(Toronto) For a great concert review, go HERE (Chromewaves). For my story of how poorly I feel the admittance policy was organized, keep reading.
So I went to the first tapping of this seasons Beautiful Noise concert series which will air on Sun TV later this year. I sent Beautiful Noise an email indicating that I wanted to attend the My Morning Jacket episode and I was later informed that I could attend and to show up at the Berkeley Church between 6:45 and 8:00. I did just that.
I showed up at the Berkeley Church at 7:30 and was told that the doors don’t open at until 8:30. OK, minor set back. I can deal with this.
I returned to the church at 8:45 and there was a line of about 150 people outside. Because everybody in line was on ‘the list’, every person had to be checked off ‘the list’ before they are allowed entry. As we got closer to the front of the line I noticed the doors starting to close and that nobody was being let in anymore. I then overheard the girl with ‘the list’ tell us that they were at capacity and that nobody else can go in. She told this to the 40 of us standing outside the front door, who are all ‘on the list’. Surprisingly, nobody responded to this news. We all just stood around like hungry dogs waiting for some scrap of food to drop from the table.
We were fed the typical line of “Hey its not my fault so don’t yell at me”, by the poor girl left to face the disappointed music fans. The girl who had made ‘the list’ stayed inside. Then I heard her mutter to the people at the front of the line “Hey, it’s a free show”, as if to imply that this is what we get for coming to a free show and that this is what we should expect.
Wrong. This is when my mood changed.
Everybody stuck outside had a legitimate reason to be there. We all had followed the rules, sent the email, and received confirmation back that we were to show up at the designated time for the show. What if somebody had taken the night off work to attend? What if a couple had to pay a babysitter so that they could have an evening out? What if a couple drove down from Ottawa? (as a rejected couple actually had). The organizers know the size of the venue and they know how many people they had invited. Do the math.
In this situation, who is doing who a favour? I don’t see this as Sun providing a free show to music fans, I see it as music fans showing up to fill a venue to help a major media outlet. Beautiful Noise airs on TV with a full audience in attendance and Sun makes money from ad revenue. Those in the audience are essentially making money for the station by filling the venue. If you go to other TV show tapings around the city, you are treated as a vital part of the broadcast and very much appreciated and treated as such. I did not feel this appreciation standing in the drizzle outside the Berkeley Church. To make things worse, some guy (I can only presume another Beautiful Noise staffer) came out and jokingly yelled to the 40 of us standing at the base of the church steps “$100 bucks to get in…ha ha ha”. Not funny jackass.
In the end it was a poor security guard, not a Beautiful Noise staffer who kept the people informed and saved the day. This security guard stepped out and told us that they might be able to fit some more people in once My Morning Jacket started playing. This is what ended up happening. Once My Morning Jacket finished their first song, the security guard came out and started counting off how many more heads the venue could fit. Once he hit his quota, there were only 9 more of us standing there looking back at him, so he let the rest of us in. Too bad about 20 people who had initially been told that they couldn’t fit any more had already left and missed the show.
This is the third season for this concert series. I would expect that they would have had handled the situation better.
Once we got in we were treated to awesome show. As for the organization and implementation of the admittance policy, I hope that it gets better for the remaining shows. I won’t be attending the Stars/Islands show this Saturday evening even though my name on ‘the list’. If you are going, be sure to go early.
