ARCHIVE | EST 2010

​​​​​​​​​​​​By Kelly  Shannon

No band reminds me more of being a teenager who just got her drivers license, a concert-loving student at the University of Colorado at Boulder, or my stint as a city girl living in San Francisco than Beck. Each album reminds me of a distinct time in my life: Odelay was high school; Midnight Vultures and the “Frontin’ On Deborah Remix” was college; Guero was my first job out of college. When I got a G-Chat message from a friend that Beck tickets had just gone on sale, I didn’t even check my calendar, and I purchased one before I could blink twice, because I figured it would have already been sold out.

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On May 22nd, 2012, Beck returned to the music world (after a four-year touring hiatus) and rocked the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles, a fairly tiny venue for such a well-known artist, and I got to be a part of it. I’d never seen him live. I felt like my 15-year-old self (minus my black Rocket Dogs and Gotcha t-shirt) as I was waiting to see Beck perform. But how did I get this ticket? How was it not already sold out? The El Rey only holds around 700 people and the ticket price was a mere $39.50 (USD) and had been on sale for over 45 minutes. Coachella, for example, sold tens of thousands of tickets for $350 a piece in just minutes.



To answer those questions, there’s simply one answer: this Beck show wasn’t scalper friendly. The way they sold tickets for this concert is how Ticketmaster (and all ticket selling websites) should sell tickets. There was a two-ticket limit per household; once you bought tickets – even if you only purchased one of the allotted two - your IP address was blocked and not allowed to purchase additional tickets. And all tickets were held at Will Call, which therefore meant that ticket purchasers were required to show photo identification to get their ticket(s).

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I’ve heard other places around the world do this for all their concerts and festivals. But this is a new thing here in the US, as most artists don’t limit their shows, which enables secondary ticketers to purchase them all in one swoop and resell them for a huge profit. It was a nice change, being able to go to a concert and see a band I’d been wanting to see for over a decade for a reasonable cost. The show was pretty electric, and every single person wanted to be there. They knew the all the lyrics. They loved seeing Beck. It was a total moment for them as well.

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