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Warning for future PJ shows
hawkeye8388
Posts: 47
Hey all, below is a story that I hope people read in case they end up in a pickle without tickets.
I followed the band from DC to Boston for the tour. It was a great time I had different friends fly in for each city's show, while I followed the band along with some site seeing. I had fan club tickets for DC, MSG2, Hartford, and Boston 2 (was skipping the first Boston show).
After missing out on 10 club tickets I was a bit cavalier getting tickets for MSG1. There were some tickets on ebay the weeks before, but the tickets were shitty. Hence, I was vigilant refreshing ticketbastard the weeks leading up the show. I had never seen tickets not get released the week of a PJ show (they propably were this time I just missed it). So I will be heading to New York without tickets. Not a big deal, tickets will be released the day of the show and generally somebody always has two extra's, as I have noticed the fan base looks to upgrade their tickets any time they can.
My friend had not been to NYC before and that was a big part of the reason for him flying in. Hence, the day of the show I couldn't wait around MSG for ticket releases and we went to Yankee Stadium for a tour. I called ticketbastard several times and everything was still sold out.
So later that afternoon (4ish) we arrive at MSG. Walking inside of the corridor some dude (scalper, non fan) asks if we need tickets under his breath. We are like "yeah". He says the tickets are good and such and in such section and we asked how much. He started off at something preposterously high and we "worked him" down to $100 bucks per ticket. So while I give him my money he tries to pull a fast one and says we only gave him $160 bucks, while he likely stuffed the other $40 quickly in his pocket. We are basically just like bullshit and walk away. So I pull out the tickets and head to a seating chart. I am initally elated when I see where we are sitting...2nd fucking row of front middle section! After about ten seconds my excitement turned to caution, as in FUCK I THINK WE GOT SOLD FAKE TICKETS.
So we talk with some of the ticket security folks and they said there is no way to tell if they are fake without them scanning the ticket before the show. One guy also tells us there was over 300 fake tickets for Coldplay the night before. So we leave for a couple drinks and come back at 6:30 or so when the doors open. As we try to get in the tickets do not register. Big suprise...fake. So we go outside and mill around for an hour seeing if anyone has any reasonable tickets. We could not find anything and after that I really didn't feel like spending a couple hundred bucks for one show. So we we left and had a quiet dinner and got real drunk that night.
It wasn't a huge deal. I have been lucky to see the band a lot and I still had three shows left on the tour. I basically felt more ashamed and cheated. All my years I had never heard of anything like this for a PJ show. I have traveled a bit and I am 33 years of age, so I felt like a douchebag not utilizing more intelligence and street smarts getting the tickets. If I would have had a seating chart handy I would have called bullshit on it right from the start. Also, it suprised me that a Pearl Jam show would elicit this type of actviity. Some people I meet think they broke up years ago, much less being a hotbed for illegal ticket activity.
My friend's boss was sold fake tickets to a Cubs game this year, so this actviity is becoming more popular. If you must get tickets off the street.....
*Look for a "fan"- I highly doubt a PJ fan would ever give another the bone
*If someone looks shady and want to sell tickets to you. Ask them to walk you to ticket line and make sure the tickets go through (some other dude do this)
I followed the band from DC to Boston for the tour. It was a great time I had different friends fly in for each city's show, while I followed the band along with some site seeing. I had fan club tickets for DC, MSG2, Hartford, and Boston 2 (was skipping the first Boston show).
After missing out on 10 club tickets I was a bit cavalier getting tickets for MSG1. There were some tickets on ebay the weeks before, but the tickets were shitty. Hence, I was vigilant refreshing ticketbastard the weeks leading up the show. I had never seen tickets not get released the week of a PJ show (they propably were this time I just missed it). So I will be heading to New York without tickets. Not a big deal, tickets will be released the day of the show and generally somebody always has two extra's, as I have noticed the fan base looks to upgrade their tickets any time they can.
My friend had not been to NYC before and that was a big part of the reason for him flying in. Hence, the day of the show I couldn't wait around MSG for ticket releases and we went to Yankee Stadium for a tour. I called ticketbastard several times and everything was still sold out.
So later that afternoon (4ish) we arrive at MSG. Walking inside of the corridor some dude (scalper, non fan) asks if we need tickets under his breath. We are like "yeah". He says the tickets are good and such and in such section and we asked how much. He started off at something preposterously high and we "worked him" down to $100 bucks per ticket. So while I give him my money he tries to pull a fast one and says we only gave him $160 bucks, while he likely stuffed the other $40 quickly in his pocket. We are basically just like bullshit and walk away. So I pull out the tickets and head to a seating chart. I am initally elated when I see where we are sitting...2nd fucking row of front middle section! After about ten seconds my excitement turned to caution, as in FUCK I THINK WE GOT SOLD FAKE TICKETS.
