Aide-mémoire

Scissor Sisters and the Power of the Internets

19 March, 2010 at 1:20 pm (Concert, Music, Strange Stuff, Uncategorized)

Where to begin?

On March 1st, tickets went on sale to see the Scissor Sisters in concert. This was great for a few reasons:

– They haven’t been on tour in nearly three years
– They haven’t had a new album in 3 1/2 years, but finally have one coming soon
– They would inevitably be playing some of the new tunes at this show
– The show was at a super-intimate venue, the Bowery Ballroom. Capacity 550.

So they were performing two shows: one on Wednesday, March 17; one on Thursday, March 18. I decided to buy tickets for the show on Thursday. My sister doesn’t have class on Fridays so she’d be able to come up and go, and I usually work from home on Fridays so it wouldn’t be a big deal if Thursday turned into a late night. So, done and done. I am incredibly detail-oriented when it comes to these things: I marked the date on the calendars in my phone and on my work computer. I even joked with a friend in Tulsa about coming to NYC on March 18 to go to the show with me.

So on the morning of Thursday the 18th, I check my email – and I have an email from Ticketmaster asking me to review the show I attended on Wednesday, March 17. The first time I read it, I was confused – and then the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach came in. No. Nonononononono. This could not be happening. But it was.

I had purchased the tickets for Wednesday, March 17

I checked the email confirmation and sure enough: March 17. I don’t know how I missed that incredibly important detail; I double- and triple-check these things. I can’t even count how many times I verify a day/time before I buy a plane ticket. But somehow, I totally missed this.

So – yeah. Disappointment? Hardly describes it. I had missed a show I was VERY excited about, and also let my sister down. Score. I called the box office to see if they’d let me exchange the tickets for a show on Thursday, or at least give me a refund. No on both counts. So not only did I miss the show, I’m out $70. (I could hardly have Rachel repay $35 for a show she missed by no fault of her own).

So I had one last resort: Twitter. I follow both @scissorsisters (the band account) and @JakeShears (the lead singer) on Twitter; that’s how I found out about the concert to begin with. So, I tweeted them both. Several times. “Hey @ScissorSisters – I bought a ticket for last night’s show, but thought I bought for tonight. So I missed it!! HELP!!” I wanted to give my comment a chance of being seen, so I think I sent it to each of them 4 times through out the day, once every two hours or so. Poor Jake Shears was being twitter-stalked by yours truly. I didn’t think there was a much of a chance of it paying off; I checked my “mentions” in Twitter several times throughout the day, and nothing.

So last night, I had a couple of consolatory drinks with coworkers after I left the office, then went to Robert & Kevin’s for a short bit. I was about to leave, it was 9:15, when I checked my twitterfeed one last time. And saw this:

@adayinthelyfe I’ll put you on plus one.

From Mr. Jake Shears himself.

Holyfuckingshit.

He’d sent the tweet at 8:20; the doors to the show opened at 8, a DJ went on at 9:00, and then Scissor Sisters go on at 10. So I had 40 minutes to make it from the Upper West Side to the Lower East Side. Challenging, to say the least. But I jumped in a cab and went. The cab driver made excellent time; I got to the venue at 10:01. I talked to the guest-list guy at the door and he couldn’t find me on the list under my twitter name. Yup, that’s right. But I figured I’d come this far: I wouldn’t be deterred. So I was nice, told him thanks, and then stood over to the side, trying to figure out what to do. I tweeted Jake Shears again (poor guy, he must’ve been so sick of seeing my name pop up on his list), and as I’m sending the tweet – I hear the Scissor Sisters start playing their first song on stage. So that won’t work. It then dawned on me: my full name shows up on Twitter. So, Jake may have added me to his list with my actual name, not my twitter handle. Duh. Right before I could go over and ask the guy to check – he tapped me on the shoulder. Seems someone else on the list hadn’t brought their plus one, and he took pity on me, so he let me in anyway. Long story short (too late!): through the kindness of a rock star, a door guy, and a random stranger – I got into the show.

And how was the show? Amazing. Fantastic. The energy was incredible, they played lots of dance-y stuff. It wasn’t a long show (less than 90 minutes), but they played a mix of old songs and new. And I have to say: assuming the new music they played is all on their upcoming album, the album will be a good one. Can’t wait to buy it.

So that was my day! It was crazy, and stressful, and amazing. And the moral of this story?

1. Never underestimate the power of social networking
2. ALWAYS DOUBLE-CHECK DATES ON TICKETS.

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