- This topic has 16 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 6 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
http://www.rockandrolltshirts.com/RNR_S … IP-Upgrade
It slices and dices, it blends and frappes…add water, makes its own sauce!
Who wants a soundcheck, a laminate, a poster, and a $50 coupon for BH.com? You do? Well guess what, my friends, all this and no more — that’s right, no bothersome “meet and greet”! — can be yours for the low, low, low price of $129, a ticket “upgrade”! Yes, on top of the ticket already purchased, this privilege is afforded to you at extra cost! You heard right, so you don’t forget, call before midnight tonight and your dreams of paying too much for not enough will be realized! (Offer void in Oakland, ‘cuz Tampa Tony ain’t there no mo’…)
🙄
I loves me some BH, y’all knows I do, but I’ll be doing the GuinnessGoon method of Bruce-seeking — hanging/loitering around the bus, the hotel, the bathroom 😆
It shouldn’t be too hard; Keene is literally a main drag of a kinda town, plus a Target in the swampy glacially-flattened prairie. I mean, shit, I already bought 3rd row seats and all — the best that I could do without joining the Colonial “Gold Club.” Pffft.T, who ain’t made of money
I saw this offer today & wondered what other Board members (who are more worldly than I), might think about the subject.
Thanks for getting the ball rolling,T!
I’d be interested to hear other people’s views on this offer-positive,negative,indifferent?
Jackie
This reminds me of when I met Cheech and Chong a few years ago(’08 I think?) anyways for $200 you got a shirt, hat, pack of rolling papers, and a meet and greet. I didn’t need any of the swag and I still got to meet them…for free. I feel bad for the ones that buy into the VIP bullshit.
A few years ago I got a VIP flyer for a Dave Matthews show that was coming to town. You know what you got for $200, let me tell ya kids, you got to enter the venue an hour early before every body else…yeah sounds good wait it gets even better…then you get to park in the ‘gold circle lot’ I remember when I was a kid there was a store called Gold Circle anyways….then you get to hang out in the private VIP tent with free finger food and drinks not the kind that make you feel good but the other kind like water and pop…then you get an upgrade to the middle of the pavilion…yes I said the middle of the pavilion(which is like row 20 – 30 something like that) anyways for the low price of $200…oh did i forget to mention that these were sent after the show was sold out so the $200 was on top of the ticket price already spent. Oh you noticed I forgot to mention meet and greet huh…yeah thats because there wasn’t one.
So lets recap kids after you spend $30 – $75 on DMB tix you can pay an extra $200 to park in the private lot, enter an hour early, eat free finger foods/water/pop in the VIP douche tent, and get upgraded tix 20 – 30 rows in the middle of the pavilion.
I didn’t pay the $200 for any of that. I did get third row center for $75 the second tix went on sale and also before the show I stalked out DMB’s hotel and met the band. I did show Dave, Carter, and Boyd the flyer that was sent to me and they said that they had nothing to do with that and that is something that the venue and ticket companies do to rape fans. Dave appologized that I received the flyer and asked me to understand that they(DMB) had anything to do with it. He felt bad.Takavl wrote:Who wants a soundcheck, a laminate, a poster, and a $50 coupon for BH.com? You do? Well guess what, my friends, all this and no more — that’s right, no bothersome “meet and greet”! — can be yours for the low, low, low price of $129, a ticket “upgrade”!Hey T,
FWIW Bruce’s VIP is an extra $129 but you figure a concert poster usually costs about $25 – $30 though this one is limited and signed which would put the value a bit higher, a cd is about $15 – $20(even though I’m sure most people already have it), $50 coupon, and a soundcheck hang.
So its about $100 bucks of swag and then a soundcheck hang which is easily worth $29.
So all in all the final cost including a ticket would be about $200.
Yeah it can be laughable but it depends on how you look at it and how you want to break it down.
If a limited edition solo tour shirt came with it and a definite photo opp, the deal might sound a little better.
See I broke it down for ya T so that it doesn’t sting as much, but I do hear ya brother.It seems that most bands or atleast their management is doing this VIP thing these days.
