Tickets to the Slim Cessna’s Auto Club’s New Year’s Eve show at the Bluebird Theater are among those going at basement prices. Reverb file photo by .
It’s not that promoters are giving away concert tickets. Rather they’re trying to sell them at bargain rates — so they don’t have to give them away/paper their houses.
Reverb just got an email from the folks at AEG Live today, and they’re spreading the word about a couple bargain holiday shows. The first 50 tickets to Slim Cessna’s Auto Club’s upcoming holiday shows (with Paper Bird on Dec. 30 and Munly and the Lupercalians on Dec. 31) are on sale now at ticketmaster.com for $10. A couple Halloween shows are also on sale — including Nashville Pussy at the Bluebird Theater (first 150 tickets are on sale for $5 at Ticketmaster) and Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit at the Larimer Lounge (first 50 tickets for $10 via bigmarkstickets.com).
“I just want to make sure they sell out,” said Scott Campbell, owner of the Larimer Lounge and talent buyer at the Bluebird. “With the economy and the way things are right now, and with these being special events, it feels right to offer these special prices.”
Campbell also noted that tickets to Sept. 25’s Ida Maria/Ladyhawke/Semi Precious Weapons show (billed as the Perez Hilton Tour) are on sale from from $29 to $13.65 with the password: student.
Obviously, it benefits a promoter to get warm bodies into a club, and bellied up to the bar. And that’s the thought behind many of these promotions — including Live Nation’s much-hyped Club Passport, announced earlier today. The idea: Fans purchase a Club Passport for $49.99, and that allows them into shows at certain rock shows at certain rock venues — in Denver, the Live Nation-owned Fillmore Auditorium — through the end of the year.
The shows included in the Denver offer are: B-52s on Sept. 29, Clutch on Sept. 30, Insane Clown Posse on Oct. 2, Dethklok/Mastodon on Oct. 10, the Used on Oct. 11, Dark Star Orchestra on Oct. 16, Lotus on Oct. 17, All That Remains on Oct. 23, Matisyahu on Oct. 27, Five Finger Death Punch on Oct. 28, Chevelle on Nov. 5 and Regina Spektor on Nov. 7.
(Note that most of the shows on the Fillmore’s calendar — including the Pixies, the Black Crowes, Kevin Smith, Dashboard Confessional, Rob Zombie, Snow Patrol, Paramore and others — aren’t listed as Passport-available shows. The promoter has said it will add more shows throughout the year, and they’re smart to do it. If Dashboard doesn’t sell, throw it on the Passport and see what happens.)
If you happened to be into all those bands, what a deal! But really the deal is only a steal for people planning to go to at least two or three shows — a.k.a. dudes with the music taste of a 17-year-old boy. (METAL!) Decide for yourself, but Live Nation claims that its average ticket prices, for club shows, are $36 — and that includes fees. For more information on the deal, see the promoter’s .
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Ricardo Baca is the founder and co-editor of and an award-winning critic and journalist at The Denver Post. He is also the executive director of the , Colorado’s premier indie music festival. Follow his whimsies at , his live music habit at and his iTunes addictions at .
