Riverside Theater Tries its Best to Make Me Hate That Venue

I lucked out when I landed 11th row tickets to see Flight of the Conchords. Yea, way back when I bought them from the Riverside Theater's online site, there was a message that the tickets were "will call only." That was no problem for me. I was happy to pick the tickets up the night of the show.

In the days leading up to the performance, there was an announcement that the tickets would be ready for pick up two hours before the show. That gave me and my friends time to eat dinner downtown, and be in the show with time to spare. It didn't end up that way.

At 5:10pm I walked over to the Riverside Theater and that's when the person at the will call window told me that we would have to come back one hour prior to the show to pick up the tickets, and "then you have to walk directly into the theater." WHAT!!!

I wanted to hand two of the tickets to my friends who got to John Hawks late, and thus were eating dinner later than we were. Now, I had to wait for them, hope that they get their food in time, force them to rush through dinner, because at 6:20pm I SEE A LINE GOING INTO THE RIVERSIDE THEATER THAT'S SO LONG, IT'S GOING TO TAKE AN HOUR TO GET IN!!!

Who runs that place? How does he/she still have their job? We got to our seats at 7:20pm, the show started at 7pm. It took 45 minutes to get into the venue. We didn't have time to buy a drink, look at the merch booth, nothing. Is that what The Riverside Theater wants? They want their patrons to NOT buy drinks, buy merch, enjoy the show? Is this some anti ticket scalper stuff? How many people will stop going to the Riverside Theater after they get jammed? Let's start with my group. That sucked. What if it was raining? Were we supposed to sit there in the rain for 45 minutes, because a ticket broker might have purchased a couple pairs of tickets, and that pissed off the Riverside Theater management? Never again.

Flight was great

Flight of the Conchords was hilarious. The Riverside Theater was a perfect venue for the show too. I must say that being in the 12th row didn't hurt. You could see the expressions on the faces of Jemaine and Bret. They performed for nearly two hours. Their relaxed style was refreshing and funny. The comments shouted out from the crowd was ridiculous, but they handled it well throughout. The evening was opened by a cast member from the show. It was a sold out show at the Riverside Theater.

New Snare

I'm getting my new Paul Leim snare (slightly used) soon. A chrome over brass beauty that will crack across the bar when I play my next show. Meanwhile, I have been going to more theater and less shows. If you want to call it rock and roll, I'm going to Flight of the Conchords on Sunday. They rock hard.