String Cheese Incident, like most people on the planet, hate Ticketmaster. Sure, one should expect to pay some sort of fee when utilizing a specific service, but many feel that the company takes advantage of bands and their legions of concert-going fans. Such is the case with String Cheese Incident, a jam band out of Colorado that decided to help fans cope with those outrageous fees you’re forced to pay each and every time you purchase a ticket.
In order to strike back against Ticketmaster, the band forwarded a handful of fans $20,000, which allotted to secure a handful of seats for their upcoming performance at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. After 400 tickets were acquired, the fans then sent them back to the band, who, in turn, put them for sale on the website at face value. Minus the service charges, of course. String Cheese Incident devotees obviously get the better end of the deal, though I doubt the band makes enough money to sustain such a practice for very long.
“It costs us money to sell the tickets. But we are going to eat that cost this summer in order to make a better deal for our fans and let them know how much we appreciate them,” explained bassist Keith Moseley.
Of course, it would make more sense for the band to find another location in which to perform. Unfortunately, Ticketmaster has exclusive rights to a lot of the larger venues, which makes acquiring a place big enough to hold their fans almost impossible. To prevent their fans from having to fork over extra cash just to see them perform, String Cheese Incident decided to simply eat the extra cost and save their followers a little scratch for CDs, t-shirts, and whatever else the band might be peddling at their shows.
If you’re unable to attend the Greek Theater performance, fear not — String Cheese Incident intends to do the same thing for every concert scheduled this summer.