Concert

Time for a true confession:

Tonight I'm going to the Josh Groban concert. Alone. Yes everybody, I confess I'm a fan of Josh Groban. By fan, I don't mean that I've purchased his albums or joined his fan club. But I have downloaded my favorite songs from iTunes, and even have a ringtone on my cell. So I guess that qualifies me as a fan.

I haven't been to a concert in TWENTY YEARS! My last concert was my freshman year of college. It was the group Boston, and they performed on campus. In fact, besides the Boston show, I've only been to one other concert -- Dan Fogleberg on a date that same semester.

So it's fair to say I'm a novice concert-goer. When I heard about the concert, I waited too long to see if I could find a friend to go with, and all the authorized ticket vendors sold out. The whole scalping industry has been revolutionized by the internet. People buy up all the tickets from the authorized vendors creating a false demand, and then they sell them online for WAY above face value. I wasn't about to pay hundreds of dollars to attend the show, so I spent some time researching to avoid getting scammed or making a dumb mistake.

My plan till today was to just go to the venue tonight and buy one at face value from someone who'd rather get that than nothing. As part of my research, I called the venue to ask some questions to help me ensure I got a good seat, and she told me something really useful:

It is customary practice for a concert to hold some seats back till the band has the stage set up, and then they release any extra seats to TicketMaster for sale. This usually happens the day before the concert. The person I spoke to at the Arena told me they did this yesterday, so there were now seats for sale from TicketMaster, which has been sold out for some time. So I called TicketMaster and bought my seat from the authorized source, and was delighted to obtain a GREAT seat! Face value, no second-hand vendor or legitimacy issues to worry about. Plus it feels really good to support the artist--not the scalper industry.

I opted to call Ticketmaster vs: buying it online so that the person could tell me if there were seats available in a specific section, vs. only seeing what the online computer system deemed "best available seat". My effort paid off--I'm right by the stage. Can't Believe it!

Don't know if camera's are allowed or not, but if they are, I'll post something about it tomorrow.

I know it's almost pathetic to go to a concert alone, but I'm cool with it. I'm using some of my birthday money to pay for it, and treating myself. After all, I'm worth it! :-)