I mean, I don’t think Bruce is trying to think of ways to squeeze out an extra buck from his fans…he’s not Gene Simmons.Although, most soundchecks are usually pretty cool but this is a solo show so will have less stage banter although Bruce has really good stage commentary anyways so that makes up for no band mate chatter, I imagine only a few people do the VIP stuff leading to a ‘meet and greet’ plus Bruce is so accessable, I couldn’t picture not being able to meet him during his soundcheck.
Honestly, if he was playing within 2 hours to my home I probably would shell out some jing and be a VIP because Bruce is my favorite and I will support anything he does…well until he does something involving rap/hip-hop or playing with Justin Beiber.
Like, I said I am sure this VIP thing has much to do with management and not Bruce. The deal isn’t as bad as most, but would have been cool with a shirt and photo opp.
Yeah, GG — your tales of intrigue vis a vis modern culture and sport are always interesting, sincere my brah, you know that; interesting also is the DMB fobbing off responsibility. Can kinda see that due to the massiveness of the whole DMB leviathan…
On the other hand, this BH ‘upgrade’ was announced today from the BH Facebook account — no flyer from a venue, no mailer from TicketBastard, etc etc. The only wiggle room the BH camp might have is the company pimping the upgrade, is some ‘rockandrollteeshirt’…hold on, being lazy…’rockandrolltshirts.com.’ Whatever.
Who knows, maybe BH bitchslaps them tomorrow morn. Or maybe not. The BH camp seems a bit on the small side, and quite unlike the gargantuan monolith the DMB has been since at least the late 90s. You can see how some flotsam and jetsam might get lost in the bureaucracy of a large organization, but BH and co.?
Bad taste in my mouth. Sorry to say so, and I don’t begrudge any touring/recording artist and his/her wish to earn a living/support a family, particularly in these times; recession, file-sharing, bootlegging, etc. We also know that BH isn’t hurting due to royalties, etc. Do we need to bring up Lowe’s? 😮 On the flipside, many of BH hardcore are somewhat picky, and some are of limited means, so each ticket purchased is an amount not spent on something else, food and drink out, parking, babysitter, gas, etc. Yes, I realize that BH already keeps his price down…much appreciated. But $129 for a peek backstage, a poster, and piece of plastic, with a coupon for an online site just ain’t tempting enough. This ‘package’ just seems to be a bit beyond the pale, and quite unexpected from the Hornsby biz apparatus. Is he aware that these are not the corp. and/or private gigs he does every once in a while?
T
Takavl wrote:Yeah, GG — your tales of intrigue vis a vis modern culture and sport are always interesting, sincere my brah, you know that; interesting also is the DMB fobbing off responsibility. Can kinda see that due to the massiveness of the whole DMB leviathan…On the other hand, this BH ‘upgrade’ was announced today from the BH Facebook account — no flyer from a venue, no mailer from TicketBastard, etc etc. The only wiggle room the BH camp might have is the company pimping the upgrade, is some ‘rockandrollteeshirt’…hold on, being lazy…’rockandrolltshirts.com.’ Whatever.
Who knows, maybe BH bitchslaps them tomorrow morn. Or maybe not. The BH camp seems a bit on the small side, and quite unlike the gargantuan monolith the DMB has been since at least the late 90s. You can see how some flotsam and jetsam might get lost in the bureaucracy of a large organization, but BH and co.?
Bad taste in my mouth. Sorry to say so, and I don’t begrudge any touring/recording artist and his/her wish to earn a living/support a family, particularly in these times; recession, file-sharing, bootlegging, etc. We also know that BH isn’t hurting due to royalties, etc. Do we need to bring up Lowe’s? 😮 On the flipside, many of BH hardcore are somewhat picky, and some are of limited means, so each ticket purchased is an amount not spent on something else, food and drink out, parking, babysitter, gas, etc. Yes, I realize that BH already keeps his price down…much appreciated. But $129 for a peek backstage, a poster, and piece of plastic, with a coupon for an online site just ain’t tempting enough. This ‘package’ just seems to be a bit beyond the pale, and quite unexpected from the Hornsby biz apparatus. Is he aware that these are not the corp. and/or private gigs he does every once in a while?
