Open Thread: Did You Get Phish Tickets?
Written by
Scott Bernstein on
01.24.2009 |
Phish
Music Today has started sending out notices of regret and confirmation to those who entered the lottery for tickets to Phish’s upcoming Summer Tour. How did you fare? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Scott Bernstein
Scott Bernstein co-founded Hidden Track in October 2006 and was managing editor until taking over as EiC in January 2008. Scotty also writes for Relix Magazine and curates YEMblog.com.
Follow Me:
My friend and I each got 4 lawn for Deer Creek and 4 lawn for each night at Alpine.
I’m glad I got them, but with Alpine especially, you are almost better off with a chance at getting seats if you are on the ball and get to TM (or Live Nation) right away at the sale time. You’re pretty much guaranteed lawn at Alpine either way. Almost no need to do the lottery for that venue if you’re okay with lawn.
Denied. I’ll get them one way or another, but the system is faulty and should be remodeled to be more random. There should be a 2 ticket limit and each show chosen should be recognized as separate requests.
Denied – 0 for 3. I guess I can’t compleain as I did get Hampton for Friday and Saturday. I’ll be fighting the good fight on 1/31 with everyone else.
1 ticket for Jun 7,18,19, 20, 21. denied every other date.
I only asked for 2 to Great Woods, but I haven’t even heard back yet! What’s the deal?!
Shut out on 2 tix to Camden ..Shouldnt this shit be based on seniority…im an old head touring withn them since 1992 where is the love Yo!!!
Yes, Phish should do a background check on every order to find out who has been seeing the band since when and make sure that the people who saw them before 1996 should get every ticket they order, while those who made the horrible choice to be born in the ’80s should have no chance whatsoever. Sounds fair!
I got no tickets.
Thank God.
Myself, my girl and 2 of my friends all got denied for jones, camden, st louis, dc and a couple tried for mass and alpine. Race you to the captcha on fri/sat.
I’d like to know how many people got St Louis because I’ve only read a few comments on sites of people actually scoring that hot ticket.
There is reason to be annoyed. Phish has more leverage than we can imagine, and their failure to secure more tickets for mail-order / pre-order is somewhat of an abidaction of their responsibility to the scene and makes me worry about the upcoming tour. Let me explain – there was an interview recently where Trey or Page said they were changing management and letting musictoday make most of the business decisions so they can focus on the music. Now I’m all for more focusing on the music, but some of what made Phish Phish was their independent spirit and wacky homegrown ideas.
This tour will be one of the most profitable and successful summer tours and these venues would love to have them. It bothers me that Phish didn’t make an effort to secure more tickets for use through the tickets-by-mail. Any others feel the same way? Or am i overreacting?
@ cs – I understand your anger. My question is – How do you know how many tickets the band sold through Music Today? I’d bet they got 50% of the available tickets, which is similar to what Pearl Jam and DMB get. Let’s not forget they kept the price of a ticket below $50. This is a band that’s always looked after its fans. There’s just too much demand right now for everyone to get tickets. Wait a few months and it will be a different story.
^^no your not over reacting. The system is fucked up.
And scott, we are glad that YOU got tickets. Now STFU! You just come off as a pompus asshole.
It dosen’t matter how long you’ve been seeing shows in relation to getting tickets in the lottery. It only makes sense that if you happened to get hampton tickets in the last lottery, that they would try and accommodate the people who were shut out of that lottery first. That way more people get to see the band instead of the same people who got lucky and scored hampton tickets. is that in plain enough english for ya? Its not rocket science and it wouldn’t take a million dollars to do something like that. Its called a database and its not hard to do.
I just think the band got lazy and have no clue how fucked up this internet system really is. The outsourcing of their ticket system is really an outsourcing of their fans. Let them concentrate all day on the music. But dear lord, how hard is it to make a better ticket system?
Negative Ghost Rider, the pattern is full :(
I don’t think Scott is coming off as pompous, he’s just stating the way it is. There are probably at least 50,000 people trying to get tix for each venue, and that’s assuming that each person only used one name to try to get tickets. The fact is there are only so many tickets to go around, and suggesting Phish keep a database to track who gets tickets is absurd. Phish doesn’t owe any of us anything.
“It only makes sense that if you happened to get hampton tickets in the last lottery, that they would try and accommodate the people who were shut out of that lottery first.”
Sally – Let’s take it down a notch and try to discuss this rationally.
The problem with your idea is that plenty of people also scored Hampton tickets through Ticketmaster. Why should they be able to mail order but the people who got tickets through Music Today shouldn’t be? Also, if you hit the lottery on your own name, wouldn’t you just have all of your non-Phish loving friends try the next time around?
