precious metal
I think my body finally caught up with me going out Wed/Thurs/Fri and has punished me thusly, which is why I am at home on Saturday to (briefly) tell you about Marnie Stern's performance at Pat's last night (and then I am going to bed).
Her set was pretty brief, but the combination of razor sharp riffage and Zack Hill's ridiculously busy drumming was incredibly impressive. The only real complaint to be had was that Zack (who you may recognize from Hella) hits the drums so hard that he overpowered the sound system at Pat's at times and tended to drown out Marnie during a couple of songs. The duo was supposed to be a trio but Robby Moncrieff (who I think plays in the Advantage[?]) fell ill and had to bail on the tour at the last minute. Marnie mentioned that his presence was missed on the live arrangements of the songs they played, but she shreds so frantically, it was hard to tell where there was even any sonic space for another guitar.
download: Marnie Stern - Every Single Line Means Something (via Kill Rock Stars)
Do Make Say Think are at the Commodore on October 29th.
According to Pfork and their MySpace, Spoon are playing another show in Vancouver on September 17th (in addition to their September 7th date - thanks Scott). This seems incredibly strange to me since they have two days off after their "first" Commodore date, and playing here on the 17th would mean flying in from San Fransisco after they play a festival there on the 16th (or can you drive in one day?). Plus, there's still tickets left to the September 7th show.
Liars are at the Red Room on September 15th, which is a rather unfortunate coincidence, as you'd imagine that 90% of their fan base overlaps with 90% of Animal Collective's fan base (and they're at the Commodore the same night). (thanks Dave & Sandra)
The Pointed Sticks are at the Red Room on August 25th.
And on a final note, you may recall the discussion about ticket prices at Zulu from awhile back. There were a lot of complaints about service charges in general, but the biggest thing seemed to be about how the "second batch" of Zulu tix ends up more expensive than tickets bought from Ticketmaster since they're essentially tacking on their own 20% charge on a full priced TM ticket. Well, if you thought Scratch was different, you will be disappointed to find out that you are wrong. I snagged a New Pornographers ticket for cheaper than on from TM, but the Blood Brothers' ticket that I picked up was $4 more than if I had sat on my ass, ordered it on the computer, and got it mailed to my house (which effectively canceled out what I saved the former).
now playing: Nas - the Message
Labels: service charges suck, show announcements, show recaps
8 Comments:
ooh, bummer about the liars/animal collective thing. i hadn't noticed they were both on the same night. i guess i'll have to wait and hear their new albums to decide this one.
I've gone to Scratch and Zulu less and less after I noticed this ticket price scam they pull. Long term, this cash grab is a pretty shitty "business plan" since I was one of the few people who still goes into these stores and buys over priced CDs. And it's not like many people are doing that nowadays.
Agreed - Scratch and Zulu are no longer on my radar for tickets. For both W.Parade and Subtle I saved myself a total of almost 20 bucks over 4 tickets by, yes, sitting on my ass and having tickets delivered to me by mail. Sad, but true. I hate to buy from t.m. but the reality is, I can go to another show now with the money I saved. And that was first-day-of-sale tickets as well...not the second batch. I beg of SWAK,Timbre, etc to allow online ticket sales that truly reflect the cost of the show, not padding multiple pockets along the way...There must be another way. That said, I still find the best deals on actual music at Scratch so they still get lots of my business that way.
By 
Dave + Sandra, at
11:53 a.m.
Well as an employee of Scratch I feel the need to respond.
We don't scam anyone on tickets nor do we make any significant money selling them.
The recent serge in prices is almost entirely down to the promoters. If you notice all the shows that are mentioned in the posts above are all Sealed With a Kiss shows. SWAK has been going directly through Ticketmaster since late last year and the price on tickets given to Zulu/Scratch has risen dramatically ever since. Take the upcoming Magnolia Elec. Co. show as an example. Their show last year was in the $15 range, and now b/c it is through TM/SWAK, the price has risen by over $5. Tickets offered by promoters like Timbre, Fireball are lower and have not jumped in the last year.
Secondly, the difference in price between TM online and Zulu/Scratch is because there is a certain number of tickets allocated at a cheaper price, and after these sell, the price goes up dramatically. Scratch and Zulu often get VERY few of these cheaper tickets, if any, and we get stuck with the more expensive ones and look like we're ripping people off. We're not. We want people to buy music and not get gouged by service charges.
And on a happier final note, the Liars is an early show and will be over before AC go on I believe.
Quinn said...
"Secondly, the difference in price between TM online and Zulu/Scratch is because there is a certain number of tickets allocated at a cheaper price, and after these sell, the price goes up dramatically. Scratch and Zulu often get VERY few of these cheaper tickets, if any, and we get stuck with the more expensive ones and look like we're ripping people off. We're not."
This is sort of what I was getting at as the thing I have a problem with. I know it's probably not your decision, but I've always questioned why Scratch/Zulu sell that second batch of expensive tickets.
For me, if I can go to Scratch or Zulu and pick up tickets and it's cheaper, that's a win-win situation. Even if I could go and pay the same price, I would, as I'd prefer to have a percentage of the service fees going to either of those places, instead of TM. But if I show up and end up paying the same amount to TM plus 20% on top of that, it pisses me off. Especially since I often go out of my way - and even pay a couple bucks extra - to patronize independent retailers when it comes to CDs/LPs/etc.
If there's a limited supply of cheaper tix, that's no big deal. Like you said, that has to do with the promoter. But I'd much rather that I show up to hear that that limited quantity is gone and I have to grab tix of TM than pay service charges at both places.
and thanks for the Liars info
Thanks for the info Matt...that explains a lot. I just can't get over the fact that s/c often total more than 50% of the ticket value on many of the 13-18 dollar ticket ranges, which is predominantly what I am buying. Not too surprising that it's all T.M. all along anyways. But can't tickets be sold for a single s/c (not a % based on face value) and with one price per show? I believe it must be possible...no?
(And that Liars info indeed makes me very happy, too.)
By Dave + Sandra, at
3:58 p.m.
The reason Zulu gets a second batch of tickets is because at least 90% of their phone calls and customer service is allocated to selling tickets and answering questions about shows (set times, openers). That's a lot of work and it's no exaggeration. And, once the initial, cheaper,tickets sell out (sometimes only like 25 or fifty tickets) the store still receives those hundreds and hundreds of phone calls and queries up until the show happens, sometimes months in advance. To avoid disappointing the rest of the population who weren't one of the lucky 1st 25 0r 50 customers, Zulu gets another batch and charges a small service charge (based on the same percentage as on the cheaper batch but with a cap) on top of far, far, far heftier ones put on by Ticketmaster.
If people weren't complaining about the service charges at Zulu and Scratch they'd be complaining about advertised tickets being unavailable ALL THE TIME.
By the way, this problem doesn't exist in Montreal. That's probably due to to three things. No Ticketmaster, sensible promoters, and the fact that people will go to three shows a week.
It would be nice to see Ticketmaster go away, but I would be nicer to Zulu and Scratch if I were you. They may not always be around.
By 
, at
7:44 a.m.
Oh, and Quinn, my last comment was not directed at you. I know you promote local record stores and your concerns are valid. It's more of a general warning about the state of the local indie record store.
By , at
7:47 a.m.
