RIDICULOUS!

[lightning]

Sometimes when there is such a demand for tickets, the venue schedules an extra date or two. It would be to everybody's advantage if that were to happen.

[moonmccaig]

I find the whole thing completely frustrating. I was ready at 8:50 and my boyfriend did the same thing - they actually didn't go up until 9am but absolutely nothing. We tried for 45 minutes and I had 2 windows open. The "secondary" sellers - what a bunch of scammers. Although my budget was not more than the $125 tickets I was tempted to get 2 2tickets for $190 in the upper balcony. I didn't get them and now the lowest price I can find is something like $272 per ticket plus $50 "handling" fee!!

This is just so bad. I love Leonard Cohen and have listened to him since high school when my grade 11 English Teacher played us Suzanne some 30 years ago. I have only seen him once in college when I lived in Toronto. I have been living in NYC for a long time now and would love to see him here. I just don't know how to play the game -and it seems like those of us of moderate means are destined to be shut out. I just hope I can get on the pre-sale for the hopefully upcoming shows in NYC. Anyway, thanks for letting me let out my frustrations here - it helped me a lot to read every one else's. Hope to see you all in the Tower of Song.

[lizzytysh]

Beyond the pre-sale, so far, the demand seems pretty much to have been absorbed by Ticketmaster and the other touts and scalpers, so the demand, per se, is difficult to assess. As many have rightly said, they just can't afford those prices, so those tickets aren't being bought, but not because they're not wanted. I'd say it's easy to see that they would ALL be sold to fans, if that were possible, but measuring the exact demand at this point remains difficult; enough that it might not be so fair to put one or two more dates on Leonard's [& Company's] plates, just to give the scalpers a Round 2 and Round 3. It seems that Marie and Jarkko had to set aside many other things just to accomplish the pre-sale, so trying that again for two more dates, just to displace those Rounds 2 & 3 might not even be feasible for them.

The saving grace regarding potential empty seats is that, if that scenario prevailed on a large scale, Leonard's the type who would just ask everyone to move forward and fill them in. He and his group and management would have gotten full payment, and those attending would experience an even more intimate concert than originally anticipated. At what cost to the other fans who missed out, though, and dared not book a flight in hopes of calling the bluff of a touter at the door and ultimately getting the ticket for a reasonable price when shortly after 8 PM, it will be useless and a loss for the scalper. The whole situation is so sad.

This situation gives new meaning to Jarkko's original comment that this concert was for Leonard's fans. It also puts in better perspective your telling me that when the Rolling Stones's tickets went on sale, they were sold out at one minute past their on-sale time and I was relieved that Leonard's not as known as the Stones. It would seem, now, that the touters/scalpers probably had their way with those tickets, too.

Just reading Jarkko's response to bigdee brought that realization all over again of what an AMAZING job Jarkko, Marie, Tom, Patrice, and the rest do on loving behalf of Leonard. In addition to her own incredible, highly-informational, site on Leonard, Marie also maintains a beautiful site on Anjani. We come here and read with pleasure the fruits of their labours... and I know that their accomplishing what they did to bring this to us went and took them beyond the pale. Someone told me that Jarkko received over 300 emails leading up to the pre-sale and answered every one of them ! Then, Jarkko spoke about how Marie was getting up in the middle of the night and much more, including staying in contact with people, to accomplish what she had to, to ensure the pre-sale happened as planned. A HUGE amount of work on both their parts. They're a phenomenal team and doing all THEY know to do and are capable of doing, given their own lives and capabilities, to make this work for Leonard's fans. I've no doubt that if that great idea were really do-able for them, it would happen.

The major gouge didn't seem to happen until the general sale on Friday and that has turned out to be patently absurd. I bristled when suddenly we had so many new 'loving fans' becoming new members when Leonard initially began going public and a deal was offered for Forum members only. The proof seems to be in the pudding with how things have gone since. Word spreads and the touters take their place and wait for the bell.

Moon ~ I've just read your posting and come back here to comment. Since you live in New York, my suggestion would be that you at least come to the venue and see if/how you might be able to make a last-minute deal with a touter. I wonder how many will be hanging out and how many tickets each will have. It seems that with the number of tickets that are onsale on all these predatory sites and the number of people expressing their anger and frustration here, it's at least worth a try for you.


