Beating Ticketmaster

A columnist on ESPN's Page 2 wisely proclaimed that "rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for Ticketmaster." I don't think that has much to do with the rest of what I've got to say. But as long as we're on the subject, my interpretation of this statement is that both entities suck a lot. I'll concede that both entities are pretty dominant in their fields. But let's leave the Yankees out of this for the moment. It just dumped like eight feet of snow on the Bronx, and no one's thinking about baseball right now.

So while the Sox (and everyone else) think about beating the Yankees, I've been doing my best to beat Ticketmaster. And in the past week I've seen two concerts and managed to avoid paying Ticketmaster any money.

The first concert I saw was a group called Sigur Ros. They're from Iceland and they play music that I honestly don't know how to describe. But I loved the show. It was probably one of the best shows I've ever seen and I got 10th row tickets from someone scalping them for $20 -- half price.

The second show I saw was by a guy named Matisyahu. His music is much easier to describe; it's reggae. He sings about redemption and peace and all that reggae stuff. He's also a Hasidic Jew from New York. He performed with the traditional black brimmed hat and double-breasted suit and fringed shirt. So anyways, Sunday night was his Tu B'Shvat concert. (Tu B'Shvat is the Tree New Year, for all you goyim out there. If you don't know what goyim are, then you probably are one.) It was also pretty awesome. I avoided paying Ticketmaster on this one because the tickets were a birthday gift. Thanks Dan.