T
I hear ya mang/brah/bro nameth. T – I do understand the bad taste but I was just trying to lighten the blow of the sense that BH is selling out with the masses of the VIP package venture as many other bands are doing these days.
I think if they(management or third party) see that only a handful(schmucks) buy into these shoddy packages then maybe they(m&3rdP) will give it up or make the package actually worth something.
The thing that bothers me is how few people show up for BH shows, making me think that this might be some way of making up for lower tix sales over the years.
I will never understand how small the crowds have become and why BH isn’t huge bigger due to his stellar skills/personality/style/awesome songs/killer band/you know what I mean.Takavi wrote:The thing that bothers me is how few people show up for BH shows, making me think that this might be some way of making up for lower tix sales over the years.
I will never understand how small the crowds have become and why BH isn’t huge bigger due to his stellar skills/personality/style/awesome songs/killer band/you know what I mean.^^ This how I look at it, as well: It is far better that Bruce is able to pull in some extra cash via the “V.I.P. Experience” than it would be for Bruce to feel compelled to do a Greatest Hits tour, for concerts dominated by greatest hits would be much less interesting/inspiring for all of us and, more importantly, would be soul-deadening anathema for an artist like Bruce.
Highway_61 wrote:Takavi wrote:The thing that bothers me is how few people show up for BH shows, making me think that this might be some way of making up for lower tix sales over the years.
I will never understand how small the crowds have become and why BH isn’t huge bigger due to his stellar skills/personality/style/awesome songs/killer band/you know what I mean.Actually, the Goon wrote the above in response to me, Takavl, who was kinda pissed. Still am, the more that I think about it, although it’s a jaded and resigned kind of pissed. You know, an “oh well, waddaya gonna do” shrug and move on.
Look, we all want BH to be even more loaded than he is. We all want BH to do what he wants and be happy, and tour a lot so we can see him, and record/release a lot so that we can marvel at his, ahem, genius. We are pissed about the state of pop music today and “Why can’t those idiots/our friends/the concert-going public get on the BH train” etc etc. (Let’s not forget that in quite a large measure SOME of this purported/actual drop in show-attendance is BH’ fault, due to his expressly-stated opinion and action of not wanting to be a “museum piece.”)
I get all that. I still am not gonna pay an extra $129. It just ain’t enough…if he’d tack on a meet and greet, or “Have A Beer With Bruce After The Show” or some such, that would sweeten the pot for the monetarily discerning among us fungus. But hey, I know that some of you will flip for the measly lil’ pile o’ trinkets. Knock yourselves out.
If BH wants to rake in the dough and not compromise his art, he ought to get aboard the “Produced by…” gravy train. Think about it — rappers love him, rockers love him. Jazzbos love him, and he made a play for the bluegrass set. The Nashville heavies are into him. Sounds like a no-brainer. He could produce many an artist and still stay close to home. If the material isn’t quite his bag, well, he was just the producer…how did it sound?
He could then do the silly Christmas album, he could do a jazz standards album, etc etc. There are other ways to make the dough than that V.I.P. sheeeeeittt. It stinks. It really does. If he wants to do something like that, line up some more corporate gigs and stick it to the Wall Street set who can afford it…or rest his weary bones and produce, thereby maintaining both integrity and control, as well as a degree of productive input.
T
Hey T
I didn’t mean anything by my post…didn’t mean to piss ya of brother.
I got to do a BH soundcheck once and he chatted with us and busted out jokes and probably because there was only a handful of us he jumped down off stage and signed stuff and did a photo opp….this is actually a cool story and the short abridged version of it is that we stalked out Bruce before a gig and met him and chatted his ear off and then I grew some balls and blurted out ‘hey Bruce can we watch your soundcheck?!!?’ and he said ‘well yes you can’ and then opened this door and we followed him to the stage and just hung out.
