This past Friday, I spent about an hour visiting the box offices at three different concert venues in the Cincinnati area, buying tickets for seven different shows for my friends and for myself.
It saved us $180 in ridiculous Live Nation/Ticketmaster fees. Actually make that $180.14.
I despise all the made-up fees that Live Nation/Ticketmaster charges.
The lawsuit, filed by the Justice Department alongside numerous states, argues the company has used its position across concert promotion, venue ownership and ticketing to stifle competition and increase costs for fans.
Attorney General Merrick Garland previously said Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s control of the industry means concertgoers face “a seemingly endless list of fees,” according to reporting cited by Newsweek.
The lawsuit is spot-on. The Live Nation/Ticketmaster monopoly is costing fans money. And their strong-arming tactics would make a Mafioso running a protection racket blush. “If you want to play our venues, you need to use Ticketmaster. And you need to pay us a higher percentage…”
I had texted several music-loving friends in advance, and told them I was going on a ticket run, and to let me know what tickets they needed. I was like a cast member on Alice, taking orders, but instead of eggs and coffee it was Spoon and Sugar.
My first stop was the box office at the indoor/outdoor venue in Newport, KY. (It’s called MegaCorp Pavilion – a local logistics company bought the naming rights, when they should’ve spent that money on coming up with a name for their company that doesn’t sound like a fictional company from Office Space.) Their box office is only open Tues-Fri. from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. (extremely unfriendly toward in-person purchase for working stiffs). I bought:
3 tickets to Spoon with The Beths (great double bill!)
4 tickets to Death Cab for Cutie with Jay Som (another great double bill)
3 tickets to Courtney Barnett
2 tickets to Sugar
Then it was off to Bogart’s, the long-in-the-tooth club venue near the University of Cincinnati. I got a ticket to the 40th anniversary show of a band that started in Cincinnati, the Afghan Whigs. Mercury Rev is the opener. The Afghan Whigs played dozens of shows at Bogart’s back in the day, so this should be a nice homecoming set.
My final stop was the Ludlow Garage. I got a ticket to the Patterson Hood/John Moreland show. And I bought four for the Built to Spill show, with Wussy as the opener.
Lucky for me that the bands I like aren’t typically going to sell out a venue. Pity the poor folks who want prized tickets to high-demand tours. They have to pay through both nostrils.
And having used websites and ticketing apps for both Ticketmaster and much smaller ticketing sites, I can assure you that Live Nation is NOT using all those fees to create a better user experience. Their website and their app are awful.
Whenever I can, I’m gonna stick it to the Live Nation man. A Reddit user quoted in the article above said it best:
On Valentine’s Day, FeedSpot released their list of the “100 Best Indie Music Podcasts.”
You probably didn’t even know that there were 100 podcasts about indie music. (Neither did I!)
But if you scroll down the list… keep scrolling… just a bit more… there, that’s it! You’ll find this gem:
“97X – Rumblings from the Big Bush” is the weirdly-named, shoddily produced podcast that I co-host with my friend and former 97X colleague Dave. I’ve posted about it before:
My 97X buddy Dave and I started a podcast a few years ago, recording episodes in my basement. We had no idea what we were doing. Still don’t, honestly. “Shoestring budget” would be inaccurate. No budget. Actually it’s a “loss leader” given the hosting and website fees we pay. We’ve done very little promotion of it. But somehow, someway, the small-but-mighty group of people who loved 97X found it.
The podcast about 97X seems like a fool’s errand. Very few people listened to the station when it existed, and it’s been off the air for two decades (or a mere 15 years if you include the dot-com era). But the people who listened to the station absolutely loved it. And somehow, some way, despite the lack of promotion (and the weird name of “97X Rumblings from the Big Bush”), they found the podcast. As I tell Dave all the time “every time we publish a new episode, we make 150 people very happy.” Through the pod, we’ve been able to reconnect with old friends, meet new ones, talk to musicians we admire (the latest episode features two members of Too Much Joy), and create a place for folks to relive some of their fondest memories. And hanging out with Dave — one of the most naturally funny people I’ve ever met — is always a treat.
