Flashback Friday

Power has been restored at The Compound and the surrounding area, so I'm bringing you Flashback Friday a day late. But better late than never.

In case you haven't paid much attention to some of my journal entries over the past four years, I love going to concerts. My parents took me to my first big time concert when I was just a kid and I was hooked. I would save my allowance, babysit, and offer to do chores to earn money for concert tickets. With the way ticket prices are now, at times I still need to babysit and offer to do chores to pay for them. But I digress. Buying a concert ticket is downright nerve racking these days. With scalpers, I mean "ticket brokers" on eBay and their own websites, it's almost impossible to go to an actual store or outlet to buy tickets for decent seats these days.

Concert ticket buying has a lengthy evolution. Back in the day, the process of buying concert tickets was almost as exciting as the concert itself. Record stores (another good topic for Flashback Friday) and the concert venue were just about the only place you could buy the tickets, and if you wanted good seats you would just go there a few hours before the store opened up and waited in line. As time went on, people would get there earlier and earlier and it wasn't uncommon for some people to get in line the night before the tickets went on sale.
Next was Ticketmaster. In Louisville, Krogers grocery stores added Ticketmaster outlets in some of their super stores, and you could go and get your tickets at the grocery or call Ticketmaster and order your tickets over the phone when they went on sale. Many a time my fast fingers and a case of good luck were able to get me good concert seats because I was able to get through on the phone a few minutes after the tickets went on sale.

Along came the lottery. This cut out the need to wait in line for hours. In case you're unfamiliar with this process, as you got in line you would get a ticket with a number, and a few hours before the official time of ticket sales, someone from the store or venue would draw a number and that lucky person would be the first in line. Then everyone would line up behind them according to their numbers. Personally, I hated the lottery system. If a person wanted good seats for a concert and was willing to wait in line all night long to get them, then by golly they should have them.

Then came the internet, and concert ticket buying will never be the same. You don't even have to leave your house or make a phone call - you can buy tickets through Ticketmaster or you can go to "ticket brokers" and pay 3, 4, or more times the face value for good seats. Why, just minutes after tickets go on sale you can go to eBay and usually be able to find front row seats for a hefty price. I'm not being extravagant or trying to sound uppity, but my concert rule has always been if I can't get seats in the first ten rows, I won't go, no matter how much I love the artist. Now thanks to eBay and ticket brokers, I can peel [lots of] my hard earned cash and get good seats. The older I get, the more I'm willing to pay for convenience.