TicketMaster "credit card entry," plus Cat Stevens, Al Jardine and punk rock (1 Viewer)

[mjp]

I understand that I'm old and out of the loop, but I just learned about "credit card entry" concert tickets while looking up seating for the Cat Stevens shows here in Los Angeles in October. I have mixed feelings about it since I sometimes buy tickets on the secondary market (and the "credit card entry" tickets pretty much take the secondary market - i.e. scalpers - out of the picture).

I may sit it out completely anyway, seeing that second row orchestra pit tickets - "Platinum Seats" - are $1,250 per. Tickets in the 12th row are $925. The "cheap" seats on the floor are $265.50. Each. Ha.

I could approach this one like the Brian Wilson show we saw a few weeks ago - just get some nosebleeds ($89.50) and enjoy it from a mile away. Still though, that's $200 (after TicketMaster's half dozen random fees) to sit in binocular seats. Which, I get it, inflation, but still. It might too much just on principle. To hear an old hippie sing.

For comparison, the nosebleed seats to see Brain Wilson - not a hippie - were $35.

 

[Short Bus]

I have always hated paying more than I think I should for better seats and I have never regretted spending money for better seats. It's money. Treat it with the contempt it deserves.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

I accidentally learned a new trick for people who want to keep their ticket stubs. I ordered tickets for a soccer match, but a week before I found out I couldn't go and needed to sell them. The problem was, I got paper tickets sent to my house. Turns out Ticketmaster can convert paper tickets to electronic tickets. The old paper tickets will no longer work, but you get to keep the pristine, untorn tickets for your memories/collection.

 

[mjp]

That's probably how this survived...

 

[Pogue Mahone]

That must have been an extra special night for the Viking Inn. This was my ticket from the David Cassidy comeback tour -- 1979 Viking Inn as well.

 

[mjp]

that's $200 (after TicketMaster's half dozen random fees) to sit in binocular seats.

Make that $241.15.

Ticket price was ostensibly $89.50, but each seat also has a "facility charge" of $9.50, a "service fee" of $19.30, and an overall $4.55 "order processing fee." So that $89.50 ticket is really $120.58.

It's like bidding at an auction. ;)

 

[d gray]

while looking up seating for the Cat Stevens shows

you want to see cat stevens?

you???

 

[mjp]

I was born in 1960, of course I'm going to see Cat Stevens.

- I've never seen him play
- He's still got more of his voice than anyone else from that era
- Those songs
- He's got that whole Islamic State vibe happening

That's four good reasons right there.



Speaking of "he's still got more of his voice than anyone else from that era," when we saw Brian Wilson a few weeks ago, he had Al Jardine playing with him, the guy who founded the Beach Boys with the Wilsons. We were sitting way up in the back of the Hollywood Bowl, so I couldn't really see what was happening on stage, but I could hear Jardine's vocal parts just blasting through (he's got a very distinctive voice), and I thought, jesus christ, how can he still be singing like that? He must be 100 years old!

Then about a third of the way through, they're introducing the people in the band and there's Jardine's son, doing vocals. So it wasn't Al at all. Pretty clever, drafting your kid (well, your 50 year old kid) to fill in the blanks. He sounds just like his old man.

 

[d gray]

hey man, i'm with you. he's one of my faves.

just hard to picture "mr punk rock" grooving to "moonshadow"...

 

[mjp]

I'm multi-faceted, like a diamond lane.

And "Moonshadow" was one of the first songs I learned to play on the guitar. That and Sweet Leaf and some Burl Ives and Woody Guthrie songs.

 

[d gray]

you're a complicated man.

but no one understands him but his woman...;)

 

[roni]

my 25 cents to this:
I DO LOVE 'Harold & Maude' like hell, SO HOW could I dislike the old classic Stevens?!


if you want to sing out: sing out!!

 

[mjp]

Can I just reiterate that Ticketmaster sucks, and I hate them? I'm sure I'm not alone there.

But by some miracle of chance I just got third row seats to see PJ Harvey at the Greek Theater from TicketMaster. I usually don't even bother TicketMaster and just go through StubHub, because trying to get good seats for a Los Angeles show by anyone - even at a presale, like today - is usually impossible on the ticket sites.

But I figured I'd try this time, and I found a kind of interesting thing about TicketMaster. When tickets for popular shows go on sale they only let you search "best available seat," rather than picking your seats from that interactive map thingy. But what they were saying was "best" was shit (way over on the side, halfway up the hill). So I tried searching again and the seats got even worse (benches in the back!). But then I kept reloading the search for the hell of it, and after about a dozen tries, the tickets in section A row 3 came up.

So I don't know what algorithm they use to determine "best" (it seems random), but it looks like you can keep trying until you see something you like. I suppose it would be a different story for Beyonce or Kanye or someone, but it worked for this, so just FYI. If you use TicketMaster a lot you probably already knew this, but if you didn't, here it is.