The Upstate Life

Monday, January 29, 2007

Observations from the Sufjan Stevens Ticket Giveaway

First off, to the parents that brought their no older than six month-old baby out in the frigid temperatures who were standing in line at least an hour earlier than us (which was at 7:30am), TUL would like to take the time to applaud your excellent parenting skills. You brought a fucking baby to this??? I should've called Child Services on your ass. Seriously, who brings an infant to a ticket giveaway when it's fucking 20 degrees outside, especially when the parents lined up hours before the tickets were handed out? You know one of you two could've stayed home to watch the baby so that he could sleep in a heated home rather than loudly cry because the poor kid is fucking freezing. That was just a disgrace and made The Upstate Life aware that, yes, dumb people do exist.

Then again, I guess you could include us as one of those fellow dummies since arriving an hour and a half before tickets were given away was far too late from the realistic possibly of actually obtaining a seat to Mr. Stevens' hour long performance on February 5. I honestly couldn't believe people actually camped out for this shit. There was something a bit more satisfying about staying in watching Veronica Mars Season 2 on DVD than sleeping in a tent on the Kennedy Center sidewalk on a Friday night for free Sufjan Stevens tickets, but that's just us I guess.

Anyway, when we arrived that morning and were greeted by the more than 1000 people already in line, hope was basically given up despite the fact numbers of others started lining up behind us. One thing I found rather amusing was that some of the people dressed up as if they were actually going to the concert. We thought, "What is this, a fucking fashion show?" I noticed that some girls actually did their makeup and threw on those stupid leggings with the jean skirts that look, how do you say, retarded? Maybe they thought Mr. Sufjan was taking the stage at 10am that morning? TUL, on the other hand, kind of rolled out of bed, threw on a hoodie and a jacket, and brought those gloves that you can breathe into. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to find our favorite band tee and accompanying pins.

At around 9:30, the security dudes informed everyone still in line (which had to be 75% of the crowd) that the event was sold-out. Of course, eBay postings were up in a matter of minutes as well as insane Craigslist classifieds from people selling tickets for hundreds of dollars. Of course, given the fans I witnessed that morning it's only a matter of time before some sucker buys them. Oh, and to another mom we saw that morning - not only did you bring your three young children with you, but you also wore flip flops? FLIP FLOPS???

Posted by Brett at 1:27 PM |