The North American Tour & Presale for members

USA and Canada (April 1 - June 4, 2009). Special concert for fans in NYC (February 19). Concert reports, set lists, photos, media coverage, multimedia links, recollections...
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jarkko
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Re: The North American Tour & Presale for members

Post by jarkko »

Tickets at our presale are WILL CALL only, to eliminate the scalpers, but Amex presale seems indeed to be without any restrictions... I guess many scalpers may have AMEX cards...
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da2008
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Re: The North American Tour & Presale for members

Post by da2008 »

To be honest, Amex seems to have a very limited selection of seats. Scalpers would get these tickets one way or another unfortunately...
dahliaflower
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Re: The North American Tour & Presale for members

Post by dahliaflower »

I'm confused!! I REALLY want (need) to buy tickets for the L.A. show. Can someone walk me through the entire process? There seems to be different places / times / procedures for the presales???
rbourke
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Re: The North American Tour & Presale for members

Post by rbourke »

Don't be fooled by the Ticketmaster pre-sale SCAM! After following Leonard Cohen's work since the 1970's, I was thrilled to finally be able to attend a live concert - his first in 15 years! As a member of this community, I was happy to hear that we had first shot at tickets in the 'fan club pre-sale' on 2/25. I jumped on the computer and was disappointed to see that the best tickets available were near the back of the 'terrace' in the Seattle venue (code for balcony). Since no better tickets were offered in my price range of no more than 99.50 plus oodles of service charges, I debated waiting until the 26th for the American Express pre-sale, but was afraid that by then the ticket selection would be worse, or perhaps the concert would be sold out. So I bit the bullet thinking that if I found better seats on the 26th, I could sell my current ones on Craigs List. Then the double whammy hit, not only were fan club pre-sales lousy seats, but they were will-call tickets only. No option to have a physical ticket mailed. Long story short, a bird in hand etc....

Out of curiosity, I checked out the American Express pre-sale on the 26th and discovered that far better seats were readily available, (center Orchestra 15th row, $99.50), and actual tickets were available for delivery by several means.

Adding insult to injury, Ticketmaster was actually selling tickets at prices inflated far above face value on their sister web site before any pre-sales were available to anybody. It seems as if in the "war between the rich and poor," the rich and greedy are winning...

Conclusion; The Leonard Cohen community is not just disrespected, but actively being shafted. Why bother?
dipitybay
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Re: The North American Tour & Presale for members

Post by dipitybay »

I logged on to the American Express "Front of the Line" website today and it linked me to ticketmaster.ca which let me select pre-sale for the Victoria BC Canada concert on 21st April. I didn't have time to complete the purchase and then when I tried tonight it said not available and no longer even lists the concert. I guess I will have to try tomorrow when official pre-sales are available - but I notice your link to pre-sales for this forum are 7th March which is 5 days after public tickets are on sale (2nd March). Does the forum offer better seats or should I just go for the Amex ones? Confused and wanting really good seats up front.... :roll:
woolwork
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Re: The North American Tour & Presale for members

Post by woolwork »

So that is a good question... will the LC FORUM presale have a better/different block of seats available on the presale date than those available through AMEX.... and if we (the LCF) have a good relationship w/LC and the organizers - why is AMEX presale BEFORE ours? [these questions are about nyc radio city]... and speaking of NYC ... there is a site listing a concert on the 17th... what is the story with that?
your grateful servant... in flames
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j :oops:
mtravis
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Re: The North American Tour & Presale for members

Post by mtravis »

Thank you, Leonard Cohen and forum leaders, for the fan pre-sale opportunity. I was able to purchase 2 tickets at face value for an upcoming show in a town nearby to me.
blue_94_trooper
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Re: The North American Tour & Presale for members

Post by blue_94_trooper »

rbourke wrote:Don't be fooled by the Ticketmaster pre-sale SCAM!
There are a lot of things wrong with Ticketmaster but you can't blame them for the quality of tickets on a presale. The blocks of tickets made available for presales are typically determined by the artist, the venue or the promoter. As evidenced by several posters on this board, good seats were available via the presale, at least for some shows. At this point it's hard to determine who takes the blame that no good seats (by your definition, I don't know the venue) were available in your price range at the Seattle show. The fact that top seats for most shows were 250% of your desired price tag, didn't bode well for you. I question if that second set of seats you found were truly 15 rows from the stage w/ a sub-$100 face.


WRT to the Will-Call nature of the presale tickets, that is very clearly spelled out on top of the presale thread on this board and was also quite apparent in the ticket buying process.

