The Never Ending Pool

So..not start any premature seething,..but after numerous attempts to get a decent ticket to Santa Barbara without forking out to a scalper, I ultimately did not buy one yet. The fisrt two sections were not easily available, I tried over 50 times over three days. Please don't chime in and say I got a U or I got a sec V,..I know who you are and congratulations. The greedy monopoly surrounding ticketbastard is reaching a new all time high. When you can't get your ticket of choice you are immediately presented with a link to their " partner " TICKETS NOW with the same ticket at 3x the price. Like sanctioned scalping. Ticketbastard partnered scalping is what I'd call it, especially when it's on a "fan club " presale you get prompted with this link. Big fat joke.

Of course, noone is putting a gun to anyone's head saying, " go to the Bob Dylan concert " but I look forward to seeing the shows, and try to get there when it's close enough. Having been to close to 30 shows and more than half of those I did not have a ticket, but made it in the building anyways, GA usually has been the fairest chance to be close to the action. Of course it takes waiting for hours and hours, unless you are one of those people who cut right in at the last minute, which is super weak and you know who you are and I do to. I take the day off or I'm in the back of the line. I'm not talking about you Howard and your recent post,..you are golden.

Now with Hot Band and Hot Seat tickets, I guess it's " pay for ticket, and pay some more " Hot Seat basically gives you access to those premiere sections in the front of the venue for a reserved seating show. Hot Band gives you a bracelet for " early access " to a GA show! Nice one. Here's the link
http://www.slotix.com/?content=packages&artist=908

I guess the powers that be are just finding a way to maximize the monopoly and change the definition of General Admission. Even the logo on the Hot Band and Hot Seat tickets has a little crown,..like you're king if you have the cash to fork over. O.k...I've ranted long enough. I do have a ticket to San Diego and Santa Monica, but it's a drag to see the monopoly and greed which imo, puts a damper on the atmosphere and the intial decision to be a part of the experience or not. I know there are those who will say MACCA gets it and so should bob, but Bob used to appear to give his fans who didn't have major bank a break and those days ended years ago. Funny thing is San Diego is one of the most expensive places to live in the country and the GA ticket for that show is one of the cheapest priced,..probably because it's a dirt field?

When I logged onto Ticketbastard to buy my Santa Monica ticket there was no "hot band" option available. Huh.

H.

If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em:
TicketMaster Buys Online Scalper TicketsNow For $265 Million

In a similar vein, I was a little irked that the posted $300 hot seat price at The Joint automagically turned into the $1000 deluxe travel package after you clicked through.

Good article somelocalloser. So I see,...ticketmaster just bought TicketsNOw! That explains why they want to sell me the same ticket a minute later they said was not available at 3X the price. Sorry to sound like a crybaby,..but that pretty much clears it up. I won't let it ruin the shows, but it's a dimension that won't go ignored either.

The whole selling point of going through companies like ticketmaster, was to make buying tickets more fair for everybody. Now they are worse than the scalpers.

Oooops, did I get this wrong? I thought Santa Monica is GA???? Thatīs what it says on my confirmation. So do I need now a wrist band to get in front or what?

Santa Monica is General Admission. Looks like a ticket that includes a wristband, termed " HOT BAND PACKAGE " will cost you more. Bob Dylan.com has a link from the tickets page for the Santa Barbara show that says VIP premiere ticket link and when I clicked that I saw the " Hot Band " and " Hot Ticket " " coming soon " for Santa Monica as well as the Hard Rock show. Above it says what it means. Here's the link again
http://www.slotix.com/?content=packages&artist=908

All Bobdylan.com offered through the fan internet presale was the base GA ticket for Santa Monica. It sounds like they will sell " Hot Band " packages for Santa Monica during the general presale where maybe a couple hundred people can pay, I don't know $50-$75 dollars more maybe above the base GA cost, and get a wrist band that lets them cut in front of people who will be waiting in line all day. Reg GA ticket with fees was $82, so I picked that up. Then I see this HOT BAND bullsh**$T.

I seriously hope this doesn't happen, but it appears to be true. I have to equate it to financial discrimination. Like when black people were segregated & had to ride in the back of the bus. You ain't got the cash, you gotta sit in the back. No $120 tickets (with fees) are available basically for Santa Barbara,..most of those immediately were funneled to TICKETS NOW & other scalper partners. So it's almost false advertising when those top tickets are not available, but available a second later with their prompted link at 3X the cost.

