| The Pixies’ "warm-up" reunion tour may have effectively finished off what the Internet started. A couple of months ago when six out of seven western Canadian cities (Saskatoon being the exception) sold-out the legendary Boston rockers’ concert in minutes flat it left many teary-eyed fans confused about the way concert tickets are disseminated and cemented the fact that the ticket buying component of the concert going experience has officially changed.
When Blake Jenkins, manager of Scratch Records in Vancouver, opened the store on the day Pixies tickets went on sale for the Vancouver show, he only had 25 tickets for each night to sell and 80 people in line. "Basically, each person was allowed to buy four tickets and everyone did," says Jenkins.
So if you do the math, a dozen or so people got tickets.
According to Jenkins, he only had a limited number for sale because the two shows were at the Commodore, a House of Blues venue, which has an exclusive contract with Ticketmaster that stipulates only 10 per cent of tickets may be distributed through other retailers. But after that one tenth of tickets are gone, merchants like Scratch are welcome to sell on behalf of the world’s leading ticketing company. For this privilege, ticket buyers get Ticketmaster’s "convenience" charges tacked on.
"People often ask me, ‘Why is this ticket almost $7 more?’" says Jenkins. He eventually agreed to Ticketmaster’s terms because it brought more customers into his store. On the other hand, it leaves him with a lot of explaining to do. "Like the Strokes, for example, I was selling tickets for $36. Then (customers) come in and go, ‘Oh my gosh, $42. 25 for a ticket now.’"
The news was no better for those who lined up at Ticketmaster. Much to the disbelief of those who had claimed a spot in line in the wee hours of the morning, a Ticketmaster rep came out and made them pick numbers out of a hat. Consequently, fans from the front got bumped back and vice versa. This damn fangled lottery system has concert-goers wondering if Pearl Jam had it all wrong. Could it be that the world famous corporation isn’t a board of greedy megalomaniacs who don’t care about music and are only out to make a buck? Perhaps the maharishi of business-to-business ticket issuing is simply using this game of chance to teach all the gluttonous ticket buyers that the universe is random.
"I actually think they’re trying to do away with people lining up," says Scott Black.
Interesting theory.
Black was one of the early risers reshuffled at the Vancouver Ticketmaster assembly. Despite being upgraded two places he still missed out on tickets.Meanwhile in Calgary, John Murray, an Albertan scenester who also fell victim to Pixie hysteria, stood in line for the MacEwan Hall show at Southcentre Mall because he thought he would be safe from seasoned hipsters scooping up all the tickets. He was right.
"I lined up and there was a bunch of us older cats out there and unfortunately we were behind a whole bunch of teeny boppers," recalls Murray.
"These kids were the first to sweep in and actually get all the tickets," he says. He eventually got tickets, but he’s still a little disenchanted with the direction ticket buying is going.
"Back in the day, a band of yours comes to town and there’s this magic about lining up and you share fan stories about your favourite band," he says. "Well, those days are kind of going. You need a credit card to get these tickets or you’re screwed."
However, Patti Babin, the national director of promotions and public relations of Tickemaster in Canada, says it’s only the perception that so many more people are screwed over because of Internet and telecommunications technology. As she points out, the same number of tickets is being sold. They’re just being bought at a faster rate via refresh and redial buttons.
"When the demand outweighs the supply so much, as it seems to be with these Pixies concerts, people can’t get through on the phones but the reason they can’t get through is because other people are getting through," says Babin. "You could have 800 phone lines (for an 800-person venue) and for the 801st person, there wouldn’t be enough phone lines. "
Back at Scratch Records, Jenkins still finds it disheartening that minutes after the concert sold out, tickets were being advertised on the Internet at ridiculously high prices. However, Babin says that Ticketmaster isn’t responsible for scalping.
"We have told eBay, ‘By the way, did you know that there’s legislation?’" says Babin about varying provincial laws that forbid the reselling of tickets over face value. "But it’s not something we can do anything about. It’s up to the people that actually police things, lawmakers and things like that. We do everything we can like setting ticket limits and stuff like that. I mean once we’ve sold that ticket, we don’t have any claim on what they can do with it."
Armed with this new ticket-purchasing savvy, will people like Vancouver’s Scott Black ever lineup for another concert token as long as he lives? In his own words: "Hell no." |
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