DMB Return to Fenway in May '09—and why that sucks.
Awesome news: the Dave Matthews Band are returning to Fenway Park to play two shows this spring.
The not so awesome news: “Reserved field and reserved grandstand seats are $75.00.”
“Nothing’s obscene if we only close our eyes.” -DJM.
I am not poor, but a single seat for a concert, any concert, should not cost $75, and that’s before you get gouged by “convenience fees”. Fees are never convenient for customers.
I’m not asking the DMB to give away their product. I faithfully buy each studio release (and a handful of officially released Live shows) on the day they’re released. They’re the only band I’ve ever done that for. I’ve bought t-shirts. I’ve attended many of their shows in the past. I’m not asking for charity. Just asking for a reasonable experience.
Why is $50 not enough to cover everything? When tickets (including gouging—I mean fees) went past $50, that’s when I stopped going out of my way to give Dave Matthews Band my money. Maybe they’ve just decided their concerts are for wealthy people?
In an economic environment where you don’t know if you’re job’s going to be there the next day, a couple people going to a concert priced like this are giving up several weeks of groceries. We need excuses to escape our economic woes for a night. Prices like this stifle, not stimulate the economy.
When I look at my son, how can I justify the $200+ it would cost for a night out with his mother to go see this concert? ($200+ when things like food, babysitter and transit factor in - guess how much to park! Forget about getting beers…)
At 30, am I an old man remembering back to when I could get $17 lawn seats at The Meadows in Hartford to see DMB each time they came to town, without having to dial the ticket office the second the tickets went on sale?
The web hasn’t helped ticket purchasing at all. It has just become an excuse for the ticketsellers to continue to extort fees. I was a founding member of The Warehouse, but dropped out after two years after realizing I was paying $30 a year for the privilege of buying tickets to shows. That’s right, I was paying money for the privilege of paying money to the band. That’s left a bad taste in my mouth that’s never gone away. It’s almost impossible to get decent tickets without being in the club. They sell out in minutes to the general public. In the club, you enter a lottery for your seats, you can’t even pick where to sit!
Do you know of another band who charges to be in the fan club?
And this isn’t any band. This is my favorite band of all time. The only one I’ve ever followed in any sort of fashion. I actually feel personally hurt over these issues (ticket prices, The Warehouse).
So sad.
8 months ago