LCD Soundsystem vs. scalpers Round 2: Four more farewell shows added

By Sean O'Neal  |  February 12, 2011 | 2:40am
Aux Features Music

After this morning's kerfuffle, brouhaha, hullabaloo, what-have-you over the instantaneous unavailability of tickets to LCD Soundsystem's farewell show at Madison Square Garden, James Murphy has responded by announcing four more shows at New York's Terminal 5 taking place March 28, 29, 30, and 31. Murphy says the additional performances will include "most if not all" of the same songs planned for the grand finale, and—although they're being sold through Ticketmaster again—he promises to "look seriously at the way they sell these tickets" this time to avoid something similar happening, including enforcing a strict two-ticket limit per customer. Naturally, Murphy also took the opportunity to once more lash out at the opportunists, saying in part:

"we tried calling our lawyer about the ticket scalping. “It’s legal”. no joke. it’s fucking legal. i tramped around with friends and band getting insane. i wanted to buy some expensive tickets and then track the seller down to beat him. i acted stupid. i did some classic, shakespearean vain “fist shaking”, etc. i made angry tweets. (i’m wondering now what on earth could be less effective and more of a first-world spoiled idiotic move than “angry tweets”? jesus.)

i read conspiracy theories about how this was some cash-grab i orchestrated. i read that there are 50,000 seats at msg (i think our show will have 13k). i read that people had already bought flights, hotels. wanted to bring their kids. waited in the cold. i read that some people thought this was one of the reasons we were calling it quits (check). i read that this was a media stunt we planned. i read very funny comments from my friend aziz, one of which was taken seriously (that msg had given me 30,000 tickets personally for guest list). i read that i was giving all the tickets to my “new celebrity friends” (aziz is about the closest thing i have to a “celebrity friend”, and we met at terminal 5 watching hot chip when we were, well, not very “celebrated”). i read that we should cancel the show and put the tickets up on sale in a better fashion. i read that we should not do that, for fuck’s sake. i read that we should go fuck ourselves.

i read a lot of stuff, waiting to hear if we could get another night at msg, which seemed like the only option. but it failed. then i kind of sat in my house, trying not to worry for 20 minutes, and made a very, very good coffee.

i don’t know what people think about us, really. i’d love to say i don’t care, but i do. these people in my band—they are my very good friends. i love them very much. i love this band very much. everything about it. i’m very proud of it—of us, and i get defensive when people talk shit about us.

i feel like we’ve been able to do something sort of special for 9 years: making music we like the way we like it. going on tour and playing, no computers or bullshit. no in-ears. a bunch of weird substitute teachers just trying to play something like the bands we loved growing up. whenever anyone said shit about us being sellouts or something, it stung, because i consider this entire thing—the band, everything—to be a communication between us and whoever is listening, and not just a thing unto itself. i remember being a fan and seeing bands, thinking “this is us. this is you playing and me/us watching” and how real that connection was, and i always wanted to honor that strange relationship with our band.

so when someone felt wronged or hurt or outraged, it stung. it stung because, on some level, regardless of the “you can’t please everyone” stuff that gets rationally said to you when this shit happens, it meant that i’d failed. i’d failed to communicate. on the other hand, i’ve had my world turned upside down by a lot of amazing things people have said about us, or to us. i’ve met fans and made friends, and felt very strongly how that relationship actually works—and how we brought ourselves, each other, finally here, to where we play our last show—and biggest show ever—together, at this amazing place.

and then, this fucking ticket thing happened.

so to the point. you can’t make everyone happy, and i’m sure this will wind someone up somewhere (“but i paid $600 for one seat at msg!!!) or seem like some shitty “plan” to someone else (“they were gonna do it all along!!! it’s all a big retirement money plan to bilk the fans!!!”) or something else that someone who theoretically likes our band thinks (why are you trying to buy a ticket?? how could you even listen to a band that you think is capable of some of this shit!??) but we’ve come up with the best solution i can think of, as quickly as possible so as to deflate the market for those scalping scumfucks….

we're announcing all the shows at once, and if they don't sell out, I don't care. I just want to give people who actually want to see us a chance to see us.  For a reasonable ticket price.  And I want to drop the price of the MSG tickets being sold by piece of shit scalpers… Oh, and a small thing to scalpers: 'It's legal' is what people say when they don't have ethics.  The law is there to set the LIMIT of what is PUNISHABLE (aka where the state needs to intervene)  but we are supposed to have ethics, and that should be the primary guiding force in our actions, you fucking fuck… And to everyone else: Thank you. You rule. Don't let the shitbags win."

Murphy's statement is definitely worth reading in full (if you can get the band's suddenly very popular website to load). Tickets for all shows go on sale Feb. 18 for $40 apiece.

 
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