scalping

i've been following the lefsetz letter recently. for those of you who don't know what it is, it's a blog run by a prominent music attorney who rants about different aspects of the music industry. lately he's been harping on some shady-ness in the industry with major artists, live nation and ticketmaster. i'll try to make this explanation short and sweet. big artists work with ticketmaster to essentially scalp their own tickets through various tactics. these same artists turn around and blame ticketmaster for screwing over the little guy and selling tickets to ticket brokers. yes, blatant hypocrisy aside, nobody talks about the principle of scalping tickets.



scalping tickets is assumed by everyone to be universally evil. those who scalp are back alley scum who are on par with lechers and fraudsters. it was a college economics teacher who made an offhand remark about scalping as part of an economics lesson that got me thinking about this years ago. so i ask, What Is Wrong With Scalping??

the basis of free market exchange is that a transaction between two individuals is based on mutual decision. when you buy a cheeseburger you are making a choice that the cheeseburger is of enough value that you gladly give up your money. some people are willing to pay less or more for that cheeseburger, but unfortunately, there's no way for mcdonalds to evaluate each customers' valuation of their product. so if you absolutely LOVE cheeseburgers, then paying $1 for one as mcdonalds is probably a great deal to you. let's say you loved them soooooo much that you were willing to pay $100 for each cheeseburger. now i know that nobody is that stupid, but just humor me for a second. if that were true, then mcdonalds is missing out by only charging $1. if mcdonalds did charge $100, would that be price gouging? well, if you were willing to pay that much, isn't it your choice? if mcdonalds were able to to charge based on each customer's valuation, then each transaction would be as efficient as possible.

i've always seen ticket scalping as a free and open exchange that allows the promoters to maximize the efficiency of their transactions. if U2 plays a concert, some people are willing to pay $80 a ticket (or whatever the heck they're charging now). some people are willing to pay a whole lot more. now some people think this is wrong because the big bad promoter is muscling in for a better deal. but what's wrong with that? why is it ok for the consumer to clip coupons, make low-ball offers and buy open box items to save money but it's not ok for someone at the other end to do the same? in the end, all transactions are voluntary. no one is forcing you to buy a ticket to a concert.

now let's imagine that at a venue in addition to the ticket windows they also have staff scalpers who sell last minute tickets all the way up to the show. empty seats to a concert are an inefficiency. let's say a promoter books a show that is a failure. if he were able to scalp the last minute tickets at a bargain price, he's be able to hedge his losses and also make a better show by getting people in the seats. and that's really the end game. when the seats are filled EVERYONE wins.

if a promoter hires a headliner, they frequently have very little room to make a profit. frankly i'm not sure why anyone would want to take such a huge financial risk with such a small promise of a reward. why is it that if a show fails, the artist still gets a guarantee, yet if the show does well, the promoter frequently has to split the backend profit with the act? if a promoter does a good job and stirs up enough demand that fans are willing to pay well beyond the ticket price for a limited amount of seats, shouldn't he be free to reap the rewards of his hard work? if he were able to do this, the act would still get a piece of the backend profit the promoter would get a profit large enough to balance out the huge risk he's taking.

now imagine this. think of a world where last minute scalping was perfectly normal, legal and acceptable. i think there would be a large portion of the population who don't normally go to concerts would start showing up for last minute deals. lesser known bands who need to fill seats would find it easily to build a following. promoters would have an easier time getting people in the seats, and the extra profits made from the big shows would trickle down throughout the whole industry.

for years the venues and promoters have demonized scalping because of one thing - they don't get the money. but now that they've figured out a way to do it, they're all for it. and think about this, if a venue scalped it's own ticket, it would cut out the middle man ticket brokers which would actually decrease the demand for tickets and there give lower scalped prices than we have now. how's an example. let's say that 90 fans legitimately want tickets to a show. because of that demand, there are 10 ticket broker who only buy tickets with the intention to resell at a higher rate. if the venue was able to scalp themselves the day of the show and cut out the middle men, this would cut the demand for tickets by 10 pecent and thus the actual price that those 90 people end up paying is actually LOWER than it would be through ticket brokers.

anyway, it's just a thought. i could be wrong....but i think i'm right.

too much time on a bus

i just spent all day on a moving bus. and by all day, i mean i went to sleep and woke up on a moving bus and got home at midnight. thank god for bus internet and satellite tv.
here's a few things i learned today:

1. Lionel Richie is/was AMAZING, but the 80's were soooooo corny



I've watched this video a hundred times just to relive the creepiness. i'm totally stealing this expression - it's like when you blow your nose, it's disgusting, but you just have to look.

also, the girl in the video, Laura Carrington, wasn't actually blind. yes, i searched the interweb to find that out. i know a faker when i see one.

2. This would totally have fooled me when i was a kid.



underneath that manhole is a creepy old man.