So we talk with some of the ticket security folks and they said there is no way to tell if they are fake without them scanning the ticket before the show. One guy also tells us there was over 300 fake tickets for Coldplay the night before. So we leave for a couple drinks and come back at 6:30 or so when the doors open. As we try to get in the tickets do not register. Big suprise...fake. So we go outside and mill around for an hour seeing if anyone has any reasonable tickets. We could not find anything and after that I really didn't feel like spending a couple hundred bucks for one show. So we we left and had a quiet dinner and got real drunk that night.
It wasn't a huge deal. I have been lucky to see the band a lot and I still had three shows left on the tour. I basically felt more ashamed and cheated. All my years I had never heard of anything like this for a PJ show. I have traveled a bit and I am 33 years of age, so I felt like a douchebag not utilizing more intelligence and street smarts getting the tickets. If I would have had a seating chart handy I would have called bullshit on it right from the start. Also, it suprised me that a Pearl Jam show would elicit this type of actviity. Some people I meet think they broke up years ago, much less being a hotbed for illegal ticket activity.
My friend's boss was sold fake tickets to a Cubs game this year, so this actviity is becoming more popular. If you must get tickets off the street.....
*Look for a "fan"- I highly doubt a PJ fan would ever give another the bone
*If someone looks shady and want to sell tickets to you. Ask them to walk you to ticket line and make sure the tickets go through (some other dude do this)
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
I realize the band has nothing to do with it. I was just suprised it happened at a PJ show. And yes, I realize I was a moron for not checking the seat location first. I just got caught up in the moment.
If you didn't want to spend another $200 on tickets, how much did you spend getting drunk???
Eddie solo. Aug 08 (Massey Hall II)
One time years ago I bought a pair of tickets from a guy on the street in Chicago for a small soldout show at a bar, the Double Door. Paid the guy $40 and the ticket on top was the only one I saw. As soon as we made the exchange, the guy jumped on a bus and was gone. We looked at the pair and the ticket underneath was from a show at the same bar, the previous week! D'oh! Couldn't believe I was that dumb. But happily the bar didn't have a scanner, so I played the same trick on the guy at the door, just handed him the pair, and he put them in the drawer without looking at both, and we walked right in! General admission, so it didn't really matter. I felt a twinge of guilt but like a badass at the same time. Lesson learned - use your fan radar when buying tickets on the street.
Scott
8/25/00 8/27/00 8/29/00 8/30/00 9/01/00 9/02/00
4/28/03 4/29/03 4/30/03 5/02/03 7/05/03 7/06/03
7/08/03 7/09/03 7/14/03 <---front row shook hands with ed.
10/3/05 5/13/06 5/27/06 5/28/06 6/01/06 6/3/06
6/24/06 6/19/08 6/20/08 6/24/08 6/25/08 10/27/09
10/28/09 10/30/09 10/31/09 5/15/10 5/18/10 5/20/10
5/21/10 9/7/11
From my first show in Hawaii when they opened for RHCP to upcoming 2016 MSG and Wrigley. Seen them in every continent except Africa and Antarctica.
Sorry you got ripped off.
I'll ride the wave where it takes me...
dont deal with shady scalpers... hang out near the tix window and ask the real fans... you will find what you need for face value without a doubt.
i saw a guy for night 2 bring about 3 cops to a scalper and they strated arguing that the scalper sold him fake tickets... again, why deal with some shady scalper that doesnt even know who pearl jam is when there are thousands of real fans with extra's
in 2003 i got 4 tix together for face value 2 hours before MSG night 2 from a fan, cute girl too which made me trust her more for some reason
-ed july 8th MSG 2004
It wasn't that easy. I had to really seek out the fans, and then overcome their skepticism. I took them to the box office and had them ask about the legitimacy of the E tickets he had.
With that said I only ever bought 1 suspect ticket. I had an expiring free ticket on South West and on a whim jumped on a plane to the New Orleans Saints Atlanta Falcons game that was played in the Super Dome for the first time since Katrina. U2 and Green Day were the half time act. I had never seen U2, and this was hardly a full concert, but was excited.
Paid triple the value or more. I think it cost about $150.00. It looked very legit, big with hologram and bar code. It was a season ticket OR a replica of the ticket. In line I checked with other people and it seemed good.
There was a rip near the bar code though, and it didn't look to be an issue.
Sure enough I get into the building and the ticket won't scan. The girl tries to punch the number in and it won't take.
My heart sinks to the floor, but the girl is about 17 and gets her boss. He asks me about the ticket.
I go into panic story mode. I tell him my three buddies just went in with the same season tickets. I don't know why that came out of my mouth but I would have been horrified to miss this game. I had taken a day off of work and the money I spent for the ticket was all I had.
