Scissor Sisters and the Power of the Internets
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.
Fire Island…
is where I am this week. So no posts, really, but I’ll have one once I’m back in Manhattan!
In the meantime…
Supplying Slang for the Next Generation
Jeff Snodgrass and I have been published! Well, sort-of…we have a definition in Urban Dictionary. Technically, Jeff came up with the word and definition; I just supplied the example. But since I want to get this in wide circulation, I decided to post it to the blog…spread the word! And it is…drumroll please…bang-famous
1. bang-famous – adjective.
The method by which a person gains notoriety or fame by having sexual intercourse with one or more already famous A, B, C or D-list celebrities. This is usually obtained by producing an intentionally leaked “sex tape” with said established celebrity.
Ex: Heather Mills-McCartney is the most bang-famous, one-legged, former model ever to come from England.by Jeff Snodgrass Feb 12, 2009
Bang-famous, indeed.
Woo hoo!
My blog hit 1,000 views today* 🙂
Also – I’ll have a “real” blog, all about my trip to the West Coast, as soon as I’m back safe and sound on the East Coast.
*yes, I know this makes me an uber-nerd
Anecdotal Evidence that Facebook has overtaken MySpace…
Last year, I got a ton of “happy birthday” comments on MySpace and one or two on Facebook…this year, a ton on Facebook and three on MySpace. Which is all the proof I need, really.
Also – I’m getting an iPhone today! Like, right now, abouttowalkoutthedoorandbuyone getting one. Awesome.
So, since the iPhone is obviously a priority, posting about my birthday is going to have to wait a bit. Let’s just say for now that it was awesome, my friends are fabulous, and it couldn’t have been better.
On why Robert and Mike are awesome friends
They [almost] surprised me with Mike coming to visit! So I shan’t be blogging much this weekend – but I’ll have a TON to blog about after this weekend…
I’m Voting Republican
I posted this on MySpace awhile ago…but it is worth re-posting here 🙂
Je ne regarde pas Celine
I ended up skipping Miss Dion’s concert…I worked late so I could leave early Thursday. I can’t say I’m spilling tears over this…
Elvis Costello, Rufus Wainwright, and some soprano
So this all started last week, when I received an email. I’m on some sort of mailing list from Rufus Wainwright’s site, and the email said that I could get free tickets to see Rufus at a taping of Elvis Costello’s new show for Sundance Channel. Sandy emailed for tickets – and they were already gone. Darn.
But! Monday, she received an email: tickets had just become available; did she still want any? She said yes, two please – and so, six hours before taping, we found out we got our places at The Apollo. Nice!
So I know nothing about this show, “Spectacle with Elvis Costello”. Turns out I know nothing about it because it’s not even out yet – episodes begin airing in December. And fun fact: it will be showing not only on Sundance here in the States, but also on CTV in Canada and Channel 4 in the UK. Neat.
Right, so I’m going to see this show. I know nothing about Elvis Costello other than he’s apparently cool. Like, old-school, cool-cat cool. He just seems to emit that – I’m not sure why.
Makes glasses cooler
The doors were supposed to open at 6:45, taping was to begin at 7:30 – and since it was a tv show, I figured we’d be done at 9:00.
Whoops.
Now, just to backtrack a bit, I’ve gone to a few other tapings. The one for this lame-ass game show Drew Carey hosted, “Power of 10”, took FOREVER. It was ridiculous. But “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” are both quick; the taping took as long as it would to watch it on tv. I figured that was the norm; it turns out that those two shows are just well-oiled machines and have it down to a science. The taping of Elvis’s show took much longer. Did we get out at 9? No. 10? Nope. 10:30? Hardly.
Try 11:20.
Anyway, that was the downside. The plus side – we got to see Rufus interviewed and perform a few songs. Going to The Apollo for the first time was pretty cool, and our seats were great (7th row center), so that was pretty fab. Rufus is not the best interviewee in the world, but his singing is amazing, so it makes up for it. He was apparently sick and had a fever that night, so they had to re-tape a couple of the ensemble numbers (hence us getting out so late), but it was still pretty amazing.
Then there was this soprano, Renee Fleming.
Sings really high
Apparently, she’s very famous, if you know opera. She’s the lead soprano (is that what that’s called?) at the Met; she sang at the Olympics, just got some big music award in Europe, blah blah blah. She sang an aria from “Tosca” and it was pretty amazing. And though I’m not what you would call an opera fan, I definitely appreciate the art. However, when opera singers try and sing non-operatic songs, it usually is lacking. Such was it with Renee. She, Rufus, Elvis, and Rufus’s mom (Kate McGarrigle, a folk singer with a following in the 1970s) sang a couple of songs together. Rufus, Elvis, and Kate all have pretty distinctive voices, but they mesh well together. But Renee? Gorgeous, full soprano voice…and when she lowered it an octive and tried to sound “folksy” it just sounded odd.
All-in-all, not a bad way to spend a Monday night. And this “Spectacle” show sounds like it will be interesting – previously taped guests include Bill Clinton, Sir Elton John, and all of the original Police, so those episodes will be neat to see. And, if you catch the one with Rufus, look out: they did lots of audience shots, so you may just catch a glimpse of me, attempting to look alert and entertained after 4 hours of sitting on my bum.
Aide-mémoire 