~ Lizzy

[lightning]

It should be remembered that this is a special concert for fans and MEDIA, not just fans. The media is being invited to publicize the upcoming April tour. Perhaps some of the best tickets were given to journalists. I could not get any center seats in the pre-sale, only left or right center, tho' I tried repeatedly, but that was little to complain about compared to the stories I am reading from others. Maybe the seats went to people from Rolling Stone, Musician, the New York Times, Salon.com, NME, blah, blah. This is a practical move , a necessary one. Since Leonard is not giving interviews, I would think that DJs who play his music intensively would be a needed.
There used to be a New York theatre practise called "second acting" where people who were broke would wait till intermission when some left their seats, and just walk in the theatre for free.
This was long ago and I don't know if it still can be done, or it will be possible at the Beacon.

[hmur4356]

I've been reading this thread with great interest, as I have been put off for a long time by the rising costs of events tickets in general. Once they made ticket scalping legal in New York and legitimised what was once the murky practice of organised crime, I knew all bets were off for the average consumer.

My city has become a playground for the wealthy and that extends to our public spaces as well. I attended Simon and Garfunkel's Concert in Central Park back in 1981 when I was a mere lad of 12. There was a half of million people in attendance that day and very few problems with crowd control (save one jackass who rushed the stage ). The concert was a celebration of two hometown kids who made good and of the city itself. There were no tickets for this event - it happened organically. These days a crowd that size is prohibited by Mayor Bloomberg (who loves rich people) and any "free" concerts in the Park these days are ticketed events of limited capacity. These "free" tickets inevitably wind up in the hands of the so-called touts, and the spirit of the event is destroyed by profit motive and crass commercialism. Flash an AMEX card - get in free!

High ticket prices have kept me out of most shows I would normally attend not because I can't swing it, rather because paying $250 to see Neil Young or Bob Dylan for the 20th time just doesn't make sense anymore. It makes even less sense when I can't buy $250 seats because they are sold out and must be purchased at a higher rate in the aftermarket. All is not lost I'm happy to report. I have found that I can catch great live music for little more than a cover at the door or, even better, free of charge. For example, Lincoln Center had a wonderful outdoor series last summer with well known musicians of all genres at no cost to the listener. I even got to hang out with Lenny Kaye at one event and nothing screams NYC like hanging with Lenny! It warmed my rock n roll heart and made me feel good about living in a city which I maintain is a shadow of its former self.

[lightning]

I was at that Simon and Garfunkel concert and it was such a mad house I swore I'd never go to anything like that again. There were so many people you couldn't get out if you had to. It was like a wall of people. Forget about bathrooms. There are still free concerts around New York like Brian Wilson at Coney Island this summer. The music scene is happening in Brooklyn where upcoming performers , young, good-looking, full of energy and creativity hang out and don't cost too much ( $20 for a ticket is a lot). These days Standing Room Only means no seats in the venue, because they can pack more bodies into the room if they don't have chairs. That means they sell more tickets. If you sit on the floor, you get trampled. At least in Central Park you can put out a blanket. I saw some free opera there but it was terrible. Kids playing Frisbee , families eating and drinking through your favorite aria. Only sorry I missed Bob Marley in Central Park. I was afraid their might be racial violence so I didn't go, tho' a Marley fan.
The huge prices for Leonard at the Beacon are amazing. Well, there's always YouTube. I think it's the best, cheapest and most comfortable entertainment around.
If you like Lenny Kaye, check out this YouTube vid I made of him at the Poetry Project Marathon on New Years Day-- 10 hours of poets for $18, no hassle about recording, chairs, food and socializing in the back room of St. Marks Church. Patti Smith performed their too, free.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up1D-R5B ... annel_page

[lizzytysh]

Maybe the seats went to people from Rolling Stone, Musician, the New York Times, Salon.com, NME, blah, blah. This is a practical move , a necessary one. Since Leonard is not giving interviews, I would think that DJs who play his music intensively would be a needed.

I sure hope you're right on this, Lightning. It sure makes sense.