3. You can make anything out of gaff tape.



i wish i could supply a story from the bus about a certain sculpture that was made out of gaff tape, but i try to keep this blog fairly clean. and also the assault charges are still pending so my lawyer says to keep my mouth shut. for those of you without a sense of humor, that was a joke.

only three things? i spent all day on a bus and i only have three things to share? even i'm disappointed in myself. let's just shut this blog down before it gets any worse.

Show Cancelled in North Platte, NE

our show tonight was canceled in North Platte, NE. it's pretty ridiculous. i can't really give details, but let's just say that we didn't make the decision and we fought hard to keep the show going even if it meant us borrowing acoustic guitars and no sound or lights. we realize that there was a lot of hard work put into the show by local churches and volunteers and we fought hard to stay, but to no avail. we'll find a way to make this up to you.

Kallispel, MT

first off, a point must be made that the new Michael Jackson movie is AWESOME. clay allen hates it but he doesn't like anything that doesn't have EMG's or James Hetfield in it. (haha sorry clay). seriously, it sucks that Michael died, but if he would have lived this movie wouldn't have been nearly as good. the fact that they had a multiple-camera crew filming at all times means that they had planned to do a tour video anyway - probably in conjunction with a live DVD or something. what's cool is that you really get to see a lot of behind the scenes stuff. you get to see michael being a bit of a diva and small conflicts between him and the crew that probably wouldn't have made the cut if he were alive to give his ok to the footage. it's also incredibly interesting to see how such a large production is pulled off. we usually only see the phenomenal finished product. it's hard to conceptualize how each element of the show - band, lights, dancers, pyro, etc. - are all small elements of the bigger picture. each thing by itself seems fathomable. but it's the compilation of every facet that contributes to the awe and spectacle that is a big arena show. and i think the lesson to be learned is that ANYTHING can be done if you break it down into attainable steps.

tonight we played in Kallispel, Montana. First of all, driving in this morning was amazing. as remote as this place is, the view seems worth it. how fitting that after dreaming about catching huge fish do i wake up to a gorgeous river just begging me to go fly fishing. A lot of people came out to the show and it turned out pretty cool. here's a shot of the crowd from when we played the FM Static set.



As you can see, it was held in a dirt floor rodeo arena which was cool, except that there was dust kicked up everywhere and my allergies didn't really like that. the people were awesome though. in the signing line we met a guy who identified himself as "Heavy" who is a former WWE wrestler who now runs a high school assembly ministry where he does feats of strength and spreads the word to kids. he seemed like a great guy so i thought i'd give him a plug. go check out his website at http://www.WalkingWithPower.org. Here a shot of him hanging out with us.



ya. that's what a 22" neck looks like.

So anyway, we've got two shows left on the tour. it's gone by so fast, but i gotta be honest. i'm anxious to get home. i'll be out on the road with tricia for the last week of her tour so if you're near one of the superchick atlanta and florida shows, come out and say hi.

Fire It Up Music Video

yesterday we had a day off in San Francisco and we used the day to shoot a music video for Fire It Up. the video has to do with a car chase and us playing on a moving flatbed truck. I won't spoil the video for you and tell you what happens. noooo, why would i ever do that? instead i'm going to just show you all the behind the scenes camera tricks. here's a shot of us getting setup.



Steve's kit was strapped down and screwed into the truck. behind him is a generator and a couple loudspeakers so that we can play along with the CD while we're filming. trev's metal spine mic stand had to be screwed down partly to keep it from falling and partly to give trev something to hold onto.



before we started moving, the driver freaked out and wanted us all to sign a hastily written contract that said he wouldn't be responsible if we fell off and got hurt. kinda freaky for a sec, but we all signed it anyway. (as if that thing would hold up in court anway hahah).



Here you can see Adam, one of the directors and the bay bridge in the background. we were actually on a small island called Treasure Island that used to be a Navy base. right next to us was a shoot for the ABC medical drama Trauma. Coincidentally, Tricia's band Superchick had their song "Breathe" used in some of the promos for that show. Notice our tour manager Clay Allen in the white hat strapping down steve's drumset. more on clay later...



i was really surprised to see what they were shooting with. 3 of the 4 camera's were the new Canon 5D. these are regular digital SLR photography cameras, but they're able to shoot HD video. Along with an assortment of different lenses, the clips i saw actually looked pretty good. they also had the RED camera that Max Hsu (http://homepage.mac.com/maxwax11/iblog/) used on the new superchick video. wow, that's two superchick references in one blog. that's for you babe.



Although we did plenty of moving shots of us on the flatbed truck, we had to cheat a little and get some closeups while we were stopped. here you see trev singing with a guy with a leaf blower pointed at his head to give the appearance of wind.



this is the same shot, just panned to the right. again, we see our amazing road manager clay helping rock the truck to give it the appearance of movement. that's the big guy for ya. if this truck is a-rockin', the big guy is a-knockin'.