Never heard of our podcast? You’re not alone. 99.99% of the world has never heard of it, much less heard it. But for the few, the proud, the folks who remember a tiny “modern rock” station in Oxford, Ohio, the podcast was pretty darn cool. It helped them reconnect with the station, the music, and the people that meant a lot to them.
“I am not sure you guys realize just what impact having this modern rock format has had on my life… your podcast has brought about all of these thoughts, feelings, and memories of the soundtrack of 21 years on my life. I thank you for playing your part in it back then and I thank you for creating this podcast to help me process just what those 21 years have meant to me.”
“Thanks for the pod. It is like finally being able to talk with someone about the treasure that was WOXY.”
We tried to end the podcast a couple of years ago, but we missed it.
Now we’re back with “Season Two”… which really just means more of the same hijinks.
#33 on the FeedSpot list is great. But the measures that matter most to Dave and me are having fun, and creating something that our (admittedly tiny) audience enjoys. We’re still making 150 people happy every time we release an episode. Like Seth Godin says, “that’s enough.”
You probably won’t come up with a better mousetrap. But you might find the empathy and focus to find a small group of people with a more specific problem and solve it for them in a way that earns you trust, traction and word of mouth.
That’s enough.
BTW, the latest episode features our interview with Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker, the leaders of the band Wussy, and two of my all-time favorite songwriters.
Anyone who has flown more than a few times probably has an airline horror story. Comedians have built bits, or even entire sets, around them.
Dan Piraro has an airline horror story too. He’s the guy who created the Bizarro comic strip, and still does the Sunday version. (His friend Wayno now handles the Monday through Saturday panels.)
In his blog post from mid-December, Dan recounts his air travel travails as he and his wife were trying to get back to their home in Mexico. But he also provides a very healthy dose of perspective.
Please read the entire post if you can. If not, chew on this nugget like it’s airline food:
My wife and I have befriended numerous Mexicans who have never flown on a commercial airline or visited anywhere farther than a half-tank of gas from home. This is common among low-income Mexicans, but they don’t complain. They place their happiness in their families and friends, not in material possessions or travel trophies. That may sound corny, but it’s true, and we find it inspiring.
It is all too easy for us developed-nation-types to forget that around 80% of the over 8 billion people on this planet have never been on an airplane, much less visited a vacation resort. And compared to the legions of displaced refugees worldwide, what my wife and I experienced over the weekend was but an annoying inconvenience compared to their treatment for months, years, or a lifetime.
Even when it’s bad, we’ve got it good.
And that perfect vacation photo on Facebook or Instagram pales in comparison to a life that seems “poor” but is actually quite rich.
They place their happiness in their families and friends, not in material possessions or travel trophies.
Kudos to Mr. Bizarro for his reality check. It’s plane (and plain) wisdom.
Below is a post I made way back in 2015. (TBH, I didn’t even think I had a blog back then, but apparently so.) Reposting now in tribute to Bob Weir, who passed away this past weekend at the age of 78. (Also note that the “final show” referenced in my original post wasn’t really the final show… Bobby kept on truckin’ with Dead & Co. and The Wolf Bros. pretty much until the end.
“These songs are … living critters and they’re visitors from another world — another dimension or whatever you want to call it — that come through the artists to visit this world, have a look around, tell their stories. I don’t know exactly how that works, but I do know that it’s real.” – Bob Weir in a 2022 interview with NPR.
20 years ago, I couldn’t stand the Grateful Dead. I don’t like the smell of patchouli and I don’t care for $5 grilled cheese sandwiches made on the carburetor of a ’72 VW Microbus.
