tim’s thought property

This post is also known as show news.

In the month of April, and the rogue Gogol Bordello show that occurred in February, I had intended on a heavy list of shows to attend. It started with Metric coming to town, and having no one to go with. A co-worker had bought tickets and was talking about it, and he kindly spotted me the money on his credit card, and now, April 8, I will be seeing Metric at the Walker Theatre.
Then, before long, I caught wind of Sarah Harmer coming. April 5th, at Westminster United Church (I had no idea that the church was a venue), I’m going with Chars. So then this was all peachy, for me. Money up-front now, in February, shows in April, right? Well, as you know the GB show didn’t happen, but the reviews from all the papers say it was a night of excitement. Two out of three shows isn’t so bad, right?
Yet not long ago, two weeks, perhaps; word got out about Death Cab for Cutie and Franz Ferdinand coming to town. Naturally this would be a show not to miss. But, as it so happened, there was massive mis-communication on when tickets were on sale. Tim Penner signed up for the fan club to secure some advanced tickets, but they were gone in a flash. Other people from work were trying to get tickets with no success. Then it was said that the general sale would occur on Friday, 10:00am. Tim tried to get tickets, but was unsuccessful. Saturday’s Free Press newspaper reported this:

It was all over in less than a minute.
Tickets to the April 23 Franz Ferdinand/Death Cab for Cutie concert at the [Walker] Theatre were gone in less than 60 seconds yesterday, setting a new record for selling out the 1,600 seat venue….

A few things were stinging from this hard hit. First of all, the two bands on their, could sell out the Walker Theatre, so why were they booked there? Well, it turns out the country duo Brooks and Dunn had secured the MTS centre, the 15,000+ seat venue on the same evening. Now, I know that country music is still popular in this city, but I do find it difficult to see their show sell out; where these two other bands get to have a fraction of their audience, and a great deal more of them put off and upset.
I think after missing out on the tickets to the Vertigo tour last year, (U2 was playing Seattle twice and Vancouver once, in the span of a week, and I was living a stone’s throw away from both those shows. The whole leg of the tour was sold out in eight minutes, with the only tickets left given to the on-line scalpers, selling second tier tickets for $700) I had made a fierce vow to do all that I could to see the bands that I love. To have DCFC come to town, and do all this pre-show hopscotch only to have it all collapse, it was notably frustrating.
So now I say that yes, two out of three ain’t bad, but getting two out of four? That hurts just a little bit more.