If you have some free time tonight, head over to Hidden Track and check out Dave Onigman's list of the ten noteworthy changes in Phish -- the community and the scene -- since the 2000 release of Bittersweet Motel.
Much has changed.
$22 a ticket? Unbelievable. Now, $22 will buy you only a domestic beer and a soggy hot dog at the venue.
And, today, the band is completely sober -- a fact Seth Schiesel eloquently noted in his review of Super Ball IX for The New York Times.
Thankfully, for its members and its fans, Phish has reduced the torrent of drug abuse that derailed it in 2004 to a gentle, invisible mist.
The Grateful Dead comparisons no longer phase the band as much, though it's amazing that such remarks ever did.
Attendance has dropped markedly. Just 40,000 traveled to Super Ball IX compared to the 70,000 at Great Went. This comes as no surprise, of course, given the economy and the rise in ticket prices.
Who knows what could change in the next 13 years.
Maybe the Occupy Wall Street movement will succeed, abolishing student loans and overpriced tickets. Maybe the band will tour the Middle East or return to Asia. Maybe the jam scene will somehow find its way into mainstream media.
Then again, nothing could change. And that wouldn't be such a bad thing.
Showing posts with label Tickets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tickets. Show all posts
Friday, November 18, 2011
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Scalped Out
Four minutes.
That's all it took for tickets to Phish's New Year's Eve show at Madison Square Garden in New York City to sell out on Oct. 29. Poof. Gone.
Fears come to fruition for thousands of hopeful fans. Shut out again.
Yet more shocking is the fact that, just fourteen minutes later, StubHub, the online broker, had already amassed over 100 tickets, ranging from roughly $200 for nosebleeds to $7,000 for floor seats.
Clearly, the scalpers won. Using automated Web bots -- cyborg cheats -- they pilfered hundreds if not thousands of tickets before fans could even click their mouses.
Like professional gamblers studying a betting line, the savvy thieves read the demand and acted accordingly. They knew full well the inherent value of the Dec. 31 ticket. Indeed, to Phish fans, it's considered the Holy Grail.
And although some flocked to Phantasy Tour, an online forum for Phish fanatics, to post profanity laden threads expressing their outrage, many in the community expected this outcome.
Scalping, they agree, is an unstoppable force fueled by immeasurable greed.
The consensus: As long as there are tickets, there will be scalpers.
That's all it took for tickets to Phish's New Year's Eve show at Madison Square Garden in New York City to sell out on Oct. 29. Poof. Gone.
Fears come to fruition for thousands of hopeful fans. Shut out again.
Yet more shocking is the fact that, just fourteen minutes later, StubHub, the online broker, had already amassed over 100 tickets, ranging from roughly $200 for nosebleeds to $7,000 for floor seats.
Clearly, the scalpers won. Using automated Web bots -- cyborg cheats -- they pilfered hundreds if not thousands of tickets before fans could even click their mouses.
Like professional gamblers studying a betting line, the savvy thieves read the demand and acted accordingly. They knew full well the inherent value of the Dec. 31 ticket. Indeed, to Phish fans, it's considered the Holy Grail.
And although some flocked to Phantasy Tour, an online forum for Phish fanatics, to post profanity laden threads expressing their outrage, many in the community expected this outcome.
Scalping, they agree, is an unstoppable force fueled by immeasurable greed.
The consensus: As long as there are tickets, there will be scalpers.
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