What the f*U$K they should call the " HOT BAND PACKAGE " " RESERVED GA " which is an oxy moron, but whatever I digress. I have a ride to Santa Barbara and I'm just planning to crash that show. I'm sure i'll get it and I ain't paying ticketbastard. That's the only language devious greedy corporations understand is when you deny them your dolllars. That is the end of my ranting, my apologies, ..but I had to get it off my chest.

I was so mad this week about the Hot Bands BS that I have almost decided to forget about Bob completely. It is just insulting to the Fans, to sell GA to fans in Pre-sale and then announce that for a much more money you can buy a second ticket and get a Wrist Band. I almost blew my top. But calming down, I will not will not will not buy the blasted Wrist Band. I get to shows very early, always am on the rail, I care about this, but it is better to hang with the cool Dylan Community then be in line all day with idiots that will pay for this crap. Also to continue my rant, Phil and Friends (Larry Campbell's band) is now charging in addition to the ticket price, $300 to be in VIP area and have drinks, $500 to be by the sound board, $900 to sit on the stage. Frigging amazing. Additionally the Fillmore and the other Live Nation venues are now implimenting a Pass The Line Line. It is horrible beyond believe. I don't know how much the fans can handle this shit. Really!! And the Santa Barbara, which was handled the same way as Konocti last year, they only released the sides to the fans, if you want a "good" seat fork out much more money. The problem there not only the money, but then you get to sit with people who are horrible and give you a hard time for loving music. Obviously I am still upset.

AintTalkin2 wrote:

QUOTE:
I was so mad this week about the Hot Bands BS that I have almost decided to forget about Bob completely. It is just insulting to the Fans, to sell GA to fans in Pre-sale and then announce that for a much more money you can buy a second ticket and get a Wrist Band.

I feel the same way and so do all these folks posting at Expecting Rain.
http://expectingrain.com/discussions/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=29123&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=20


I'm curious if any other General Admission shows on this tour have this bogus wristband that costs twice the GA ticket $190 that puts you in a special line that gets you early access into the venue? $190 for GA?


I never heard of such a thing except for one of the hard rock shows last year or the year before. I guess L.A. is only GA show to get hit with this? Maybe this is why Bobdylan.com has pulled the listing for the presale for this Santa Monica show and ticketmaster did too,..yesterday, or they're hoarding them to raise the price on the max number they can get away with. Way to crap on your die-hard fans bob, or milk the f*c$k out of them. It may be out of his hands,..but he knows and he is profiting and laughing all the way to the bank probably. I went from being excited about the shows after 2005 at the Forum was the last L.A. appearance, to stressed to frustrated to disappointed. This is a bad way to start out a live concert you're supposed to be celebrating. I'm thinking I better re-think my concert choices and I'm boycotting Bob Dylan product at this point. Glad I didn't preorder BS8 * Enough!

Well, it was said decades ago:

Would it be presumptuous to suggest that this is more the venue's doing? I'm not saying the Dylan camp didnt OK it, but when the venue makes a point to say "no lining up for tickets before midnight," you kinda expect that something is up.

Here's a question... when is the general onsale for Santa Barbara?

On Monday Ticketmaster was showing Sat. 8/9 at 11 am, but now that indication is no longer on the page. I've never seen such problems with ticket sales for a show like this Santa Barbara one. It's like you need to check the information every ten minutes too keep up.

QUOTE:
Also to continue my rant, Phil and Friends (Larry Campbell's band) is now charging in addition to the ticket price, $300 to be in VIP area and have drinks, $500 to be by the sound board, $900 to sit on the stage.

While I agree with the general premise that the way tickets are priced and distributed is horribly disrespectful to the fans...last time I checked, you can't sit on the stage during a Dylan show for any price, much less $900, so that hardly seems like something to complain about.

Having two classes of GA tickets, one with early entry, isn't anything new, but both the difference in pricing and the failure to disclose that there would be early-entry tickets before they went onsale is ridiculous. I actually like the idea of early entry tickets in the presale - worked nicely for the Bob/Willie tours a few years ago - but they should go on sale at the same time or before the regular tickets, not after.

just back from vacation so this is all news to me. there were no options for hot package during Santa Monica presale. I'm not surprised at all nor am I angry. they've been pulling this kind of shit for a while now, but we always find a way to get up front.

Yes we will