Place: Tim Horton's
Lunch: Chicken club sandwich, chili, Boston cream doughnut, hot chocolate
I rrrolled up the rim. I didn't win.
(If you're not familiar with Tim Horton's, you won't get that.)
Been to a concert lately? I haven't. Aside from a couple of shed shows featuring rehashed "classic rock" bands, my last real concert was KISS on their "farewell tour".
I think tickets to that one were around $45, plus a couple of bucks for the pre-requisite Ticketmaster service charge. I remember complaining about that.
Oh how things have changed.
Shortly after that tour, some concert promoter looked at "ticket brokers" who were buying said $45 tickets and reselling them for double or triple the value. Instead of getting angry, the promoter said "If people are willing to pay that price, why aren't I charging that price?"
BAM. Overnight, ticket prices doubled or tripled. Crappy seats on the Kiss/Aerosmith tour just a couple years later were $75 for the CHEAP seats. And the best seats were reserved for special ticket packages that ran in the THOUSANDS. And with that, concerts were priced out of the range I was willing to pay.
And that was that.
Recently, I've discovered it's only gotten worse. I was looking at tickets for something on Ticketmaster. I was floored with what I found.
Ticket price for "best seat available": $225.00
"Building facility charge": $4.00
Ticketmaster "convenience charge": $20.40
This was for a single ticket in the sixth row of the lower risers in about the middle of the building.
That didn't include shipping, which ranged from $14.50 to $25.00. To mail a ticket. Unless you wanted the tickets "e-mailed" to you so you could print them on your computer...which cost $2.50.
Yes, you even have to pay to print them yourself.
Shipping could be skipped if you wanted to pick up the tickets at will call. And I guess old US Mail is an option if you order far enough in advance (in some markets, anyway). Still, you see the precedent here.
And yet, people are paying.
So I've sworn off concerts. Who wants to put up with the crowds, parking fees, and all that crap anyway, right?
But once in awhile, a little gem comes along.
A month or two ago, I found myself at the Over the Rhine web page. They're an Ohio-based sort of folky rock Americana-ish...uh...anyway, they're awesome. I clicked their tour dates page. One of the dates was an "all ages" show in Goshen, Indiana. Ever heard of Goshen? Me neither. So I clicked on the page, and was linked to the Goshen Theater. Looked at some pics and immediately decided I had to go to this show.
Tickets? $20 or less. $20 was described as limited reserved seating in the first few rows. Oh yes. I did.
The tickets were sold directly by the theater. No facility charges. No convenience fees. Just $20.
A week later, the ticket was delivered in a hand-written envelope. And last night, I was in the second row among about 350 Over the Rhine fans (a sellout in this building) who enjoyed an amazing couple of hours in a beautiful old movie house.
We heard stories, we laughed a lot, and we enjoyed some really incredible music.
Which just goes to show...There are some great treasures out there if you look hard enough.