~ Lizzy

[amylee]

I am usually very good at getting tickets on ticketmaster but not this time. "Ridiculous" is the perfect word for the lack of tickets on sale to the public. I just checked back today and "Tickets Now", Ticketmaster's partner, lists plenty of high priced seats.
As much as I love Leonard Cohen I refuse to pay these prices!!!!I'll wait till he comes back to NYC and see him in better weather. (I guess I'll have to spend my money on Morrisey tickets for now)

[hmur4356]

If you like Lenny Kaye, check out this YouTube vid I made of him at the Poetry Project Marathon on New Years Day-- 10 hours of poets for $18, no hassle about recording, chairs, food and socializing in the back room of St. Marks Church. Patti Smith performed their too, free.

Thanks for posting the link, Lightning! I've seen Patti for free almost as many times as I've paid to see her! She is a wonderful artist and one of the few remaining holdouts from when NY was a free (read freedom) city. She always tells it like she sees it and is a true American patriot. Lenny is cool as hell, too. And Tony Shanahan, well, I know his dad and his brother and no finer Cork men would you meet.

[lightning]

Yes, I remember those days. Here's Patti from New Year's Day Poetry Project reading:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZi5tJ_TK10

[hmur4356]

That's Patti!

[ladydi]

Hi humur4356...

Just a comment on how the serendipity of concerts occurs. I tried, unsuccessfully though ticketmaster, to obtain 2 tickets to Robert Plant and Allison Krauss when they were in Detroit last June. I was left with $300. tickets in the upper balcony/restricted views, so I never went. Several months ago my closest friend happened to be in San Francisco waiting for a red-eye flight back to the east coast. She drove down to Golden Gate Park and saw their entire concert for FREE one sunny afternoon!

Sigh....

[bigdee]

bigdee, the ideas you describe are indeed efficient. Unfortunately something like that is not realistic for us. Elton's system is maintained by an office with employees, and he is touring again and again. The websites dedicated to Leonard are run by Marie and me (and Tom and Patrice etc.) as our leisure time hobby, and we can't put any more time and other resources to these activities. It is also possible that Leonard does not want to go back on the road at the age of 75, after this extended tour, so at this point it may be too late for his management to start building systems like Elton's. The concerts in the forthcoming US/W Canadian tour will be at much bigger venues, which means that the scalper problem will not be as bad as in this case.

Hi Jarkko,

I did not mean to suggest that you or one of the others you mentioned should set-up something like this. I know how dedicated you and the others are to the Cohen related websites. I know everyone here really appreciates you and all that you do to keep this thing up and running. So I would never want you to think I would try to say you should do anything more than you are already doing for us. I was thinking more along the lines of maybe AEG had something simlar already set-up for other artists they are contracted with that they could use to sell LC tickets too. I also know this is most likely going to be the last time LC hits the road, so I also didn't mean to suggest the fanclub/ticket thing would be an ongoing thing every year like it is for Elton. So I'm sorry if my suggestion came across in any way as ungrateful or unappreciative to you, LC, or anyone else involved in these matters. That was not my intention at all.

Bigdee

***Bigdee, don't worry, I didn't take your message as a request (or demand) to do the same here on our websites, but I was more thinking aloud whether or not it could be possible to do something similar here on our sites. In this respect my reply was not clearly worded. - I think the demand for Leonard's tickets has exceeded everybody's expectations (including himself, the tour management, and AEG Live), and therefore nobody foreshadowed this kind of problems!! (But I'm still convinced that it will be much easier to get tickets to the bigger US/Canadian shows; there will be many! (And Leonard will be back in New York, too!) / Jarkko ***

[vinylee]

i am in alaska.i tried to get tickets also.i was on the computer waiting.my computer is set to the world clock time.at 5:59(aks) i started entering my order.i was not able to get tickets.i've used this method in the past (for tom waits tickets)and it worked,but it hasn't worked everytime.as frustrating as it is,we won"t always get the tickets we want and there will always be scalpers who can beat the system.if no one buys their tickets they won't be in business.when LC starts the u.s. tour,i will be on my computer,entering my order,1 minute before they go on sale and hope...

[lizzytysh]

I've just watched those two links you provided, Lightning. I sure would've liked to have been at that New Year's concert. Patti is ever amazing.


~ Lizzy