Boycott Ticketmaster!

So it’s been quite a while since I’ve actually purchased concert tickets…or tickets to anything for that matter, online. I always just got them at the door. What the fuck did I miss!? When we went to see Mike Doughty last Thursday, I went to the Ticketmaster website to see how much they were. Only $16! How affordable! Especially for a concert that I want to see so badly! Wrong. Oh so very, very wrong. $9 of charges per ticket. That’s more than half the fucking ticket price!
This is beyond ridiculous. Thankfully, I’ve found some other resources for concert tickets in the Pittsburgh area:


Dave’s Music Mine
Mr. Small’s Funhouse
Club Cafe
Garfield Artworks
The Rex
31st St. Pub
…and possibly more, those are just the one’s currently listed on their website.

The Exchange
Has tickets to most of the venues listed above, plus possibly more.

The Benedum
I know you =can buy tickets directly through their box office, as I did when we saw Tori Amos last year. I think you can do this with Heinz Hall as well.

The shame of it is, it’s not Ticketmaster’s fault that they’re a monopoly…it’s the fault of the venues and their exclusive contracts. Ticketmaster also gets no part of ticket sales, so here come the charges!

Service Charge – For the general service they provide.
Building Facility Charge – Determined by the venue, still raked in by Ticketmaster.
Processing Charge – ‘Cause we all know how expensive it is to send an email.
Shipping/E-Ticket/Will Call – Just because they can!

Often these fees are 30% to even 50% of the actual ticket price. What the fuck, Ticketmaster? And they get away with this by giving away million dollar sign-on bonuses to large venues. And it’s not even just music! Ticketmaster is the primary ticket seller for TWENTY SEVEN of thirty NHL teams and TWENTY EIGHT of thirty NBA teams. At least the MLB has gone with competitor, Tickets.com. From now on, I’m going to try my best to not support this monopoly any longer, or their subsidiaries:

Ticketmaster Ventures, Inc.
Ticketmaster Corp.
TMC Realty Holdings, Inc.
Ticketmaster Publications, Inc.
Ticketmaster Travel Corp.
TM/Video International, Inc.
Ticketmaster Advertising, Inc.
TMC Consultants, Inc.
Ticketmaster Tell Ltd.
Ticketmaster-Direct, Inc.
Cinema Acquisition Corp.
Ticketmaster Cinema Group, Ltd.
TM Movie Tix Holdings, Inc.
TM Marketing, Inc.
Ticketmaster Merchandising Corp.
Ticketmaster-Golf, Inc.
MFG Management Corp.
TM Flowers
TM National Flora LLC.
Instead, I’ll be going with the competitors:
LM Loyalty Management
Neighborhood Box Office
NEXT Ticketing
Prologue Systems
Tickets.com, Inc.

Further steps can also be taken. Urge your favorite artists/sports teams to not use Ticketmaster, along with your local venues. The less people who use them, the less power they’ll have to overcharge the masses.
In addition to monopolizing the ticket market and charging these ridiculous fees, Ticketmaster also has no regard for customer privacy. Directly from their website:

“By completing this registration form you indicate that you consent to Ticketmaster sharing your email address and other information with those who provide the event, and that you consent to those who provide the event using your information to contact you by email or other means to send you marketing or other messages or using or disclosing your information in other ways. By completing this registration form, you also indicate that you consent to Ticketmaster contacting you by email or other means to send you marketing or other messages and using and disclosing the information you submit, as described in the Ticketmaster Privacy.”

Why do we let them get away with shit like this!? Fuck Ticketmaster. I’m going with Tickets.com!

Mike Doughty – Live at Club Cafe, Pittsburgh, PA – 10/8/09

I DID get to see Mike Doughty on Thursday and as always, it was a spectacularly fabulous show. This was my first time attending a question jar show and I’ll tell you what, Mike Doughty is one funny man.

And I don’t know what it is…whether it’s just Pittsburgh that makes him tell people to “shove it up their cunts” or if this is just a favorite phrase of Doughty’s, but it makes me laugh every time.