Also, depending on how long or how many songs they do during a soundcheck it could be sort of a private little concert.
I seen quite a few soundchecks over the years and some where just a couple songs and some were like a mini pre show like when I seen Phish play for about an hour of just funky stank jamming with only like two actual songs thrown in the mix…then again there are some soundchecks like this one time Bob Weir/Ratdog did the same three songs three times each although we stayed in hopes of meeting the ace but that didn’t happen ’til after the show.
Anyways, I hope some people do become VIP’s for the reasons that Highway_61 states.
Also, Bruce could make a lot of extra jing if he just made every soundboard recording of his shows available instead of being picky and critical of his work to leave songs out or only bust out a few shows.:ugeek:
Highway_61 wrote:^^ Why would you want to pay someone to have a beer with you?Just being slightly tongue-in-cheek. I don’t even know if BH drinks beer. I do know that he eats bananas, so maybe we could go for a couple of those.
For that matter, why would anyone want to pay for a “meet and greet?” But it’s done, although I don’t know the percentage of “tix upgrades meet and greets” (which the concert-goer pays for) vs. “meet and greet contest winners” usually sponsored and paid-for by radio, etc.
I’ve found (from purely anecdotal evidence, mine and friends’) that “chance stumble-upons” seem to be more conducive to chatting up your average famous recording artist; they seem to be amenable to being approached outside of fake and pretentious “meet and greets.” For a BH board example, just ask the Goon about his many misadventures regarding the stalking of musicians and baseball greats… 😆
T
A really interesting discussion, although one I’m staying out of I’m enjoying watching it. Thanks for raising it.
I’m under the impression this is something that Bruce’s Management conjured up. And possibly something they had to twist Bruce’s arm about in buying into..
It just doesn’t seem his style. He would often refer to the Meet and Greets as the “Skin and Grin”. Obviously one of those things that you really don’t’ wanna be there but you have to kind of deals…..”For the Fans”
This is something a few yuppies will buy who prob only know Bruce for “The Way It is” and Mandolin Rain. Something to impress their friends.
While the true fans do it for free
T, you seem really offended by this, and I’m not sure why. We get it, it’s pricey, it’s unlike Bruce, etc. So you know what, go on about it like anything in life you don’t have an interest in buying. Personally, the only reason I think it’s pricey is because I’d be paying for a soundcheck that doesn’t include the whole band.
This IS an interesting discussion! I think it’s another example of how Bruce’s history of generousness and musical restlessness comes back to bite him in the end.
In other words, if he’d always instituted the policy of charging for “Meet and Greets” … or a policy of not allowing fan taping … or of not giving away his songs to friends … it seems he could have made a good deal more cash up-front through the years. However, it seems to me he’d also have given up a ton of the “good will” he’s earned as a result of his excessive kindness and flexibility over the years. All that good karma seems like it’s paid off pretty well in loyalty from fans and fellow artists alike.
Another way he could have made some extra bank, if he’d wanted, would have been to play the “Standards” tour … or a Dead tribute, or the Christmas album … or to have maintained a style more in keeping with his early hits. Since he’s said that would have been a creative prison (and since most of us are thankful to have gone along on the journey), he (and we) have to expect a dropoff in gate. There’s just not a huge fanbase for jazz/bluegrass/rock/modern classical/solo piano/accordion/dulcimer-musicians/playwrights/maestros/singers/songwriters out there, even though we all love it.
In conclusion, while most of us appreciate Bruce waxing-on about the virtues of dodecaphony and improvisation, we’ll have to expect his new management to try to cash-in on these types of “VIP” events to recoup the losses that result. I can’t pay for these things — I’ll continue “loitering about” — but I’m sure several will be willing to.
It shouldn’t be too hard; Keene is literally a main drag of a kinda town, plus a Target in the swampy glacially-flattened prairie. I mean, shit, I already bought 3rd row seats and all — the best that I could do without joining the Colonial “Gold Club.” Pffft.
- The forum ‘General chat’ is closed to new topics and replies.