Instead of a 50th Anniversary victory lap, the Rolling Stones have some very expensive egg on their face as it's being reported that the band is having extreme difficulty selling tickets in the US for their current tour, and I for one couldn't be happier. Don't get me wrong, I love the Stones. I've seen them three times since 1997, and I count their '97 Rich Stadium and '99 Air Canada Centre shows as some of my all time favorite rock and roll experiences, but these latest shenanigans have only confirmed that in the end, I am a Beatles man.
Yes, when given the choice between the crass and exploitative capitalist exploits of the Stones, fueled no doubt by the London School of Economics history of Mick Jagger, and the four working class blokes from Liverpool who were the Beatles... I'm going with the Beatles. Of course if the Beatles were still with us, they'd possibly be ticket gougers too, but in the philosophically idealized vision of the Beatles I've got frolicking about Hard Days Night style in my imagination, they totally wouldn't have been. Come on now. Paul's a vegan stoner. John's a commie peacenik. George is a the equivalent of a zen spiritualist, and Ringo hails from a rather rough and tumble neighborhood called The Dingle. Those guys wouldn't have charged $200 for the cheap seats.
No, the last time I saw the Stones at the Skydome and paid $80 for seats at the other end of the stadium, I knew that was it for me. The show was OK, but really it paled in comparison to the fiery and potent Stones shows I'd seen at Rich Stadium and the ACC, and I vowed never to get soaked again. That said, when this 50th anniversary tour was announced I felt compelled to look into it... and I laughed and laughed at the audacity illustrated by the preposterous ticket pricing. Yes, the US economy has rebounded from the 2008 financial disaster, but hell, these 1% friendly prices are too much to even take seriously. Occupy THIS Mick (this being the obscene gesture I'm brandishing at my laptop as I write this).
I remember reading a Rolling Stone interview with the band back in the 90's and I recall it making hay out of the fact that LSE grad Mick is all up in the business end of the Rolling Stones business, and that Mick was a big fan of a "well turned deal" that maximizes the band's payday. Well, fear of playing to half full arenas has the band dropping prices to $85 (which is still a tad high for cheap seats in my opinion) and taking a haircut on the gross, and to this I say "you can't always get what you want." They went too far, they priced out the fans who previously gladly shelled out their hard earned money to fill all of those stadiums for all those years, and now the Stones are on the precipice of going out with a whimper.
They forgot the golden rule that "money can't buy me love, and now the Rolling Stones are paying a steep price. Oh well.