At this show, they also did a live recording that was available afterwards, it’s super fun! At the beginning of the first video, you get to hear the answer to one of our (read: Adam’s) questions, which was, “Why is well liquor always Banker’s Club? Who are these bankers and why do they drink such shitty liquor?” This was probably one of my favorite answers…here, watch!



Sorry for the poor quality BTW…

And…Mike Doughty has never fucked a Republican. Who knew?



“Tremendous Brunettes” I love how when he says that he will never perform naked you can hear me say an audible, “Damn…” haha. A girl can wish, I suppose.



Aaaaand…”Ossining”.



It was a really fantastic show, in case you couldn’t tell. He even played two Soul Coughing tracks! “Circles” and “True Dreams of Wichita”. My goddamn batteries died in the middle of it, of course, so that video’s not included. He did play a few songs from each solo album, including “Real Love” which I thought was badass. And man, I’ll tell you what…Andrew Howard “Scrap” Livingston is a goddamn animal on the cello. Absolutely phenomenal.

Club Cafe was a super sweet venue for this show, as well. I mean, it’s very dark and small, but it’s incredibly intimate and the sound was amazing. It was a huge change from Mr. Small’s Funhouse, where I’ve seen him twice before. No, I didn’t get to hear “King of Carrot Flowers”, but this was still an amazing fucking show. If you ever get a chance to see this man live, plugged or acoustic, you will not be disappointed. Make sure to check out his new album, Sad Man Happy Man, out now!

Erin McKeown - Live in Pittsburgh

There is nothing better than live music. It's as simple as that. I had my first live encounter with Erin McKeown at the Thunderbird Cafe in Lawrenceville, PA on March 20, 2009...the first day of spring, appropriately. She played solo, dressed all in white, and exuded more emotion and charisma than you think would be possible coming from someone so small! Don't let that small stature fool you, this girl's got some stage presence.

She came out on stage and went directly into "Aspera", the first track off of We Will Become Like Birds. Who needs to waste any time, huh? The hook off of this song is based on ad astera per aspera, a Latin phrase for "to the stars through difficulties".

She only played two songs, ""Rhode Island Is Famous For You" and "Coucou", from her newest album, Sing You Sinners. She did, however, play quite a few songs from her album, Lafeyette, due out this fall. It's refreshing to see an artist excited for a new album. Usually they'll play one or two new songs to give you a taste, then get back to all the songs that you know and love. Erin McKeown doesn't give a shit about you. She's gonna get up there and play what she wants to play! (And we love her for it!)

She did bust out a few of the classics for long-time fans, though, including, "Cosmopolitans", "Cinematic", "The Little Cowboy", "Blackbirds", and "La Petit Mort".

What's awesome is that she rocked them all, old and new. She did the usual band/audience banter and told a few tales of her adventures in Pittsburgh. This is usually where I get disinterested and go smoke, but McKeown can definitely engage an audience. She told stories of heartache and love and laughter and family. A particular favorite of mine was a story she told regarding an interview earlier that day on WYEP, she's doing the normal Q&A deal when she's asked, "Will you ever do a holiday album?" Her simple answer: "No". She'd rather do a Labor Day album, or Memorial Day. It'll be "about picnics".

And this another good reason why I love Erin McKeown. She's so down to Earth. Hell, she's her own merch girl! She's the epitome of the "if it's gonna get done right, better do it myself" mentality. And seriously, I want an Erin McKeown album about picnics.

The only thing that got me down about this show was the venue. The Thunderbird, well, it kinda sucks. The service was great, staff was friendly, but it's incredibly small and awkwardly laid out. Thankfully, the owners must know this because there were flat screens in every room.

We did get to meet her after the show and she's just so incredibly sweet, and so short, haha. I am a merch whore, so I bought two CDs and a t-shirt. All in all it was like $40? Not too bad for all that.

I would definitely go see her again. I'd like to maybe see her with a band, since I've now seen her solo, but I can vouch that her solo act is stellar. If you haven't heard of this woman, check her out! Check her out, now!!!

Erin McKeown's Website