Ever been without a ticket to a sold out show and somehow found a way to sneak in ? Have you ever been broke the week before a show you were dying to see , and no matter what , you were gonna give it a shot to see if there was someway you might sneak in ?


I have. Well sorta. I actually snuck in 2 shows only because I didn't want to pay the high prices for a band that I was'nt really crazy over.


Any others wanna fes up ?

I shit you not. 100% True. Not sold out, but I caught the door as someone was leaving and caught probably the last 40 minutes + encore of the one and only…

KC & THE SUNSHINE BAND.

Around 1997. It was an incredible experience, including 4 of our 6 (but not me and another) getting caught sneaking in by the cops only to be set free because the box office was closed; one friend having his hand held by a budding young lass in braces while having her mother pinch his as as he was trying to free his hand from the daughter; drunken, disorderly dancing in the aisles; kicking over a few chairs and snatching up MILFs to dance in the aisles with us, and one KC rocking the encore in a Lamar Alexander-style black & red flannel shirt.

We were actually walking from a bar to the Harrah's boat in Shreveport, and as we were leaving the bartender jokingly told us we were foolish if we passed up KC at the convention center, which just happened to be along the walk to the boat. That's when a few people were leaving, I grabbed the door before it closed, and my grandchildren will one day get sick of this story.

kinda

paid for cheap seats to moby's area one & ended up sneaking onto the field near the front row.

my first show ever actually.

we were waiting in line for tickets for Huey Lewis and the News and one of the guys who worked there was my dad's student. He told us of a hole in the fence. We walked right in.

Kinda too...Me and a bunch of guys had gotten tickets to see Guns N' Roses, Soundgarden & Faith No More thru some on base ticket agency while I was in Germany and they ended up being the shittiest seats in the venue. Way at the other end of the arena with the light/sound tower blocking our view of most of the stage. So there was like this pit/walkway between the front of our section and the main floor of the arena so we all just jumped over it at once and scattered into the crowd. It still didn't make G'N'R any better.

Never. I'm a wuss.

Wait, does being someone else's "+1" count? 'cause I wasn't trying to be sneaky or nuthin'.

I've sneaked into one show. I went to see Nina Nastasia, fully intending to pay at the door. I went quite early so I would get a ticket and when I got to the door there was no one there. I was faced with a wide open door. So obviously I just went in.

Later on I felt a bit guilty I have to say because I'm a big fan and she deserves the money more than most.

not a concert but i snuck backstage to a wcw pay per view in buffalo and watched the whole thing on the monitor with all the wrestlers, also saw gary coleman there.

well, insane clown posse was there too so i guess this kinda applies?

every time i buy seat tickets to something i walk straight into the floor area.

i'm a pussy. i've only snuck into the movies.

I have only done the get on the floor when you are stuck with crappy seats for a Primus concert in KC. We had to sit through Mike Watt and then make a move for the floor with about fifty other people in our section. We were the last few people to scale down a wall without getting caught by security.
I have walked into venues early and could have went without paying for a ticket, but I'm pretty sure I have paid everytime, I feel guilty out of ripping off groups like Okkervil River of my measly $5.

I have a "kinda" story, too.

The summer before I started college, my friends and I decided that we were going to tackle a "Vermonster®" at the local Ben & Jerry's - a 20-scoop sundae with all the toppings. There were 5 of us and we figured, at 4 scoops a person, it was doable. We were wong. But it was fun, and a big crowd gathered to watch us make the attempt.

A couple of weeks later, the same group got lawn seats to go see Crosby, Stills, & Nash at the local shed. (Poplar Creek, for you Chi-towners in the know.) The pavilion was only 1/2 full, so we thought we'd ask if there was any way we could, you know, get a seat.

We approached the cute little security guard/usher girl and posed the question.

"Hey! Didn't you guys try to eat a Vermonster® at Ben & Jerry's last week?"
"Yeah."
"Oh my god! This is my second job -- I also work at that Ben and Jerry's and I helped make the Vermonster® fo you!!! Yeah, the pavilion's not sold out. Just go and grab some seats and, if anyone asks you to move, just go to another seat."

