A "Fan" tastic Quiz

Just thought I'd throw this out there since my blog has been talking about concerts lately. This is something I wrote in April of last year, dealing with my frustration towards some concert-goers and a solution that I think will work:


Rock concerts are experiences that will leave people who attended them talking for a long time. There may not be a greater 2-3 hours of excitement. Unfortunately, they can be very hard to get into. Recently, AC/DC announced a summer date in Winnipeg and within 15 minutes of going on sale, tickets were completely sold out. Many hardcore AC/DC fans were left in the dust. Now they have been forced to miss their favourite band in action. Many major concerts feature this same type of situation. So how can we guarantee the massive fans a ticket? There's only one way to separate the "hardcores" from the "softcores". We quiz 'em.


More than a few people were screwed over by Ticketmaster the day AC/DC tickets went on sale. They made their way to Ticketmaster.ca to purchase their tickets only to be greeted by web pages that wouldn't load. By the time the pages loaded, 40,000 tickets had disappeared. The days of standing in a gigantic line to purchase tickets are long gone. You either go online, phone or take a chance by going to a Ticketmaster booth in person. The Ticketmaster booth is slowly becoming extinct for big-name concerts because of the amount of time tickets take to sell out. The price of tickets can also cause some discomfort among fans. Not everybody is loaded with cash and they're just not able to pay bills, look after kids and attend ridiculously priced concerts (see The Eagles, March 2009). Getting your hands on tickets is much more complicated than it actually seems.


I have attended 10-15 concerts in my lifetime and every concert features a group of fans who I like to call the "bandwagon" fans. Who are these people, exactly? These are the people who claim to be number 1 fans of the band but are only familiar with 2-3 songs that are overplayed on the radio. They've never bought CD's, they don't own merchandise, but they tend to think they're huge fans. They sit still for the first hour and a half of the concert, and when the band plays their hits at the end, they go wild. Which brings us back to ticket-purchasing troubles. These "fans" constantly get into arenas and stadiums for various reasons (lots of cash, fast computers) while the real fans are forced to sit at home. But with the implementation of a mini-quiz, changes will take place.

First, let's clarify this rule. The quizzes would only be used in situations where concerts are likely going to be sold out. There's really no point if there will be no sellout because nobody's getting screwed out of tickets. Recent Winnipeg sellouts have included Metallica, The Tragically Hip, Coldplay and, of course, AC/DC. Here's how the format works. It doesn't matter how the tickets are being purchased. Online, telephone or in person, the quiz will still be given out. The quiz will not be extremely hard but will involve some knowledge of the band. Three questions seems a pretty reasonable amount. Here are the questions: 1) Name 10 songs written by the band (naming 5 is just too easy), 2) Name 3 albums written by the band, 3) Name the current members of the band. Pretty simple. For the people who get these questions completely correct, they will be given first dibs at tickets as well as a $10 discount. Now for the people who get any question wrong, they will not be completely shut out of tickets, but will have to wait until the experts get theirs first. All the good seats will be taken and rightfully so. If you can't ace a simple quiz like that, then you should not consider yourself a real fan of the band.


There is no doubt that complaining would be aplenty after a decision such as this one. But it is about time that the real fans get into the concerts and get the seats that they deserve. And the bandwagon fans can get the seats that they deserve as well. On their couch at home.



Here are my Week 2 NFL selections

Atlanta over Carolina- (Lock of the Week)
Minnesota over Detroit
Green Bay over Cincinnati
Arizona over Jacksonville-(Upset Special)
Kansas City over Oakland
New England over NY Jets
New Orleans over Philadelphia
Tennessee over Houston
Washington over St. Louis
Buffalo over Tampa Bay
Seattle over San Francisco
Pittsburgh over Chicago
Denver over Cleveland
San Diego over Baltimore
Dallas over NY Giants
Indianapolis over Miami

Last Week: 13-3
Season:13-3