Enjoy the show!
DJay
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Re: The North American Tour & Presale for members

Post by DJay »

This is PERFECT! He is coming to Columbia, MD. To think my fiance' and I travelled over 10,000 miles collectively to see him because we thought he would never play North America and now, here it is Mr. Cohen will be playing virtually in our backyard. THANK YOU LEONARD from the bottom our hearts and to Jarkko and all those who are making this possible. Leonard deserves this.

Jason
Walsh75
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Re: The North American Tour & Presale for members

Post by Walsh75 »

KaimiK wrote:About the VIP doubles requirement... I called the number that was listed a few days ago on the VIP page on Ticketmaster. Turns out the number was the direct number for AEG, the management company who is handling the tour. I was put through to a guy (I'll leave his name out) who was clearly irritated that common people were being routed to him and immediately forwarded me to an assistant who explained that they only sell the VIP tickets in pairs because "most" people go to concerts in pairs, and they don't want any vacant seats up front - as though that would really happen since they could re-release the seats to the rest of us clamoring for close up seats. She was very nice, but it was clear she was used to handling people to make us go away! She also said the guy I was put through to immediately made it known that their number was to be taken off the website ASAP! But, I saved it just in case - you never know when that kind of thing might be useful.

Anyway, it stinks - I'd love a single VIP ticket. I could care less about the VIP part, but to have a seat in the first few row would be glorious. And if it means not having to stand in line at will call - even better since I'll be over 6 months pregnant when I go. But, it is what it is. I have a ticket and I'm happier than Charlie with his Golden Ticket. I'll hear the Golden Voice, even if I'll only get to see him from the 23rd row.
Thanks for going through all this trouble and research on it. That was very insightful to say the least. Sorry they treated you so rude.

So it's clear that you agree with me! Why should they care if they're sold in singles or in pairs as long as they sell out! And with the economy the way it is, they probably have a better shot of people buying them for "only" $550 instead of $1,100 plus taxes and fees!

This could be a bad pattern for AEG's greed on the matter though. Back in Nov. I had front row seats to see Brian Wilson in Ann Arbor, Michigan. My uncle and I were the only two people in our side of the row!! And those front row/main floor seats only went for $89 each. He was not even close to a sell out at the Michigan Theatre and we felt bad about it. The empty spots did look sad to us as his fans.
missPDX
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Re: The North American Tour & Presale for members

Post by missPDX »


Here are the questions:
What happened to rows 1-10? They appear to be unavailable at any price.
What happened to rows 11-19 - are they all VIP?
What happened to the $250 tickets that even the Ticketmaster website listed?

We were truly expecting to pay $250 apiece and sit in the very front rows.

Even with my questions, THANK YOU for making it possible to get tickets and avoid the NY sell-out shenanigans!

David and Rebekah,
Seattle.


Same questions! Any clues to how this all works? I was on the 10 am dot too, 2 computers going, well practiced, and was expecting to pay $250 per, and instead was put in the $99 row 26. The VIP option wasn't even there; you couldn't click on it if you wanted too, it refused to highlight! What's up with that?
blue_94_trooper
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Re: The North American Tour & Presale for members

Post by blue_94_trooper »

missPDX wrote:
We were truly expecting to pay $250 apiece and sit in the very front rows.


Umm.... Is this the first time you've ever purchased tickets for a highly in-demand show?



btw - These Leonard Cohen sales are like child's play compared to the machinations required to get Radiohead tickets.
woolwork
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Re: NPR+The North American Tour & Presale for members

Post by woolwork »

NPR Broadcast ... is anyone able to download the concert? or is it only possible to listen to it on your computer? i was hoping to be able to have it on my ipod and listen to it as i moved through life...? anyone have any suggestions...
gratefully anticipating guidance
j :?
blue_94_trooper
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Re: NPR+The North American Tour & Presale for members

Post by blue_94_trooper »

woolwork wrote:NPR Broadcast ... is anyone able to download the concert? or is it only possible to listen to it on your computer? i was hoping to be able to have it on my ipod and listen to it as i moved through life...? anyone have any suggestions...
gratefully anticipating guidance
j :?
It's available as a free Podcast on the iTunes store under "NPR:Live Concerts from All Songs Considered".

There are a ton of great shows there. I highly recommend subscribing to that Podcast.
slaurinek
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Re: The North American Tour & Presale for members

Post by slaurinek »

Missed the fan club presale, but discovered there is a general presale this morning.
Do you know if it will use the same password?
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