Cool.

As an even stranger post script to the story, the woman who owned that B&J's with her husband, now works with me at Grainger.

11th grade..... kriss kross concert at the county fair.
not that i liked them. but, at the time, the friend i was with did.
and, well, free is free.


many, many times i've gotten closer to shows than what i had tickets for.

one year in cincinnati, riverbend had a special concert package during the summer. 2 LAWN tickets for horde, dave matthews band, the allman bros and widespread panic....for a special price. my best friend and i purchased the package.

the widespread panic show was on my birthday. we arrived early'....purchased our soft pretzel and 2 tubs of beer a piece ... as was our tradition....and made our way to the top of the hill.
there was NO ONE on the lawn. except for us. it was pretty weird. after a while... one of the workers came up to us and told us to head into the pavilion because it wasn't sold out.... and to pretty much take any seat we wanted within a certain area.

and, believe it or not....to this day, that widespread panic show is probably the most ENJOYABLE show i've attended yet.

I snuck into a Bauhaus show at the State theater in Detroit a few years back. My girlfriend and I walked in the side door during soundcheck and went up into the balcony. After the soundcheck we walked right down and found the tour manager and asked her if we could meet the band. She was cool and said wait here. A few minutes later I got some cool pics with the band. We then hung out until showtime. Good times.

Friends and I used to sneak into the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto regularly every summer. I saw a lot of acts I didn't need to. Only got caught once sneaking in to see Lauren Hill.

I've flashed my Concordia Journalism press pass a couple times to get in places, which is laughable.

this has happened to me a few times, but it's never really been a notable band.

i guess my best story like this is i went to see beck two years ago and it was $35, but i only gave the box office guy $30 and he gave me $5 back. and i didn't even really think about it until later when i realized i had $10 that i didn't think i had. (and i always know how much money's in my pocket, rounded off to the nearest dollar.)

A few years back, a buddy and I were going to Ozzfest. Was suppose to meet up with a label friends who had all access passes for us, but when we got there, I couldnt get in touch with any of them, and we werent on the list...

We noticed that the side gate was open, so we went for it and just walked intot he backstage area. I had business cardss on me, if we were pulled aside, and it worked....Anytime we were questioned, i pulled a card out and it did the trick.

Drank Shadow's Falls beers and eventually got our passes.

Zen Guerilla, Marah a few times...

I think the only place i've ever snuck into a show is at the Khyber in Philly.

I've only ever had the balls to sneak into SXSW showcases.

i snuck out of a few Zen Guerila shows.

yeah it was kinda of an accident. the show was more impressive than I had anticipated. I was pretty drunk at the time though.

spring of '95 - i was at the university of montana in missoula for a year. pearl jam was in the midst of some ticketmaster battle thing. the only show they played that spring (maybe that entire year?) was at the field house at UM (i believe one of the band members is from missoula). anyhow, you must realize missoula is a total hippie town, and UM a mostly hippie school (the rest cowboys). the night of the sold out show, a coupla friends and i hiked up to the "M" on the mountain above campus and smoked a couple joints and hung out for a while. when the show started, we could actually hear PJ from the "M". it sounded pretty good, so we decided to head down to the field house and see about getting in. when we got there, there were people exiting out of doors all over the place (prolly hippies disgusted by the pearl jam), so we just walked right in. it was so easy. we caught the last hour or so. the funniest thing was seeing the hippies doing their "dance" to PJ. even the "twirlers" were going off in the aisles. it is still such a funny and vivid image in my head.

The only time I've done it ( except for the KonL-style "I got there before they started taking money type of deal ) was the first time I ever saw Cheap Trick.

New Orleans, 1984. Pat Travers opened. Boom boom...didn't pay a dime.

the lawn is horrible to watch concerts at Riverbend. (On a side note, it was designed by famous Target Architect and University of Cincinnati graduate, Michael Graves.)
I guess it's better than Ravinia's lawn in Chicago where you can't even see the stage.