i don't understand the people who frequent the 930 club.
every single time a big show comes through, regardless of whether its super hyped before the sale or a secret show, people bitch and moan when they don't get tickets.
here's the deal, people.
it's not fucking 1984 anymore. with a few exceptions, you don't stand in line for hours at the venue hoping to get your hands on tickets. you don't find out about shows 2 weeks ahead of time through local radio DJ. its the age of the internet. underground music like wilco is much more accessible to the average fan than it was 10 or even 5 years ago; so therefore, all these underground bands have a lot bigger fanbanse, and more people want to see them live.
because of that, you need to stay on top of the game. you can call it being a nerd, a dork, an idiot, whatever you want, but the bottom line comes down to this:
if spending an hour a day reading music news, the 930 club message board, and tickets.com makes me a nerd, but puts me through the doors on show night and leaves you out in the cold, that's a name i'll wear with pride.
you can bitch and complain about "pre-sales suck", "tickets.com blows," "i hate brokers," but really, the only person you have to blame is yourself. this argument comes up every SINGLE time a big name comes through, and the people who don't get tickets always find somebody else to blame.
stop blaming everybody else. we're sick of hearing about it.
i'd say 75% of this message board successfully got tickets. this is because they knew when (BOTH!!) pre-sales occured, and they knew that if you get on tickets.com at 10:04 and expect to get tickets, well, you're probably riding the shorter bus home from work today.
my best advice, if you keep up with sales and when things are happening, and still didn't get tickets, is become more familiar with tickets.com. there are a lot of tips, tricks, and other things that help you gain even a second's advantage over somebody else, which could be the difference between buying tickets on eay or buying them for face value. learn the ins and outs of tickets.com.
here's one: just because the system says "there are no tickets available to fit your request" at 10:01, doesn't mean tickets are sold out. it means all the tickets are being held by potential buyers...which probably 1 out of every 10 will be thrown back into the system, either due to changing their mind, time running out, falty credit card, etc. every single time a huge show has gone on sale for 930 and "sold out in seconds," i've pushed my way through and pulled tickets several minutes, sometimes even as late as 20 minutes later. be persistent.
but above all, quit bitching. quit blaming the club, quit blaming the band for "not caring about their fans because its not will call only," quit blaming tickets.com. and quit saying that if a show sells out in seconds, that means the venue is too big. no, it doesn't. because wilco couldn't fill half of merriweather. and i'd rather play a sold out show in an intimate atmosphere than play a bigger venue and have the place half full.
sorry. i'm rambling. but my point..just stop bitching. my ears are bleeding.