Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It seems that these days, the average concert go-er, just can't hop online and buy tickets for a concert. All the tickets get purchased by brokers that then charge more for a ticket and to try and get really good seats you have to dish out a fortune.
So, I ask-how does one go about getting tickets for popular concerts without paying a fortune via ticket brokers?
It seems that these days, the average concert go-er, just can't hop online and buy tickets for a concert. All the tickets get purchased by brokers that then charge more for a ticket and to try and get really good seats you have to dish out a fortune.
So, I ask-how does one go about getting tickets for popular concerts without paying a fortune via ticket brokers?
Thanks
Go wait in line when they go up for sale. I have waited in line for over 4 hours before to get rare tickets. It's worth it for me if it is someone I really want to see!
You ever wait in line all night long and were the first when the window opened only to find out the closest seat was 25 rows back? How in the hell can that happen? Pretty frustrating. A large percentage of the good seats are held for the band members families and guests and never are made available to the public. Same thing with sporting events.
In my younger days, I went to trade school with a guy who was an Usher for the Capital Theater in Passaic, NJ. He got me seats that were just not available to the public. They were some wonderful times. I sat among the elite back then.
Today we have the Ticketmaster crap. The biggest criminal empire since the United States Government and the pig force. That fan club hogwash where you sign up for a fan club and have first dibs at tickets is all a hoax designed to squeeze more money from us.
More fraud: 3 years ago when Sugarland was barely known, I bought tickets to see them. Trouble was it was a Kenny Chesney concert with Sugarland as opening band. I paid all that money to see my beloved Jennifer Nettles and then left before Kenny Chesney even came out. I have no interest in him but that's not my point. My point is before the show I was hanging out near stage and these guys with STAFF jackets were soliciting the most prettiest girls to take front rows seats for free. The show was being filmed for a live video and they wanted the first rows to be filled with the hottest women they could find. These front few rows were never for sale.
I'm glad this has been brought up. Ticketbastard has ruined the concept of normal, intelligent, passionate music-lovers like us actually having a fair chance of getting decent seats to see our favorite bands up close. I love Cream and the Eagles, but it sickened me when American Express cardholders $20K+ in debt got first dibs on tix!
At least Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam and a few others are fighting this stupidity. I even had to pay $85/ticket - mostly "convenience (read: EXTORTION) fees - to see my favorite band (Rush) for the 34th, 35th and 36th time this year!
Having said this....sunnie741 and fellow live music lovers out there....have you tried StubHub? I have had GREAT success in securing good seats for U2, Dave Matthews, B.B. King, Eric Clapton, The Police, etc. for a reasonable price. Here is a link:
From my experience, StubHub is a BUYERS' site. You can really get good seats for a small (i.e. not scalper/rapist-level prices) premium. If you gamble a bit - like, 72 hours before the show - you can get a floor seat for under $100 (I did this for the Rolling Stones' Bigger Bang Tour).
Also, check the local newspaper and remember - in this horrid economy ruined by our government - it's a BUYERS' market. Haggle!
Good luck and I hope you get decent tickets for a decent price!
This is the very reason why I prefer going to smaller venues. Everybody has a great seat and you can talk with the performers after the show.
Back in the day we used to wait in line all night to get decent seats, it's true, nowadays, forget it, it's really hard. A lot of companies buy the seats in bulk for promotion/employees, etc. I did get 5 rows from the stage for Bowie once, and ran up to the front when he came on. Best show ever.
This is the very reason why I prefer going to smaller venues. Everybody has a great seat and you can talk with the performers after the show.
Back in the day we used to wait in line all night to get decent seats, it's true, nowadays, forget it, it's really hard. A lot of companies buy the seats in bulk for promotion/employees, etc.
Amen.
I don't like to gloat too much over my time in the 70's, but live music really WAS better back then: cheaper, more accessible, and less micromanaged.
And if I did wait hours to get tickets, it was usually a shared experience.
I do remember being offered the good seats or even to go backstage (back when I was young!) Some aspects were always a scam.
These days smaller venues are where it's at. Actually, smaller venues were always better. It is a more intimate experience. I am pretty much finished with stadium shows.
Many bands (Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Avett Brothers, etc) offer tickets to their fans first. If you join their club and/or friend them on Facebook, they will make special offers. We got a really good deal for Voodoo Festival this way twice. In a couple weeks, we will see the Avetts with tickets we bought ahead of time, before they were sold to the general public. I am not sure how good our seats will be--we might be looking at amplifiers.
I went to a Buddy Guy concert in April, and I managed to get two tickets for the prices quoted on the Ticketmaster, which were very reasonable ($30 each for standing room) for a small venue.
Later I encountered another CD poster who wrote that Ticketmaster had sold out, and he couldn't find them cheaper than triple-digits offered in other sites. So, in other words, there were probably a few people that paid 8 to 10 times more than the tickets should have cost! I'm glad he didn't try to pay for them; I wish a lot more people would boycott that bull$hit.
Honestly, there are times when I think the internet has NOT been a good thing.
Sign up at the bands you want to see's OFFICIAL fan website. When the concerts are coming you will get an email and also a code word so when you go online to ticketbastard you insert that code word next to the concert seats you want and get the tickets for about half price and on sale before the public does.
You get an email to go to the fan site and a list of all the concerts and the date tickets go on pre sale with the code word next to it. There is a place ticketmaster has for these code words. i've gotten 3rd row aisle seats for $40 when second row is $160. Of course I live is a state that does not allow open admission.
Any questions just dm me.
Last edited by Thursday007; 06-03-2010 at 03:12 AM..
This is the very reason why I prefer going to smaller venues. Everybody has a great seat and you can talk with the performers after the show.
Even in some of these smaller venues, (Well, more like midsize since they can fit 1000-3000 people), they deal with Ticketmaster or Live Nation.
I just saw Isis and the Melvins a week ago at the Paradise club in Boston. The Ticketmaster charge was 6.50 on a face value of 18 dollars. The Paradise is controlled by Live Nation, and yet it has a capacity of about 800 IIRC.
In another part of town at the House of Blues, it's not out of the ordinary to see 25-35% convenience charges on tickets which normally run face value of 20-30 dollars.
It's all a crooked scam.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
