Party on, Garth!

Well, Saturday morning was an adventure...

I have an unofficial list of musical artists I'd like to see at some point in the future... and throughout my relatively short lifetime have been slowly crossing people off... Since becoming a country music fan in the last few years, one of the artists on my list has been Garth Brooks, but being retired and all (him, not me), I knew if he ever came close to here to perform, I better not miss it.

I was there at the Crystal Palace the night he proposed to Trisha Yearwood and saw him perform "Friends In Low Places" for the crowd... They went nuts... I could only imagine what it would be like to see him do a full show.

Well, you may have heard he is performing at the Staples Center in L.A. next month to benefit the wildfire victims from earlier this year. Garth is such a class act... he actually apologized that the tickets were $38 saying he "doesn't like to charge so much for tickets, but 100% of the proceeds are going to the wildfire relief". That's right, he's not making a penny, and apologizing when other artists routinely sell tickets over $50.

He was scheduled to do one show, which I knew would sell out fast, since he hasn't performed a full show on the West Coast for a while, and after he sold out nine shows in Kansas City in less than two hours a month ago.

So this past Saturday, when the tickets went on sale at 9 AM, my friend Kenn and I (he also wants to go) decided to hit the phones and the internet to get tickets. When that first show went on sale, we didn't get close. The phone never stopped being busy, and by the time Ticketmaster processed my request, the show was sold out. Five minutes is all it took to sell over 30,000 seats.

But then it happened. Just like in Kansas City, they added a second show. So I tried again. No luck.

Then, a third show and a fourth show, but still, no luck. All I could get was one single seat by itself and then, still, that would disappear seconds later.

In the meantime, some people started listing their tickets on EBay, and some were going for over $3,000 EACH!

Finally, one last show was added, and I tried one more time. This time, right when the page went up, I must have hit submit, because I got four seats up close, on the floor. $38 each. Amazing. (Kenn is so happy!)

So while I must admit I was tempted to forget the show and sell my pair for thousands, I think Julie and I are going to go. Who knows, if tickets start selling for big bucks closer to the show, we might be tempted again... but after all the work, I really want to see the show! Plus, rumor is some superstars may make surprise appearances!