert seats from the scalper for $20 each (with the kid whining about the price, and the scalper afterward gloating because he’d made $16 profit on the sale as the ticket price was $12) now gave me the biggest laugh of the movie.
These artists who are doing the jacked up ticket price thang have a more mature fanbase on average so I suppose people a decade or two older than me and in full time jobs can afford to pay for the tickets but it sucks for poorer people and students like myself.
The Who was worth every penny of the $6.50 I paid to see them.
Rip-off. I paid $5.00. Who’s Next tour.
If it makes you feel I spent $200 for Beach Boys tickets and I’m only getting one origonal member and the concert is on a Wednesday night.
That’s like paying $50 for a six pack of Coors.
Which is what I generally charge underage rich kids…
I blame Michael Jackson.
Well, the trouble is that if headline acts charge “reasonable” prices for tickets, then douchebag scalpers buy them all up 5 seconds after they go on sale, and then the scalpers sell them at market prices. So the audience pays the same jacked up prices, except the performers don’t get paid and the scalpers walk away with the profits.
He’ll be in St Louis on June 26th for $70-102. Plus $15 service charge. At a ~5000 capacity venue. For what it’s worth.
I am also a huge Tom Waits fan (and will be seeing him 3 times this summer…) but Ticketmaster has decided to try out its new “paperless ticketing” system on his tour. While I definitely see the intent in stopping scalpers, and applaud Tom Waits for is efforts to get the tickets in the hands of actual fans, this system is a bit too draconian. To get your tickets at the door, you need the credit card you used to purchase them with, picture ID, and your entire party.
The girlfriend and I bought tickets for the first 2 nights of the tour in Phoenix. I used my credit card to buy the first night and she for the second (This was necessary as the shows sold out in approximately one minute each). The plan was that I was going to to to both nights for sure, and she definitely to the opener. She might have wanted to come to the second, but might have given the ticket to a friend if she decided not to. But now, because it was her card used for the second night, she has to be present, with card and ID, to get the tickets. I called ticketmaster and discovered that there was no possible way to transfer or change this arrangement…she has to show up the second night or no one gets tickets. I guess thats one way to stop scalping, at the expense of being hugely incovenient to the fans…I’m hoping that this is just a test case and the rules will relax a bit if this system continues…oh wait…we’re talking about ticketmaster here…
Having failed to get a ticket for his 2003 “tour” (i.e. single date) of the UK after spending something like 5 hours listening to dialling tones and beeps, I swallowed my pride, went to a scalper and spent an amount that I can’t bring myself to repeat, but rhymes with “Sue thundered band nifty grounds” on a single ticket.
It was, unbelievably, worth it (I figured that having not visited in 17 years, he was unlikely ever to return again). I’m still a mite bitter, mind.
Mrs. J. informs me that she went to a Beatles concert at Suffolk Downs (Mass.) in 1966.
The ticket price was $4.95.
Hah, I see that’s the old fart lowball ticket price for the thread. At least until someone claims to have paid 25 cents to hear Enrico Caruso at the Hippodrome in 1906.
Shelbyville, actually. Wore an onion in my belt, as that was the fashion in those days…
And to think that back in 1992, when I found out Dire Straits was charging $45 (excluding TM fees) I said “FORTY-FIVE DOLLARS!?!? SCREW THAT!!!” and didn’t bother getting in line. (For some reason the promoters didn’t announce any price information until the day of sale. You had to go to Ticketmaster to find out the price - and this was back when Ticketmaster outlets were cash only). That was the first time I’d ever seen a concert ticket with a face value over $25. I thought $22.50 for Paul McCartney was extravagant (yet absolutely worth it).
At least he’s coming to your city 
He’s not coming remotely close to the Northeast US.
Thankfully, this turn of phrase
really cheered me up. Thanks, Dead Badger!
For that much money, I fully expect to see a gladiator get killed onstage. Nay—demand.
I’ve been going to concerts for a long time. The bottom line: a good show is worth every penny, whatever the ticket costs. Like the commercial says: a 2-hour escape from the workaday world: priceless. I only feel ripped off when the artist just go through the motions.