Author - Paul Schatzkin

Yes, the show will be sold out before the tickets go on sale.

I missed Billy Joel when he played at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashvile a few weeks ago. I saw him a couple of times in Los Angeles in the 1970s, but after hearing from people who went how great the show was I’m sorry I didn’t see it.

And I let Bruce Springsteen come and go last week. Him I saw the last time he was here, and frankly was disappointed in the show. I do not know entire Springsteen canon by heart, and the sound was pretty awful to my ears. I guess that’s how it goes for arena shows (although the sound for U2 at the Vanderbilt Stadium one hot July night several years ago was OUT-fucking-STANDING, due largely to “the claw” stage and sound system).

I also missed Paul McCartney the last time he came through Twangtown. The tickets were pretty well sold out before I could get to them, and when I looked at the after-market prices, I was looking at nearly a grand for nosebleed seats.

McCartney is coming back to Nashville in June, and not to be morbid or anything, but anytime he’s in the vicinity is quite possibly the last opportunity I will have in my lifetime (or his?) to see an actual Beatle sing Beatles songs. So I have made a note that the tickets go on sale Friday at 10 AM and have arranged to be at my keyboard-and-screen when the time comes.

According to the Bridgestone Arena website, the tickets for this show will be priced from a low of $29.50 to a high of $254.50. I’m sure something in between would make sense and even if all I can get is “nosebleed” seats, at least they’re in the arena.

But I don’t think it’s going to happen. I just noticed a friend posted to Facebook that she already has her tickets “in hand.” She got them through “American Express card holders pre-sale.”

Well, I don’t have an American Express card. I got out of the credit card habit years ago, I now have ONE credit card and ONE debit card an neither of them is American Express. So no surprise I was not offered a “Pre-Sale” opportunity.

But the whole operation is fucked up from the get go. I fully expect that there will be not tickets available when I go online on Friday. Because even though the tickets will be “going on sale” at that time, much of the venue will have been “pre-sold” before the tickets become available to the general public.

Or, I could just jump the gun on the after-market and pre-buy them from an outfit called “Ticketdown” which is also offering “pre-sales” tickets at something between 3 and 4 times the ‘rack rate’ listed on the Bridgestone site. Tell me, how is an after-market website able to offer tickets BEFORE they ‘go on sale’?

The whole set-up is kinda like saying “the tickets will cost $X. Unless you actually WANT one. Then it will be 3- or 4- times $X. And that’s assuming know the secret password and handshake.

Because it’s a fucking racket.

I dunno, maybe I’m jumping the gun here. But based on my past experience, and what I’m hearing from private channels and seeing online, I expect pretty much the same. I’ll get online at 10 AM on Friday and there will be no tickets available.

Stay tuned. Or, if you’re reading this and you know somebody, just please tell me who to call so I can be part of the fucking racket, too.

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Update 140423: My Facebook friend who snagged her tickets via the American Express Pre-Sale offer has informed me that she paid no premium for the tickets, they were sold at the rack rate that the Arena is showing on their website. OK, fair enough. She also told me that she’d purchased the $85 seats – arguably the sweet spot in terms of pricing and seating – and then adds, “…there are $55, $201, & $297 seats [still] available….” which sounds to me like the $85 seats are gone. I’ll find out Friday. I’m pretty well resigned to sitting in the “nosebleed” seats if I can get inside the arena at all. Good thing we have a pair of great binoculars….