Entries from March 2009 ↓

A few weeks ago the Def Leppard/Poison/Cheap Trick tour was announced with a date scheduled at Kansas City’s Sprint Center.  I’m debating whether or not to go – I would like to see Def Leppard and Cheap Trick but I saw Poison about ten years ago on their first reunion tour and that was plenty for me.  I’ve never seen Def Leppard or Cheap Trick live before (although I did have really good seats to see DL on the “Hysteria” tour until they canceled due to the El Paso Incident).  The thing is that you know that Cheap Trick will only have around 30 minutes to play so I have to keep that in mind.

Really though, the Sprint Center?  I’m constantly surprised at the acts that fill up that place (Bon Jovi, Tina Turner) but based on the tickets currently available they may have overestimated the demand for this bill.

Anyway, I came across the three ticket packages available for Poison.  Essentially here’s the breakdown:

- If you spend $270 you get a seat in the first 15 rows, about $50 worth of Poison merchandise, and a $25 voucher for more Poison stuff.

- If you spend $470 you get a seat in the first 10 rows, a “preshow Poison backstage tour”, about $75 worth of Poison merchandise, and the $25 voucher.

- If you spend $620 you get special seating at the side on the stage during Poison’s set, the seat in the first 10 rows, the backstage tour, the $75 worth of Poison merchandise, and the $25 voucher.

On top of that the last two packages also include early access to the Poison merchandise booth, although it’s been years since I’ve seen any kind of crowd at a merchandise booth – probably Paul McCartney in 2002.

I also like the wording of the backstage tour – you’re not guaranteed to meet anyone from the band so if no one shows up you can’t complain.

The first package seems like the biggest scam.  Poison’s essentially being a scalper for the first 15 rows and then they throw in some other crap to call it a package.

I know that things like this have been going on for a while.  Kiss had some crazy package where you paid a load of cash to get a good seat and one picture of the band – with their camera.  I’m too lazy to look it up but I think that was after Ace and Peter left the band so you weren’t even getting the original members.  I had a friend spend $250 to meet Tesla a few months ago, but that didn’t seem like a scam because you got to watch the sound check, they promised you would meet the band, and from what I heard they hung out for a while and spoke with everyone.  They gave everyone some CDs and a DVD too so it seemed like a good experience.

First off all three of these packages seem excessive for a band like Poison.  The descriptions are worded so that you might end up getting screwed over.  Like I said, it seems like the band is essentially just scalping their own tickets.  I just checked eBay and you can get second row on the floor for $250 apiece.  Not first 15 or 10 rows, you know you’re getting second row for sure.

Obviously they can do what they want, but it just seems like they’re trying to squeeze every dollar out of their biggest fans.

So, according to this article, the remaining Virgin Megastores in the US are going away.  There’s part of me that hates to see another music store go away, but on the other hand what did it have to offer other than a splashy looking store?

I think I’ve been to four of them in the US and I never bought anything at one outside of a couple of magazines and a book.  First off their selection wasn’t anything great.  The majority of what they had could be found at a decent music store in any large city.  I think the big different was that they had a lot of each one and some nice looking displays.  Some of the ones I went to had a half ass import section but nothing too exciting.  On top of the mediocre selection everything was priced way to high.  Why would I pay $18 for a CD I could easily get at Amazon for $11 -$13?

Their only saving grace was that they had an interesting book section, but most of the time I would end up writing the title down and ordering it off Amazon when I got home.

I don’t think there’s anything they could have done to make things better.  The article uses the typical boogie man of file sharing to blame for the store going under, but I think its real weakness was that the Internet in general contributed to its downfall.  In the 80s and early 90s I would have loved a store like that, but once everything opened up their store wasn’t anything special.  It’s the same thing with Tower Records.  Back in 1990 I went into the one on the Sunset Strip and was blown away by it.  I had never been to a music store that big with such a great selection.  Less than ten years later there wasn’t anything special about it.  

Unfortunately, I think stores like the Virgin Megastore and Tower Records are just relics of the past.  They no longer fill a need as we move ahead.