Springsteen Born to Run (press for the book)

[G-Man]

It reminds me of Neil Young's comment about voting for Ronald Reagan back in the 80s. Suddenly based on a single question in an interview he went from counter-cultural hero to the anti-Christ. Human beings aren't perfect. Even the good ones.

Well, Neil Young has paraded his imperfections for decades, so he was never going to be mistaken for an all-round great guy, and did enough to make sure he wasn't going to mistaken for Ted Nugent. Of course, had he said nothing about voting for Reagan, we'd not have known, and he might have remained a counter-cultural hero. But after voting Reagan and trumpeting that position, he made sure that he could no longer have that status. Perhaps that was exactly the point. His reactionary bent was becoming apparent already in 1981 on the dreadful Re-Ac-Tor album.

I believe Young has disavowed his stupid decision to vote for Reagan, and I'm sure he regretted publicly admitting to it. So, no, he's no anti-Christ.

[WOM]

So, by the numbers; I've seen him 17 times and L has seen him 21 times. She is the fan. I'm the +1. Those numbers include the Broadway show.

Our POV is that if he wanted to make his nut on this tour, whether for himself, the band, the crew...whatever, he should have put the price on the ticket. $250...$500...$750....$5000 for front row. But be honest about it and let me choose to pay it. The part that grinds is the surge pricing. The net effect - whatever the actual intent - is to have fan bidding against fan. This whole thing about wanting to take the money out of the scalpers' pockets is just nonsense. There are plenty of more effective ways to do that which don't include gouging fans. Ticketmaster, as a ticketing agent, is well aware of them.

Also, the tone deaf response was the icing on the cake. "We've priced ourselves below market for years." Fuck you you have. Yes, you put on a good, long, no-bullshit show...and you've charged very handsomely for the tickets.

Greed with a soupcon of disillusion.

[danielmak]

I listened to the 30 second samples for the first show of the tour on Nugs (or his own sales site). He sounds so flat and so does the band.

[caja-dglh]

Looks like Bruce is going to test WOM (and Mrs WOMs) level of dissatisfaction.

[WOM]

I'm not a betting man, but I don't like my odds if I don't secure tickets to at least one of the two nights.

[Benjm]

I saw an article claiming that tickets for his Houston show were down to $10 a pop on secondary selling sites and what's the problem. It was from Forbes though so presumably coming from a Markets Rule OK! perspective.

[caja-dglh]

Texas has had a few cases of non-Ticketmaster tickets at sub-$10.

[Benjm]

Yeah, it read like a selective account of the situation.

[caja-dglh]

Ticketmaster, as ever, are the worst. Hopefully someone in DC will grow some nerve and force them to break up for consistently breaching their consent decree.

[danielmak]

I just looked and those tickets are behind the stage. Personally, I would not be interested in behind the stage even for free once you add in parking costs. But there are affordable seats in better locations for $85. It seems like the best move is to wait until the day of if you have the flexibility to do that.

[Sits]

And if you still have the desire.

[WOM]

I just looked and those tickets are behind the stage. Personally, I would not be interested in behind the stage even for free once you add in parking costs. But there are affordable seats in better locations for $85. It seems like the best move is to wait until the day of if you have the flexibility to do that.

I'd never choose to buy them, but I've been 'behind the stage' for two shows that I can recall and neither of them was awful for it. Artists like Springsteen who do that setup regularly will remember to 'play to the back' quite often. Max Weinberg...not so much.

[Amor de Cosmos]

La Signora bought tickets as an early birthday present for me.Yay! Accessible seating means the opposite end of Rogers Arena to the stage. Boo! Fortunately we've got binoculars.

[WOM]

I got L her tickets. What a nerve wracking ordeal.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Yeah. It took La Signora most of the morning

[WOM]

We had the Verified Fan code. I had to log in, join the waiting room, then join the queue, then find 4 tickets together. By the time I clicked on four and hit Checkout, I'd get a "sorry...another fan already grabbed those seats" message. Then two or three system error messages. Then when I finally got to the payments page, it just hung for three or so minutes. It did that twice. By the end of 40 minutes, I was near tears and exhausted. And then 'poof', it went through and I had my seats. Utter shit show.

L is a very happy woman, and that's what matters.

[Amor de Cosmos]

LaSig had a verified fan code too, but she had to call regarding accessible seating. The Ticketmaster person, who was very nice and tried to be helpful, had know way of finding which seats were accessible. La Signora had to help her as she had a map of the stadium. Argh!

[danielmak]

An interesting piece about the current show.

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/bruce...he-guest-list/

[WOM]

After the two cancelled Philly shows, he’s now cancelled all of his September shows. Apparently being treated for peptic ulcers.

[Uncle Ethan]

I fear I have seen my last live Springsteen gig as I can't see him coming this far ever again. Glad I took every chance when I could.

[RobW]

Maybe I have notifications turned off from o2/Ticketmaster et al, but the announcement of the UK and Ireland leg of the tour next year went under my radar until last night. https://brucespringsteen.net/tour/

I got priority tickets via o2 - a LiveNation presale went live at 10am today and general sale tickets on sale tomorrow morning.

Due to reasons I cannot fathom, it took me an hour to get 3 tickets for Wembley last night (£131 each) - Ticketmaster turning down my credit card (maybe because i've recently moved? I dunno). My CVV number is barely legible on my debit card, but thankfully I could just about remember it and managed finally to procure the tickets. Now getting phone calls allegedly from Lloyds asking me about my credit card use...

One assumes that there will be extra dates added if these go quickly - I suspect it might be the last waltz...

[Sporting]

My CVV number is barely legible on my debit card, but thankfully I could just about remember it

This is a problem for me, too. Even with new cards where the three digits seem to be in some weird hard-to-decipher font.

[WOM]

One assumes that there will be extra dates added if these go quickly - I suspect it might be the last waltz...

Toronto's November shows (we have tickets) have been pushed to next November due to his recent illness. Interestingly, there are now two days off between most shows instead of just one, possibly his acknowledgement that they're all getting up there a bit.

[WOM]

Also, even if it is the last waltz, it wouldn't surprise me to see him doing a Billy Joel style residency at Madison Square Gardens or similar. He's said that one of the best parts of Springsteen on Broadway was going home and sleeping in his own bed each night.

[steveeeeeeeee]

This is a problem for me, too. Even with new cards where the three digits seem to be in some weird hard-to-decipher font.

I opened a bank account recently and the CVV number was 000! I asked for another card, they didn't protest about it and I got a new one the next day.