And finally here is a shot of the '65 Mustang Fastback that is gonna be in the video. he tried not to show it, but i could tell that steve was salivating over it and was trying to figure out a way to get them to let him take it for a spin. also of note was an instance of a seagull flying overhead and pooping on me. NOT FUN.

i think the video is gonna look pretty sweet. once it's edited and done i'll be sure to post it here. the rest of the day was spent walking around San Francisco, eating at a nice restaurant and then finding out our rental car had been broken into while we were eating at said restaurant. clay and i spent the next half hour questioning random homeless people and searching for a "short guy who steals things" at a nearby shell station. so ya, basically a really crazy day. you stay classy San Francisco.

this is getting ridiculous

new york state declared a state of emergency because of 75 cases (in the entire state) of swine flu. seriously? someone look me in the eye and tell me that this is a rational decision. i'm no conspiracy theory nut, but good lord, i can use my brain and maybe a quick google search to realize that you're more likely to die from the regular flu than the swine flu.


we're all gonna die because of this guy

really? seriously america? i thought you were smarter than this. i mean, don't get me wrong, i love me some good old fashioned hysteria as much as the next guy, but this is getting out of hand. i see people wearing masks at airports like we're in freaking japan a couple years ago when SARS was a big deal. remember that pandemic? oh wait. it never happened. out of the entire 6 billion people in the world a grand total of a few hundred actually died.


at least he's having fun with it

oh, and remember the bird flu scare? ya. i'd rest my case but the jury doesn't seem to be able to connect the dots on the obvious. B. Reith got the swine flu and had to miss the show tonight. did we hold a prayer vigil? NOPE. does that mean we're bad christians or we don't care about him? ABSOLUTELY NOT. we didn't because it's not a big deal. i'm fighting off a sore throat right now but you don't see calling my church board to lay hands on me or running the nearest faith healer. i'm going to get a lot of sleep and make sure i dress appropriately for the cold. DONE.

is america really this stupid? NO. but we are being easily duped. the long form answer to that question is hidden in the motivations of the modern day town criers we call network news. news channels' ratings skyrocket when something big happens. on 9/11 we ALL were watching news networks. but the problem is that big stuff doesn't happen all the time. so what do they do to keep ratings up and the paychecks coming? they take little things and make them into big things. or at least they seem that way. watch any of them for an hour and ask yourself if those "BREAKING NEWS" graphics and sound effects are really warranted when all they are doing is spreading the latest celebrity gossip. we were all afraid on 9/11. fear sells. so it's in their best interest for everything to be outrageous and scary. it's not a conspiracy originating from the top down. they don't have secret illuminati meetings about how to control the population. it just happens the same way that a person's dinner bill goes up when someone else is paying. and so that's how a minimal, yet legit, scare about the swine flu becomes a mass pandemic on par with some sort of will smith zombie movie. and then the politicians jump in because it's an opportunity for them to appear as if they're helping the public when in reality emergency status for a state is basically a ploy to get disaster funds. better to be doing something wrong than nothing at all, right?



the answer? don't let them fool you. take everything they say with a grain of salt. i was once told that nothing on TV is 100% real and i'm really starting to believe it. use your head. rant rant rant rant robble robble robble robble.

we ain't got no place to go...

it's funny how you can slowly get desensitized. how your view can change without even knowing it. lately my mind has been thinking a lot lately about bands that cannot reproduce their record live. so much music, especially music that i listen to, doesn't sound anything like the record when i go see the band live. and beyond that, it's starting to feel like everything is written for the radio. everyone is writing perfect structure pop songs no matter what style they are. nobody is taking chances.



yesterday we played a show with MxPx. this took me all the way back to when i was in high school and was so pumped to go to cornerstone festival for the first time. sitting side stage watching them, i realized something. i know their music isn't a long stretch from what is being put out today, but there is something that we've lost in these few short years. for one, a lot of bands just flat out don't sound good unless they have a great mix. these guys have three instruments. if one is a little too loud, it doesn't make that much of a difference. the energy is still there. the music sounds great whether you're in a small club or big stage. sometimes the songs were ridiculously short. sometimes the second verse had nothing to do with the first. the guys don't need huge pedalboards and crazy effects. they were even taking requests and pulling out all the good stuff. no tracks. no meticulously programmed effects. no video walls or moving lights. and ya know what? it was a fun show. mike herrera wrote some great little punk songs and the music speaks for itself.

just because technology lets everyone be a recording musician, it doesn't mean that it's all good. actually, i'm starting to think that the amount of good stuff has stayed the same and that we've just increased the background noise.

that's my rant for the day. oh, and also, i saw this at the airport. i couldn't believe it. i grabbed my phone, acted like i was checking messages and clicked a picture. i'm not trying to be obscene or anything. this is just some straight up freak show sort of thing.


either those are really high knees, or.....

anyway, we're doing a west coast run of shows starting on thursday and i'm pretty excited about that. for now i'm enjoying the few days off with my wife and dogs.