America's favorite old man/recording artist Bob Dylan tried to stick it to the man this past Wednesday night at San Francisco's Warfield Theater.
The 69-year-old folk legend decided he was going to rebel against Ticketmaster and surplus ticket charges and nix issuing tickets to his show altogether.
It's a noble experiment in a town in San Francisco that's more than up to it, yet Wednesday night at the Warfield fell flat on its face.
Why did Dylan's ticketless gamble ultimately fail? For starters, the 2,250 capacity Warfield Theatre was visibly undersold -- perhaps due to the fact it was the middle of a rather slow week. Admittance to the show was $60 cash -- a fee many concert-goers were more than willing to pay.
After all, Bob Dylan is an icon, and $60 is more than reasonable to see Bob Dylan at a somewhat intimate venue, especially a venue he hasn't played in over 20 years. However, that $60 didn't guarantee fans admittance to the show -- they still had to arrive somewhat early (doors were at 5:30 pm) in the hopes of gaining admittance to the show. There were absolutely no paper tickets -- no tokens of guaranteed admittance -- issued for this show.
Now, not every single one of Bob Dylan's fans have grandchildren, but its safe to say that a good amount of them -- especially the ones that pay to see him live -- do. Those same fans aren't really in the mood for some sort of experiment/gamble when it comes to seeing Bob Dylan live. They want to pick out their seats beforehand and take the time to go to the selected venue -- which could take a couple of hours, in certain instances -- knowing that they have guaranteed admittance.
- Local
- Community
- Journalism
Support the independent voice of Phoenix and help keep the future of New Times free.
Keep Phoenix New Times Free... Since we started Phoenix New Times, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Phoenix, and we would like to keep it that way. Offering our readers free access to incisive coverage of local news, food and culture. Producing stories on everything from political scandals to the hottest new bands, with gutsy reporting, stylish writing, and staffers who've won everything from the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi feature-writing award to the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. But with local journalism's existence under siege and advertising revenue setbacks having a larger impact, it is important now more than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" membership program, allowing us to keep covering Phoenix with no paywalls.