He was sympathetic and said he had to go run the ticket through the front office. He told the 17 year old to watch me.
Well she started scanning tickets and I just took two steps backed and disappeared into the crowd.
After a couple empty seat attempts I found a seat mid way through the 1st quarter and was good to go for the whole night.
I wanted to go back after the game and ask the guy if the ticket worked. There was still a chance it was real. It looked so good.
But I figured I'd leave well enough alone and hightailed it to the Airport. No hotel. It was a 30 hour turn around trip.
I don't think he was trying to blame the band at all...! He clearly (at least I thought it was clear) said that he was surprised a Pearl Jam show brings this type of thing, being that many people don't even seem to think they are still making music.
if you tear the ticket just a tiny tiny bit - IF ITS REAL - there will be blue and red fibers within the paper. they are tiny, but if you look, they are definetely there
a bunch of years back (2000, maybe) we went to a KROCK Dysfunctional Family Picnic at Jones Beach, to hang in the lot and listen (like Scott and the googoo dolls)...I think about 6 bands played those things. I think Incubus and Korn were headlining, I can't remember.
We were milling around the parking lot, after the 2nd band (there were still a lot of fans in the lot, who hadn't gone in yet), and some guy comes up to us, and says his friends bailed--did we want to buy his tix for face value? He was really nice, a music fan, definitely not a buy/sell scalper.
I held a cigarette under the tix to make sure they were real, printed on thermal paper, ya know?
Decent seats, nothing crazy. So we said, Ok, what the hell, let's go in.
We got to the gate, gave the guy our tix, he scanned them, and then literally dragged us out by our collars.
Turns out, the seller went in to see the first 2 bands, had no interest in the rest of the show, and since the tix were scanned, not ripped, he sold them to us before he hit the road.
Crappy. We were so pissed off, and mostly embarrassed. It is a terrible feeling.
ones that make me feel good when things behind the smile ain't ok...." -Hoon
As much as I love NYC when you have that many people in that small of an area the sheer number of con artists and outright mean people, multiply tenfold. Every kind of scam that's around, exists in that city.
I would have been bummed out if this had happened to me. Luckily it wasn't your only show on the tour!
Buyer beware, indeed!
Celebration, the ball's in play
Same thing happened to me in Sydney '03. My friend cancelled at the last minute and I had to flog 2 floor seats outside. I couldn't believe how hard it was (other than scumbag scalpers offering me $20 a ticket, I told them where to go). My dad came with me and said he would go to the concert with me if I couldn't sell them, unfortunately I needed the money and had to sell them (I had floor seats the following night too). Luckily I sold them, at the last minute... 1 fan from Brazil and another guy who was running late (PJ were about to hit the stage) and I sold it to him below face.
we saw PJ at Merriweather the night before did not have tickets to VFC -- went to Constitution Hall early the day of the concert and stood in line with alot of other fans because there were rumors that tickets would be released the day of.
Walked down a side street from the venue in the afternoon and a guy was selling tickets ( did not look like a fan at all ) knew all along that I was getting scammed but the thought of attending the concert made me forget good judgement. Bought two tickets from the guy -- don't recall the price -- was walking away from him knowing that I bought bad tickets. Got back in line with my friend and the guy behind me starting telling me that he just bought tickets from a scalper on the street -- I told him I did the same -- we compared our tickets and had the same seats !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I knew it all along -- Both he and I walked around the venue trying to find the guy and low and behold he was trying to sell more copies of the tickets to other people --
We confronted him and told him that he sold us bad tickets -- I know this is hard to believe but he gave us our $$$ back -- !!!! I tell this story all of the time and no one believes us but it is true -- I am sure that he figured he could sell the tickets to someone else ---
My friend and I wanted to alert PJ security because this guy continuing to hang around. We found "Pete" PJ securing walking around the venue and told him what had happened -- He tried to find the guy but could not and told us " this happens all of the time " always be careful -- he told us how to tell if tickets were real or not by scratching the ticket really hard until you see black -- That was 10 years ago so I doubt this is valid longer
We eventually stood in line all day and got real tickets -- almost got to meet the bad as well and met some awesome fans !!
The sad part of this story is that two fans from Europe also bought the bad tickets and were near us in line to get into the venue --- they got stop because the tickets were bad -- everyone around us was really awesome trying to help them -- I think that they eventually got in ---
It was a great show, but what a story to tell !!!! I find myself telling this story often
HAHAHAH so good! I love it!
I dont want to sound mean but this seems like a welcome to NY moment
your 100%right about getting tix from fans but at least give it the burn test before you buy from anyone
even if theyre really good fakes it at least shows you know what your doing and if they protest you know there fake