Pilgramage to Paul

[crystals]

Pilgrimage to Paul
by Mike Sembos - May 5, 2005

Paul McCartney was a Beatle. The Beatles are the greatest band that ever was. Paul McCartney is doing a U.S. tour. Tickets are very expensive. Is it worth it? Yes, it is.

I decided that no matter what the cost, a credit card was going to be my key to seeing the closest thing I will ever get to a Beatles concert. Paul won't be around forever, and if I can see the man who co-wrote "All My Loving" and "I Saw Her Standing There" and "She Loves You" (and dozens more of the greatest songs ever written), and see him play them in my presence, there's really no excuse not to go, especially a financial excuse.

I began my obsessive quest for decent tickets two weeks ago Monday when the Sept. 26 show in Boston went on sale at 10 a.m. At 9:59 a.m. I was hunched in front of the computer, hitting refresh every few seconds so that I'd be queued into the cyber line at the earliest possible moment. In my overzealous, premature struggle, I refreshed one too many times and got put in time-out from ticketmaster.com and by the time I'd cleared my cookies and reopened the window again, tickets were already on sale. Drat. Strike one.

The first seats that came up weren't that great. They weren't on the floor, the view they offered was at a weird angle and I deemed them too expensive for the location. Damn it. Strike two. I hit "cancel" and tried again.

On the next go-round, two balcony seats came up that were on the lower end of the price spectrum but were still close to the front (offering a frontal view, and not the dreaded Fleet Center "behind the stage" seats). I clicked "buy now" and was suddenly $200 poorer.

Just then, my friend informed me via instant message that he'd secured two floor seats by calling on the phone. How quaint. Should he buy? Yes, yes, of course you should buy them! It's a good thing too, because online attempts are no longer finding anything more than scattered, single seats. This thing had sold out in minutes.

Now I've got kickass $250 tickets (all on credit, mind you) and a pair of balcony seats that I need to unload, just seconds after I've bought them. Do I go on Craig's List or eBay? Do I sell them for face value or try to make a little extra to cover the cost of the seats I just bought with imaginary money that I do not have and will not have to pay back? What is the legality of eBay ticket sales anyway? And do I want to be "that guy?" Scalpers suck.

But wait, there's more. A second show has been added on the following night. We must buy now while it's still early! Click! Refresh! Buy! Buy! Buy!

The Madison Square Garden presales are coming up soon and maybe we can do better there--but there's a password only given out to fanclub members who were previously signed up at paulmccartney.com. We need that password! Should we try for the Philly show? Gah!... Help, I'm drowning...


source:
http://westchesterweekly.com/gbase/M...oid=oid:110648