I miss it so much 😭

My 1st concert was Cypress Hill in the 90s.. Won the tickets from the radio.. So much weed smoke we couldnt even see em from the front row.. My 2nd concert was Bone Thugs n Harmony waited 14 hours in the snow for front row tickets.. My 3rd concert was Biggie n Diddy n Mace got em free from friend who got grounded and couldnt go.. 4th concert was Busta Rymes n Foxy brown(she came out on a bed) that we got from MTV as a promotion.. We got tickets how ever we could..

I ended up with a girlfriend waiting in line for Pink Floyd in ‘88.

Same this with midnight videogame releases. We waited in line once upon a time.

@CFHeather I really miss ticket stubs, too! Was looking for some old 90s rock show stubs and found these instead. Physical tickets were sometimes even beautiful.

🤘😆🤘

I remember when they first opened up phone line systems to order tickets. Staying on hold for hours so I didn’t lose my place in the queue

Scalping was illegal until a corpo could do it.

Back when we had a ticket seller mascot

Some of fondest memories as a teenager were hanging out with people I never met before all waiting in line starting the afternoon the day before they went on sale. It was like urban camping. No one was there to resell their tickets. Just avid fans of the bands. Not my actual ticket but I did attend this concert in the 3rd row center stage and look at the price. The best seats could be bought with 3 hours of a minimum wage job back then.

When Ticketmaster 1st started it was great to wait in line for tickets! Then the internet FUCKED EVERYTHING UP!!!

So basically the poor people would get the best seats because they didn’t have a job and could just go wait in line. Perfect that’s exactly how it should be.

That was the best of times. And, I paid $8 to see Led Zeppelin in the 70's.

Plus you got a actual ticket The ticket stubs were proof of bragging rights and dated so you could look through them and reflect

Also, I remember the hack of going to a grocery store that was a Ticketmaster outlet located in a neighborhood with lots of seniors… I got great seats to Alanis’s first Jagged Little Pill tour that way!

I miss these days in a lot of ways. I get why it's convenient online but capitalism is capitalism. I'd rather deal with the inconvenience of a line than ticketmaster

the good ol’ days 🖤

I learned a good trick early on. Ticketmasters computers were regionally linked. For a big show in Kansas City the phone lines were super busy when the tix went on sale. It would take hours to get through. I would call Ticketmaster in Omaha and get through instantly.

Gentleman in the photo is a living homage to ZZ Top. A GenXer after my own heart.

I’m from the era of festival seating the time you got your tickets didn’t matter. It’s what time you were at the door. Your seat/front was how fast you got there

We used to buy them in record stores. I distinctly remember the clerk behind the counter printing extra tickets. You asked for 2, he printed 4 and put 2 in the drawer. I figured he was scooping up extra tickets for his friends.

@ImStretchStacks I love concerts & miss when tix were priced like this. Now it’s like $500 a pop plus all these random fees for nosebleed seats. And don’t even attempt to buy a decent seat. Thats upwards of $800+ per tix. Everything sucks now 😒

This is partly why millennials and GenZ are fucking retards today. They missed the Hunter lifestyle from 30 years ago and only lead the Gatherer mentality of today.

It makes the show better too. wtf stupid ass labels and ticket master crap.

I went downtown after work, found a parking spot, walked four or five blocks to the Fillmore box office, and bought those Moody Blues tickets.

I remember exactly what he's talking about. It was part of the experience. And you'd see the same people when those bands came back around every 2-3 years too.

I waited overnight to get tix to see Genesis at the Forum in LA in ‘86. It was a fun night and an amazing concert. I was underage and now can’t believe I was allowed to do that, but it was a different time.

I saw Prince’s Purple Rain Tour in 1985 and we had a friend who worked at the record store. We gave him our money and he got our seats before they let everyone in. Sat in the 7th row.

At what point did scalping become reselling an a totally legit business? I remember the scalpers trying to make deals really quick and running off when the cops would come around.

Camped outside a record store in the freezing cold to see Motley Crue. Almost two days camped out to see Monsters of Rock- great times, passing joints up and down the line-concealing your beer- meeting new friends along the way everyone pretty much got along . Phenomenal times

Smart bands and promoters may go back to doing that for the smaller bands, now with AI and botfarms just obliterating the grassroots market. If you got a niche cult-following, going back to these kinds of sales may be beneficial for longevity of a band's brand.

Yup....I was at the state fair and the show was sold out. I went up to the ticket booth on the off chance they opened some seats. I asked and the ticket lady said yes! We just opened 50 seats in the front row. I about fell over. Needless to say, I and my wife got to see Heart & ZZ Top with front row seats. Best concert we ever went to.

I went to Macy’s but it was called Hudson’s back then and you had to skip class so you had to get back home before your parents so they didn’t get the answering machine message from the attendance office at school. It’s was stressful!