My sister's friend Sue, from Humboldt County, arrived around 11 last night, bursting with reports on the Springsteen concert in San Jose as well as all sorts of ticket strategies and concert going protocol. Laura had told me that Sue had bought several tickets for the Los Angeles concert, and she had told her that I might be interested in one. Indeed, I was. I'd first seen Springsteen in Harvard Square, in 1974 opening for Bonnie Raitt, and then again at the Sports Arena, perhaps 30 years ago. I knew nothing of current ticket customs, but in a bit of fore-shadowing, I'd watched Springsteen's speech at South by Southwest, while cooking weeks ago, and had begun to long for another concert. I was happy to buy one of Sue's tickets, and she was delighted to drive me to the concert, so we were set. After finding a perfect parking place on Horizon, we mapped out our agenda for today--and pretty much stuck to it--noon yoga, lunch, then to the Sports Arena. She now had six tickets for the concert. In addition to the original four she'd bought in her initial ticket buying frenzy, she'd purchased two General Admission tickets the day before.
General Admission(GA) tickets, I've just learned, are for the floor of the arena--no seats, but there is an elaborate system, varying from venue to venue (I think) to get a spot close to the stage. I don't know if this is for all concerts or only for Springsteen, but here's what had to be done in the attempt to get close to the stage.
Starting at one in the afternoon, the day of the concert, numbered wristbands are distributed to anyone who shows up with a GA ticket. Once you get your wristband, you are arranged in lines, divided by metal pipings, a bit like the classic Disneyland winding line format. At 5:30. there is a lottery to choose which number wristband gets in first. That is, there is no advantage to getting there early. You could be #3, but if #223 is chosen, you would not be one of the first 500 to get in. We therefore made no plans to be the first on line. Unfortunately, our calculations were a bit off.
We went to yoga, then made a grand salad for lunch--organic spinach with blueberries and almonds from 99¢ store with organic roasted golden beets, potatoes, and chicken (optional) for post yoga lunch.
When we arrived at the Sports Arena around four--congratulating ourselves for finding on-street parking--thus saving the $25 and $40 parking fees at lots--we learned that all wristbands had already been distributed (the four pm arrival had worked for Sue in San Jose, but that was a different story). We would not be in the lottery to get into the pit. So be it. In any case, Sue still had four tickets to sell, so we spent many hours hovering around the ticket booth, with the scalpers, random people with extra tickets, devoted fans hoping to get a better seat than the one they'd already purchased. All, in all, a full-time hustling crowd. With great foresight, Sue had packed up our lunch leftovers of seasoned baked potatoes, sweet and white with curried chick peas, so we had some fortification--but needless to say, we were more than ready for the show, which was indeed incredible.
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