After five consecutive shows on the 1998 Walking into Clarksdale tour, we headed to our final show of this particular road trip in Indianapolis, Ind. At the gigs in Kansas City and St. Loius earlier in the week, Mike and I had fourth and second row tickets respectively. In Austin, Hartford and Boston in 1995 we had fourth row, fourth row and fifth row respectively. Each and every time we were near the front, shortly before Jimmy and Robert took the stage, we noticed that good looking girls in provocative clothing often times filled the empty seats in the first couple of rows.
Intrigued, we asked them how they got their tickets.
�Oh, we were just standing in line for beer when some guy just came up and asked us if we wanted some better seats,� one of the women responded.
Sure enough, the band�s management holds a handful of prime tickets to dish out to young hotties so that Robert and Jimmy have someone to flirt with during the show. It�s all part of the showmanship of being a rock star I suppose.
So with one show remaining � the gig in Indy � Mike and I had an average set of tickets. Our outrageous plan was to track down whoever it was that had the prime tickets and simply ask them for a pair. We had nothing to lose.
After entering Market Square Arena on our original tickets, Mike and I scoured the concourse looking for someone giving out free tickets. The chances were so slim of finding such a person but we had nothing better to do.
As the opening band was playing, Mike and I were still milling about the concourse. Finally, we spotted one of the tour managers, Rex King, walking around and sure enough, he had a handful of tickets. We decided to follow him to see what he was up to and just like the girls in St. Louis testified, Rex walked up to two attractive women. They exchanged words and he handed them a pair of tickets. Our jaws dropped.
We followed him around and watched him do this a couple more times before realizing he had one pair of tickets left in his hand.
Over the years, Mike and I have spent a fair bit of cash on primo tickets and I think at that moment we really felt we deserved a free pair.
We simply approached Rex and Mike spoke up. �Mr. King, we�ve been to the last five shows and had crappy seats every night, is there any way we could trade you our shitty seats for those two tickets you have in your hand?� A bold request, but what did we have to lose?
After looking around, Rex handed us the tickets and said, �Here, take these. If you jump up on the stage I�ll fucking kill you myself,� Row 1, seats 12 and 13. Right in front of Robert.
My theory was that Rex got stuck with this job every night and by now he was sick of it. We just asked him for the tickets, he thought �what the hell, I don�t want to sit out here any longer�, and gave them to us.
In 40 shows, other than the standing room only general admission gigs, this was the only time we�ve ever had the luck of scoring front row. What a way to end the trip!
Thanks for Reading,
A.L./M.T.