IMHO, when you’re dealing with the sort of crazy demand that Phish is at the moment the best way to award tickets is randomly.
Read an interesting point from AK this morning about it:
“one of the things i find so interesting about this whole lottery system is the tremendous swings in emotion it causes among the people that have ordered and it’s all totally random. some people are super psyched, some are really disappointed/angry or bitter and others are somewhere in the middle. but it’s not like we could have done anything to better the odds. some people went 0 for 8 and some went 1 for 1. it doesn’t seem like having multiple orders gives you that much better odds.”
It’s just the luck of the draw. You KNOW next time, I won’t get tickets and I won’t say the ticket system is wrong just because my order wasn’t randomly picked this time around.
@Scott – You really think it’s 50%? That is a lot higher than I would think – but even that is low. Shouldn’t they aim higher than Pearl Jam and DMB (not that there is anything wrong with those bands)?
Also – where is the transparency? Why not tell us how many tickets they get? I know it is a private corporation, but why shouldn’t Phish be fully transparent – what does it matter? (I don’t actually think they would, but I wonder if there’s any reason they shouldn’t). Why not release statistics of how many tickets were requested and how many were filled? How many pavillions and how many lawns?
And yes – there should have been a database. There should be a way to create unique numbers, track people’s prior purchases, etc. Of course people could register for new ones, multiple ones, but it’s another minor hurdle that would have created equity.
“You really think it’s 50%? That is a lot higher than I would think – but even that is low. Shouldn’t they aim higher than Pearl Jam and DMB (not that there is anything wrong with those bands)?”
I think in a perfect world the band would like to distribute all of the tickets, but nearly every venue has a distribution deal with at least one of the major ticketing companies.
“Also – where is the transparency? Why not tell us how many tickets they get? I know it is a private corporation, but why shouldn’t Phish be fully transparent – what does it matter? (I don’t actually think they would, but I wonder if there’s any reason they shouldn’t). Why not release statistics of how many tickets were requested and how many were filled? How many pavillions and how many lawns? ”
Certainly an interesting point. I don’t think there are many bands that would be willing to lay their finances out on the table like that, but perhaps the band could at least address the situation.
Good luck on Friday, CS!
denied 4 out of 5. I received 2 tix to Burgettstown…haha, ironically, the furthest away. But, in defense, my fave venue/memories of any of the 5 I went for. see y’all on 6/18 in Western PA.
I’ve got extra Deer Creek, Pittsburgh, Camden, and Alpine Valley tickets if you’ve got any extra Great Woods or Jones Beach tickets
Shut out for Jones Beach – my brother got first night though, so all i need is second and confident I will get them..This is been a bad week for getting tickets… I got shut out for the Dead as well…. Again, where there is a will, there is a way…..
Denied
I got denied for Asheville and St. Louis. Had my mom request too and got denied. One of my best friends got 2 for St. Louis and Asheville. She’s only able to go to one of the shows, so I got her Asheville extras. I need to procure at least one ticket for Asheville in order for me to go, otherwise, I’m passing the tickets to some friends who got denied. I just realized I’ll be able to try for all the tickets I’d like to get b/c of the on-sale date/time and they are all through different ticket outlets so hopefully that increases my chances. Scotty – I’m gonna try for St. Louis since I’m not gonna meet you at Hampton. Wish me luck!!
No luck! I requested tickets for both nights at Alpine. I suppose that no true phan deserves tickets more than another within the community, but I’m sure I want them more than most phans. Living in Colorado means a minimum drive of 10 hours.
I hope for more tours dates, but the thought of missing this opportunity is devastating!
I suppose the public sale is my only shot.
Good luck to the other heads and BURN all you scalpers.
Shut out of Jones Beach 1 and 2 and Alpine Valley 1 and 2. My buddies got both nights at AV. So I’ll be there somehow.
Scored 2 deer creek and a single for alpine valley 1. Am interested in trading the single for a 3rd deer creek ticket. Everyone else I know was shut out. I have to keep reminding myself that getting tix to shows was tough from the late 90′s on… I remember being shut out of deer creek a couple of times… but I think I (and maybe others) are just feeling more anxious because of the circumstances… who wants to miss the first tour in 5 years??? Ticketmaster and all subsidiaries can burn in hell. Bands should boycott this system and pool resources to create a system independent of ticketmaster. It won’t be scalper-proof, but at least they could prevent blocks of tickets from being ‘sold’ to secondary companies OWNED BY TICKETMASTER!! How can they so blatantly rip people off??
Good luck to all looking for tickets… my work is not done either. :)