Roll Call for Athens, GA - The Georgia Theater

[MACKEL]

Hello zenofmalarkey and welcome to Roll Call. The presales are always a crap shoot... it really helps to think of the whole presale experience as a lottery: if you win, it's awesome but most of the time you don't win. We all wish that more tickets were made available, especially for the official fan club/Roll Call presale. I live in Athens and I have missed several big shows that have instantly sold out, so I feel your pain. My best advice for getting Georgia Theater tickets is to be logged in and ready at 9:45 on Friday morning and then start refreshing the ticket page every 30 seconds at 9:58. MAKE SURE that you already have a ticketfly account otherwise you could lose precious time. There's a link at the top of the event page to create an account:  https://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/800549 Good luck, friend!

[Stevie]

Question for those of you who have been to high demand/sold out shows at Georgia Theater:

How long before doors open do you suggest getting there?

Tame Impala just scheduled a show in our area (Milwaukee) the night we were supposed to leave for Athens (14th) so now we need to budget our sleep and drive time very smartly. 

We could comfortably get there by 7pm est, which is one hour before doors.  However if we go "grueling pace" we could probably make it by 5.  Any input is welcome, thanks.

[zenofmalarkey]

Hello zenofmalarkey and welcome to Roll Call. The presales are always a crap shoot... it really helps to think of the whole presale experience as a lottery: if you win, it's awesome but most of the time you don't win. We all wish that more tickets were made available, especially for the official fan club/Roll Call presale. I live in Athens and I have missed several big shows that have instantly sold out, so I feel your pain. My best advice for getting Georgia Theater tickets is to be logged in and ready at 9:45 on Friday morning and then start refreshing the ticket page every 30 seconds at 9:58. MAKE SURE that you already have a ticketfly account otherwise you could lose precious time. There's a link at the top of the event page to create an account:  https://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/800549 Good luck, friend!

Thanks! Been to a few shows at GA Theater, most recently Charles Bradley and Gogol Bordello. I'll definitely be ready Friday morning! Good luck all.

[Clarkwork]

I'm actually going to the Theatre tonight for the Modest Mouse show, which also sold out instantly, so I'll find out if they have walk up tickets on Friday  and I'll post Tom.

How was it??

[MACKEL]

The Georgia Theater box office doesn't open until 11:30 AM... I bet the tickets will be sold out by then. It looks like everyone will have to go through the website.

[vandemusser]

Typically, the box office holds physical tickets for the event. Not sure what percentage of the total amount, but that's how The Orange Peel in Asheville, NC does it. Be prepared to get there early and wait in line... like camping out the night before early. Sort of like Black Friday. Personally, I'd rather take my chances with the online sale.

[Stevie]

Just want to repose the question:

How early do you think the line will start forming for this show?  I don't mean the the rail-crazies that get there at like 9am, i'm talking about more than 40 people.  Any idea?

[Clarkwork]

I possibly may have 2 extra tickets to Athens.. If anyone did not get in PM me

[Vibrations]

+ Vibrations

Doing the bull dance, feeling the flow, workin it.

Got in on the gilt city presale.

But I have talked to the GATH box office and tix go on sale Friday at 10 am. She said they usually have 50-75 to sell in house separate of the online sales. Apparently people USUALLY start lining up 1-2 hours before they start selling tix.

[jaye]

I possibly may have 2 extra tickets to Athens.. If anyone did not get in PM me

PM'd

[Mahgeetah34]

Is Athens the smallest venue on the tour?

[Mahgeetah34]

Nevermind, it only holds a thousand max. I don't think anything else will come close.

[werduga]

The Ga Theatre is an amazing and intimate venue. I think the capacity is ~1029 and tickets to good bands always sell out fast. For those who have never been, Athens is the quintessential college town with a very lively downtown food/bar scene.  It's not crazy expensive and everything is walkable.  I think that weekend is Law school graduation, so there may not be a ton of hotel rooms. That being said, I DONT have tickets, so hopefully Friday works out. I did go to the Modest mouse show on Mon with some scalped CL tix. The Ga Theatre will NOT let you in unless your tickets match your ID (at least ticketmaster tix). They do this to prevent scalping and EVERY employee told me the same thing while I was imploring them to let me in.  Turns out that 6 of us had the same fake tickets from an Australian guy named "frank Crawford" Please punch him in the nose if you ever run across him! They did let us in right before MM played because a group of drunk/fighting guys got thrown out.  Long story short; I love Athens(Go Dawgs!) and buyer beware for any tickets from the secondary market for the Ga Theatre.

