So John Fogerty is on tour and coming to my town. For those of you who don't know John Fogerty was the front man, leader guitar, and writer for Credence Clearwater Revival, or CCR. Since leaving CCR he has had a stellar solo career. We've seen him solo before but he's getting older, we're getting older, and this could be our last chance to see him again. He's appearing at the local casino, that's one of those places where you walk into a big building throw your money onto the floor and walk back out again. Back when Fogerty was just starting out they were illegal in most states as if you gambled you were sure to be on the road to perdition and a place in hell. But all that's changed now. Also back in them there days if I wanted to see CCR and they were coming to town, I'd drive out to the local mall, walk into the local record shop, that's where they sold vinyl LP records that included a whole lot of songs that you could own forever. I'd march up to the cash register (look it up), and ask for a ticket. Then I'd hand over $5.00 to $7.00 dollars, cash, get a general seating ticket made of some sort of manila paper, or maybe a floor ticket, put in my pocket and walk out. That was it. I didn't need a $500.00 cell phone, or a computer, or a password, username, email address, phone number, credit card, Paypal account, or home address. So, anyway, I logged onto the Casino website, which sent me to the Ticketmaster web site to buy a ticket. Then I had to find an available row of seats, not seat, a row of seats. "I want two seats, side by side." "Okay, just log into your account." Tickets are like $95 bucks for the cheap seats. Also checked out the Rolling Stones as they're on tour. The good seats are like $1,500 dollars..what? Anyway... I just bought tickets to see Leo Kottke like two years ago and didn't need an account! (For those of you who don't know who Leo Kottke is...) So I have to set up an account. Okay, email address, password. Turns out my password and account which I just set up like NOW, is out of date. So I have to reset my password. Okay. But first.......I need to enter the secret code which will be sent to my email address. Okay. Now, it may take up to 30 minutes to get that secret password. That was three hours ago. I've asked for and received, I think it has been oh, 36,000 secret codes by now and when I enter them into that little box on the Ticketmaster site, guess what? They've all timed out before I even got them!!! Called the phone number, that sent me to the website and the help button which sent me to a robot who answered anything I typed in with some nonsense about something I didn't even type in. Still waiting. Doesn't look like I'll see Fogerty this time around.
The old days are gone. I remember when I saw Janis and others for what seems like pocket change now. I am seeing Ministry in Portland in November. Expensive!
It is INSANE. I saw the Moody Blues in Madison Square Garden in 1971, $7.00 tickets. $5.00 for Jethro Tull in Wheeling, WV.; $5.00 for lawn seating at Tanglewood... Mar y Sol Puerto Rico, $7.00 for three days of sin on the beach ... Sorry to hear that. My sibs all talk about going to this or that concert, I had no idea they were that willing to part with the big bucks for that stuff.
Last big concert I went to the tickets cost $14.00... I don't remember who it was though. Haven't been to one since... I don't get out much...
Well, I finally got the tickets. Only took over four hours and I had to get another code on my phone after I gave them my phone number. Then I had to print them out as I don't use data on my phone. Of course the wireless printer wouldn't work on my wife's new laptop so I thought I'd just plug in in but couldn't find an outlet on the printer. So I saved them to a thumbdrive and transported them to my desktop and printed them out. So now I'm trying to get the laptop to connect to the printer...downloading a bunch of stuff.
Used to go to a teenage night club, 18 and under. They'd get acts like Simon and Garfunkel, Ike and Tina Turner, The Supremes, Tommy James, etc. cover charge was one U.S. dollar. Can't really remember who I saw there. Saw The James Gang for free, Zappa and the Mothers for free, Bull Island 3 day for free, some outdoor Mushroom concert in Avonmore Pa for free, saw groups for 5 to 7 bucks, like Jefferson Airplane, Kinks, Moody Blues, Deep Purple, etc.
not nearly as useful as an index chart (layed out like a calender, by date and time) of what's playing where. i remember seeing a lot of those people, cat stevens before changing his performance name, buffy st marie, seals and crofts (their actual mundane nemes, oddly enough), free concernts on the uni quad. assorted random unknowns but wonderful concerts in public parks, et al.
It is all about the money nowadays, artists would gladly donate a concert for free, now it costs too much with all the staging, roadies, travel expenses, etc. Besides the venues see it all as a cash cow and charge outrageous fees... Having organized a cannabis cup once in the past, I know how the costs can pile up.
Saw Tull in Hawaii. He played the whole Thick as a Brick album straight through and when they finished that---he said "now --for our second song"! Great concert!!.
Thick as a Brick was an epic album mostly forgotten in the sands of time... What a bizarre album cover!!! A fake newspaper with rabbits and other nonsense... definitely the result of some great acid trips IMHO
i had thick as a brick on 8-trak, back in the day. 70s art was the right kind of weird. mostly. imagination isn't nonsense though, its what makes human anything other then just another little furry creature that lost its fur and its tail. don't really understand the socio-economic niche of ticketmaster, how and why it even exists. i mean, if you're going to get out of the house to go see a movie, or some other kind of a show, (or if its a convention, you're already plugged into the interest group that's holding it, with its own economic channels that aren't connected to the mundane entertainment industry anyway) why would you be wanting to hang around in the house to buy tickets on line, instead of just bringing cash or debit card for the little booth in front of the movie house where you where you pay to get in, telling you what's playing where, in a useful and digestable mannor, that would make it useful, but as long as it doesn't and isn't, i totally don't get what's the point, what value or bennifit does it pretend to provide? for musicians and audience there are music festivals, that also have food boots, and the different groups set up tables where band members or their families or representatives can sell you a cd of their perfomances directly, whithout having to go through the whole rigamorole of all that music industry association crap. just a local temp tax license.
I just remembered. It was at the illegal Lunar Woodstock 20th anniversary. Saw Melanie Safka, Wavy Gravy, Michael Lang, Jimi Hendrix's father, Savoy Brown, and a bunch of other lesser or unknowns.
