So, Tool have a new albumn coming out on May 2nd. They are also playing at the Paramount theater here in Seattle the same night. Tickets for this show went on sale at 10am saturday morning... 10:02am, they were sold out.

In 120 seconds, 2800 seats had been sold... legititmatly.... uhhh, no, I don't think so.

Even if we remove seats that are dedicated to band/promotions/all that other stuff. Lets assume 800 seats. Leaving 2000 seats available to the general public (this is an assumption, I don't know real figures here). That means that 16.67 seats PER SECOND were being sold (even assuming 2 seats purchsed per transaction, thats 8 txns per second). Again, uhhhh, no, I don't think so.

What makes things even WORSE, is that tickets are now available on ebay for US$700+. Ontop of this, some of these auctions were set up BEFORE the tickets went on sale. How the hell do the sellers know they are going to get the tickets for certain ?

Sure, I can think of technical solutions to this problem. Automated programs to try and buy tickets for me (don't even bother mentioning that crappy 'what word is this' solution, that can be defeated algorithmically). A program, combined with a botnet, would allow you to have 1000's of clients trying to buy tickets all at the same time. This might work (I have just started thinking about this, so I am sure there will some sort of flaw/larger problem that I would need to work around).

I think the human factor is more likely here however. Unethical people selling tickets to friends/for profit, before the tickets officially go on sale.

Either way, the ticketmaster system needs to be overhauled. The current system is flawed, and unfair to the genuine fans who just want to buy a ticket at face value and support a band they enjoy.

And no, I did not get a ticket. I am hopefull that Tool will return for a stadium show where I have more chance of getting a ticket.

Until then, the new single is great, and I am really looking forward to the CD.

Oh, and I am seeing the Yeah Yeah Yeah's tomorrow night, so that will offset some of the pain :-)