3/3: Marcy Playground @ the Blender Theater

Tim and I went to check out Marcy Playground at the Blender Theater.  I had vowed never to buy from LiveNation or Ticketmaster again, but here I was buying from both.  After briefly mingling with the pointy piece of poopy that is www.blendertheatre.com and deciding against paying a $9 fee on a $20 ticket at Live Nation, I went to the box office at the Fillmore on Irving, or whatever the shit it’s called.  The ticket I paid for was $22.  I asked what the extra $2 was for, and the abrasively indifferent woman in the cage told me “box office fee.”  Surely when you order by phone there’s a fee, so, it’s only possible to get tickets for the actual price at the venue the day of the show.  That is, unless the show is sold out, which is the case for many a show in New York.  The moral of this story is fuck you, Live Nation.  I hope the extra two dollars buys you salmonella at Rally’s.

The show started at 8, and there were 3 openers, so we got there at a little before 10…which was when Marcy Playground was to go on.  So the first three bands had started and completely finished in under 2 hours.  Unless they started early, which is lame.  Marcy Playground went on at about 10, maybe a few minutes after, and could not have cared less.  They played a few new songs, which sounded like old songs, and some old songs, which really aren’t that great to begin with.  I do like the album MP3, but when I listen to it now I think the fondness of the album is more a fondness for those I listened to that album with.  The Soundtrack of our Lives, as it were.

They played mechanically, acted stereotypically and failed miserably.  They played “Sex and Candy” and tried to get a sing along going, which sort of gave me the RTs.  There were not more than a handful of people there – all of them extremely loyal fans – and it was obvious even they didn’t want to hear that song.  The set ended, they left the stage for about three minutes and came back on and asked if people wanted to hear some more.  If you’ve read a few posts, you know how much I ABHOR planned encores, and this was just gross.  At 11:00pm on the dot, they ended their senseless carrying on.

Four bands in 3 hours.  That’s uncalled for.

Next up:  The Marco Benevento Trio at the Bell House.  Should be a good one.