Ticketmaster is the d-E-V-I-L!!!!

This is not news.  Anyone who has ever had to purchase a ticket from the grossness that is Ticketmaster knows how frustrating it is to not know the real total of your purchase until you've hit the "confirm purchase" button.  Knows how infuriating it is to pay a "convenience charge," and that by the time the transaction is completed you've paid 1/2 the cost of the original ticket price in Ticketmaster's web of profit that has nothing to do with anything other than greed.  AND, the venues that you think are above using this corporation as the producer/vendor/dEVIL are not and you're at their mercy unless you decide to never ever see some bands play again.  AND, AND, AND it's more pervasive than just huge arena shows.  Some of these venues are the smaller kind.  The kind that I am much more likely to frequent.  Stinkerheads.

So this morning I caved and bought my The National/Okkervil River ticket for a September show at Marymoor Park, despite not really having the money for it.  But, like Yeasayer, I know that if I don't go to this show I will forever be kicking myself and be haunted by thoughts of having Cheap Tricked me out of seeing this fantastic band again.  (I don't care that they are getting more and more popular.  I am happy for them.)  And who needs that kind of regret?

Have I explained this Cheap Trick thing yet?  I feel like maybe I have.  But just as a refresher:

Main Entry: Cheap Trick

Pronunciation\ˈchēp\ \ˈtrik\

Function: verb

Etymology: Cheap Trick is an American rock band from Rockford, Illinois, formed in 1974. The band consists of members Robin Zander (lead vocals,rhythm guitar), Rick Nielsen (lead guitar, backing vocals), Tom Petersson (electric bass, backing vocals), and Bun E. Carlos (drums,percussion).  On more than one occasion, Shawn (former boyfriend and current friend of Linnet) and Linnet (former girlfriend and current friend of Shawn) noticed that Cheap Trick would be playing at a local music venue and put off buying tickets on the assumption that they'd just get them day of show.  They were wrong.  

1: To miss out on an event or purchase of a desired object due to laziness, reluctance/waffling, or the assumption that said event will not sell out or said object will be of no interest to anyone else thus affording you all the time in the world to buy the object or a ticket to the event in question only to find out that the event/object is sold out.

Damn!  I Cheap Tricked Yeasayer at Neumos because I waited until February to get my ticket for their April show.

Sure wish I hadn't Cheap Tricked that used Replacements album at Wall of Sound.  I just didn't have the money and I thought I'd find it again. (I didn't really.  I would never Cheap Trick a used Replacements album.  They are so rare...)

Credit Card Getaway

As I type this entry, Yeasayer is playing a show at Neumo's, here in Seattle.  I would have gladly gotten a ticket and seen them play in my hometown, but waaaay back in early February, when I tried to purchase a ticket, the show was already sold out.  What else could I do but try to see them in Portlandia?  So I took myself out on an overnight date to Stumptown (not the coffee shop, though that's the reason it's called Stumptown, because it comes from Portland--though it is now taking over the world, literally.)  Despite having dear friends who live in that lovely little city--and were super close to the venue--I told no one I was coming.  Sometimes you need a little solo time, away from your own day to day world.

Knowing what I know now, I would have been musically devastated had I not made the effort to see Yeasayer play live in a small venue.  (I know, I could have seen them every other time they passed through Seattle, but I didn't love their first album and I LOVE the latest album, Odd Blood.  LOVE it.)  They're the type of band that could explode any minute and the next time they breeze through town they may be at the Moore, or the Paramount.  Not too big, but big enough to not be intimate.  O, my.