[zenofmalarkey]

The Ga Theatre is an amazing and intimate venue. I think the capacity is ~1029 and tickets to good bands always sell out fast. For those who have never been, Athens is the quintessential college town with a very lively downtown food/bar scene.  It's not crazy expensive and everything is walkable.  I think that weekend is Law school graduation, so there may not be a ton of hotel rooms. That being said, I DONT have tickets, so hopefully Friday works out. I did go to the Modest mouse show on Mon with some scalped CL tix. The Ga Theatre will NOT let you in unless your tickets match your ID (at least ticketmaster tix). They do this to prevent scalping and EVERY employee told me the same thing while I was imploring them to let me in.  Turns out that 6 of us had the same fake tickets from an Australian guy named "frank Crawford" Please punch him in the nose if you ever run across him! They did let us in right before MM played because a group of drunk/fighting guys got thrown out.  Long story short; I love Athens(Go Dawgs!) and buyer beware for any tickets from the secondary market for the Ga Theatre.

whoa. had no idea they were so strict. I sold a guy my extra (bought from ticketfly, not ticketmaster) outside the venue for Gogol Bordello. I assume he got in. That would suck if he's out there cursing my name right now looking to punch me in the face (I'm not Frank Crawford lol).

[Stevie]

Wow... I get the sentiment but i feel that that policy hurts the honest fan the most.  How in the world can you have shows with big draws, knowing people will come in from out of state, and turn away someone who had no chamce of ever knowing about that policy?  That actually makes me pretty angry if thats true.  Fake tickets are one thing, i understand that you cant let someone in just because they bought a fake.  But denying because their name dossnt match the ticket.  Im going to call tomorrow and get clarification for those that will undoubtably have to go with the secondary market for this show. 

[jaye]

I don't see how they could have that policy - what about all the tickets on StubHub right now?  Or people who bought 4 tickets and gave 3 to their friends??   

[Crispy]

Names are not printed on the tickets themselves, at least not the ones that are supplied by ticketfly. Obviously you have to be the right person if you're picking them up at will call, but there's no name on tickets to match. This is nonsense.

[MACKEL]

I don't know about the Georgia Theater policy regarding legitimate tickets with a different name, but I know good and damn well to STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM THE SCALPERS. I know there are a few honest people who are selling an extra ticket, but I have personally experienced many many people getting ripped off from either buying a ticket that's already been redeemed or buying a damn good looking fake. Don't do it... you'll regret it. Definitely try to get tickets from a reliable source.

And fuck Frank Crawford. I'm going to have to keep an eye out for that name... I would love to get that piece of shit arrested for scalping/forgery/theft/whatever.

[Stevie]

I've bought tickets off of craigslist and stubhub my entire life, and not once have i been ripped off.  It's a love/hate relationship for me.  I hate that they get the percentage of tickets that they do, but 95% of the time if i'm quick enough with the mouse i can get tickets for face value.  HOWEVER, for shows that are impossible to get tickets for like Radiohead, or for shows where you just couldn't get the seat you wanted also due to high demand, sites like stubhub allow you to pay a premium to pinpoint the exact location that you want to be in.

Off my soap box, back to what's important for our purposes.  I did some more reading and found that Georgia Theater has a policy of not letting you use the stub hub or craigslist ticket, but they will sell you one at face value to replace it.  Now, i need to check on this but if you have stubhub and something goes wrong they will give you a full refund.  If this is truly how it works out, then Georgia Theater is doing the right thing.  The stubhub customer gets a ticket at face value, they get reimbursed for the previously purchased ticket, and they still get to see the show.  At least the ticket that you bought previously acts like a place holder.  However, this is all good in theory.  I need to make some calls and see what will actually happen here. 

[ellisintransit]

I wasn't planning on going to this show at first, and then I saw the size of the venue and knew that I must.  I got to see them at the first Prom show at the 40 Watt in 2007, and to get another chance to see them in a small venue in that awesome town is exciting. 

Oh snap, and I just remembered I was at the first show of the Circuital cycle as well.  The Unstaged show at the Palace in L'ville.  So now I'm selfishly hoping they don't add another show before this one.