STEVE ALBINI

Electrical Audio had a forum where Albini was a regular poster, would not be remotely surprising if he was frequenting music chat rooms or Usenet back in the day.

Advice from the font on mic'ing guitars
https://www.premierguitar.com/artists/guitarists/steve-albini-always-in-session

Interesting, thanks

Strings and Picks

-Ice picks with the points cut off
-D’Addario XLs (.012–.016–.020w–.028–.038–.048)

Electrical Audio had a forum where Albini was a regular poster

https://bsky.app/profile/electricalwsop.bsky.social/post/3kprvpyaqoh24

Finalizing Fall US tour dates and my frustration with with exorbitant ticket fees is at peak. It's like pulling teeth to have tickets available at face value, which we insist on. Being fair, some venues are fine and cooperative, but this whole practice should be illegal.

For the unfamiliar, venues typically contract a ticket agency to sell their tickets for them online, and sometimes these deals require all ticket sales to go through the agency. The agencies add ticket fees on top of the face value, and kick back a percentage of the fee to the venue.

In the best case, the fees are modest, a couple of bucks, and charging a premium for the convenience of online buying seems reasonable. In bigger markets the fees can amount to an extra 30% over face value, with the venue getting on the order of 1/3 of the fee kicked back.

This is preposterous on its face, tantamount to fraud and should not be tolerated by anybody. It persists because the fiction of "face value" allows negotiation of deals with bands that *look* fair, but contain a massive hidden payout to the venue or promoter. Booking agents are complicit in this...

Because the money doesn't come out of their end. Bands are often completely in the dark about these fees so as not to rile them up, and the "face value" of tickets is at an all-time high to begin with. It's a cozy one-hand-washes-the-other arrangement between them, a very close analog to merch fees.

In both cases, if you look at the deal on paper, the band may be receiving a reasonable percentage of the gig income and the agent gets their fee from that part, but there is a hidden cost born by the audience, unaccounted and ignored that is a naked money grab by the venue.

And in the most egregious cases, tickets bought at the box office are still padded with ticket surcharges and fees. They've taken to charging you for the privilege of buying a ticket. Exactly like charging you five bucks to unlock the pump before you buy gas.

Most bands are insulated from this situation by having booking agents as intermediaries. It's only bands that get into the granular detail of their shows that even know that there are ticket fees attached, much less that their "$25" ticket actually costs a fan $34.

Hey I know it's rough out there earning a living in the arts. I'm aware. I know venues are squeezed by agents for absurd guarantees and they're looking for a way to get over, trying to find an edge. I'm aware and that's bullshit too. But it's fraudulent and reprehensible and everybody should say so.

good post

John Fogerty and Bonnie Raitt tickets are currently over $200 for shows here that won't even happen for six months

Thread is currently pretty Albini-active. Someone asks:

what do you make of what the cure accomplished with ticketmaster? (www.vulture.com/2023/04/the-...) is this kind of pressure campaign even possible for indie acts that play midsize venues? does the fact that more big acts don't do what robert smith did just reflect negligence on their part?

Albini responds:

Like I said, it's an issue largely (intentionally) kept in the dark for the bands. Robert Smith took an interest and had influence because of his stature, but most bands don't know about the street price of their tickets, and by the time they find out it's too late to do anything.

It's plainly true that every line of every deal for every show is negotiable, but weeding through it all and getting venues to agree is a huge drag on time, energy and patience, and I totally get why most bands just abdicate/delegate it to their booking agencies. It sucks having to do it.

The major problem with booking agencies is they have no incentive to make deals efficient or transparent. They get a percentage of what the band gets paid, and cannot care about anything else on the page. If inefficient shadiness gets the band an extra grand, they get an extra $150 and that's great.

I’ve definitely ran into “the $25 ticket is really $34” this year at semi-indie venues (local promoters who book at multiple venues). After getting burned a few times, I just add it in now when considering going (which sucks).

The fees are one thing but something that really gets me is when venues are directly partnered with third party ticket brokers through the app I am forced to download to access venues, I have def been looking for tickets to "sold out" shows where the venue app has helpfully linked me to these brokers for "somewhat" greater than face value tickets, where is the oversight that keeps the venues honest?

enjoying Steve's gear nerd Youtube career

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxZwaqVBo-k

I love it that he calls them 'amplifiers' instead of 'amps'.

Nice to see this from Steve.

I am shocked by how excited I am for a new Shellac album.