18 years ago, I married my wife, who is a big fan of the Dead. So I’ve listened to more than my fair share of their music since then. And it’s grown on me. Granted, I still could do without an 18-minute version of a 2-minute cover song (looking at you, “Good Lovin'”) or “Drums > Space.” But I really do enjoy many of their songs, and have a great appreciation for the fan base they’ve cultivated over the last 50 years. Whether you love them or hate them (and there doesn’t seem to be much middle ground), you have to admit that they are one of the most generous bands around, in the sense that they view music as a gift to be shared, and not commerce to be peddled. Tapers have always been welcome at their shows, and their bootlegs have helped them grow their fan base.
Two nights ago, The Grateful Dead played their final show at Soldier Field in Chicago. (Some would argue they played their final show 20 years ago when Jerry Garcia passed away.) We are on vacation and went to see a live stream of the show on a Jumbotron at an outdoor bar in Florida. It was my first time seeing them live (or semi-live on a Jumbotron). There were plenty of other fans there watching as well. How many bands could pull that off – having people spend a vacation night watching one of their concerts from a thousand miles away?
I know that there are a lot of preconceived notions about Deadheads, but as a passionate live music fan I tip my hat to them, because they obviously love live music. The Dead may not be the most technically precise band around, but they have a groove that runs a mile deep and have built a passionate community around that. More bands should be like them.
2 responses to “Eternally Grateful… still”
Chuck Wiggins
I’m ambivalent at best about the Grateful Dead’s music, but there’s no discounting the incredible community built around it. And there’s one song that transcends my ambivalence and reins among my all-time favorite songs from anyone – Unbroken Chain.
Here’s the “Godmother of Punk” Patti Smith in an interview with Ezra Klein of the NYT:
Despite everything that’s happening in the world and everything around us and any frustration or helplessness we feel or betrayal we feel, we have to remember it’s also all right to feel the joy of being alive and feel the joy of your own possibilities. Even in the face of the suffering of so many people around us. I have to hold on to the fact that I have my own life, and I have duties that I have to perform. I have a family to take care of. But I also have the same calling I did when I was young: to nourish and to do the work that I believe I was given the possibility to do.
I’m not going to let anything shake that faith, no matter what kind of rubble or debris of our time I have to walk through. I believe in my rebel hump. So I’m not going to let anyone destroy it. I’m just going to keep doing my work.
Beautiful. Just beautiful!
Yes, the United States can seem like it’s turned into the Upside Down, or a Bizarro World. And there are daily if not hourly opportunities to get frustrated, or feel helpless or betrayed, or be depressed by the suffering around us. But we still have to keep on doing the work that we’re called to do.
We have to remember it’s also all right to feel the joy of being alive and feel the joy of your own possibilities
Patti Smith
You’ll have to read the full transcript or listen to the entire podcast episode (posted below) to learn about Patti’s “rebel hump.”
Here’s to joy! Here’s to possibilities! Here’s to being a punk!
Have some woman in West Chester, Ohio read the story, and send the main photo from it to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon for potential use in his “Lookalikes” segment. (I don’t know who you are, but thanks Kathleen Bentley!)
Watch what happened on Monday night.
File this in the “Never in a Million Years” category.
I’m so happy that Cincinnati Magazine got a shout-out, and the crowd cheering “Freekbass! Freekbass!” was surreal. It should be noted that the amazing photo that served as inspiration for the late-night lunacy was the handiwork of Devyn Glista.
(And yes, Jimmy looks more like the guy from Night Moves.)
Kevin Sullivan on War… why? And now what?: “I read your post Damian and I like it very much. As we move from a Saturday morning headline of…” Mar 3, 09:22
Damian on Smartphones are making us dumb.: “Thanks for (not) reading the post, Kevin. And thanks for mentioning several other formats (article, essay, poem) that can train…” Feb 23, 19:55
Kevin on Smartphones are making us dumb.: “You know I didn’t read your post because I don’t need to. The lack of reading of all generations reveals…” Feb 23, 10:32
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