ill LYTeracy - A-Ha Takes Me On(line)...to Ticketmaster.
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Feb 5 2010, 9:02 PM
This morning, for the first time in years, I set my alarm for 10 a.m. to buy concert tickets.
Technically, though, I didn't set my alarm. I used a wake-up call service called Wakerupper.com (I recommend it highly). Sign o' the times. Just like the fact that nowadays, when you get up at 10 a.m. and log onto Ticketmaster.com, you actually have a reasonably good chance of getting tickets. Why, sonny, I remember back in my day when you actually had to drive across town and get in line in front of a record store at 9 a.m., and they'd hand out numbered wristbands to randomly change up the order of people waiting. If some dumbass in front of you wanted to have a conversation while buying his pair, and then they ran out by the time you made it to the head of the line, you were screwed.
Or you could have tried ordering over the telephone. And never gotten through. Even after Ticketmaster.com first got established, you'd have better luck actually waiting outside the record store than using a dial-up connection that would frequently cut off at just the wrong moment.
I love the Internet. Even though it did kill or cripple most of the print outlets I ever worked for.
Anyway...I used to be a big music guy. I had a radio show for four years in college, and it was the early '90s, when the music spectrum was bursting open, and "alternative" could mean anything from Juliana Hatfield to Ministry to Ween to Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. I bought CDs every week. Yet I was invariably saddled with roommates who either complained every time I played music, or were so tiresome at constantly blasting their own choices (pothead housemates, the year Pink Floyd's "Division Bell" came out...yeah) that I just wanted a moment's quiet.
It saddens me to say that I'm less interested in music now than I've ever been. Music used to inspire me. And I used to discover good new stuff thanks to MTV, which at one point played music most of the day. Nowadays I see them talking about making an original comedy series to try and lure viewers back, and I'm thinking, "why not play music again"?
And concerts are expensive as all hell - I remember shelling out what seemed like a massive $32 to see Guns N' Roses, Metallica, and Motorhead at the Coliseum. Nowadays, good luck even seeing one decent act for that.
All of which is preamble to the fact that I was reading the LA Weekly over lunch yesterday, and saw that A-ha were coming to town.
Yes, A-ha. I know they're perceived as a cheesy '80s joke over here, believe me. Years ago, I tracked down a greatest hits album in the UK (since it wasn't available stateside). If ever I'd tell somebody about my purchase, they -- to a one -- all said the same thing:
"Oh, is it an EP? Ha ha!"
Chris Kattan singing "Take on Me" in the CORKY ROMANO trailer was another low blow, not just because Kattan sucks, but because he actually threatened to kill me once when I was an assistant manager at the Sunset 5. True story. It helps that he's so lame I can hate him without reservation.
Everyone knows "Take on Me" -- the video is justifiably held up as one of the best ever, with its then-groundbreaking use of rotoscoped animation. But in Europe, where I grew up, the hits kept coming.
Why the appeal over here didn't last, I'm not sure. After all, one of their subsequent hits was the second-greatest James Bond theme ever:
But even more appealing than that, I always found, was the way Morten Harket's sweet vocals often masked an undercurrent of darkness; a hint of insanity, even. Listen all the way to the end of "Early Morning," a sensitive-sounding love song with a sting in its tail:
Or how about the sheer unpredictability, deranged stream-of-consciousness in the unlikely hit "Train of Thought"
Not to mention, you'd hardly expect a song entitled "The Blood That Moves the Body" to be anything but death metal, and yet here you go...
In their native Norway, A-ha never went away, so I'm sure there's much later-career stuff I've missed out on. But I'm very much looking forward to May 15 at Nokia, and would be even if I knew for certain that "Take on Me" would not be on the set-list.
This morning, for the first time in years, I set my alarm for 10 a.m. to buy concert tickets.
Technically, though, I didn't set my alarm. I used a wake-up call service called Wakerupper.com (I recommend it highly). Sign o' the times. Just like the fact that nowadays, when you get up at 10 a.m. and log onto Ticketmaster.com, you actually have a reasonably good chance of getting tickets. Why, sonny, I remember back in my day when you actually had to drive across town and get in line in front of a record store at 9 a.m., and they'd hand out numbered wristbands to randomly change up the order of people waiting. If some dumbass in front of you wanted to have a conversation while buying his pair, and then they ran out by the time you made it to the head of the line, you were screwed.
Or you could have tried ordering over the telephone. And never gotten through. Even after Ticketmaster.com first got established, you'd have better luck actually waiting outside the record store than using a dial-up connection that would frequently cut off at just the wrong moment.
I love the Internet. Even though it did kill or cripple most of the print outlets I ever worked for.
Anyway...I used to be a big music guy. I had a radio show for four years in college, and it was the early '90s, when the music spectrum was bursting open, and "alternative" could mean anything from Juliana Hatfield to Ministry to Ween to Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. I bought CDs every week. Yet I was invariably saddled with roommates who either complained every time I played music, or were so tiresome at constantly blasting their own choices (pothead housemates, the year Pink Floyd's "Division Bell" came out...yeah) that I just wanted a moment's quiet.
It saddens me to say that I'm less interested in music now than I've ever been. Music used to inspire me. And I used to discover good new stuff thanks to MTV, which at one point played music most of the day. Nowadays I see them talking about making an original comedy series to try and lure viewers back, and I'm thinking, "why not play music again"?
And concerts are expensive as all hell - I remember shelling out what seemed like a massive $32 to see Guns N' Roses, Metallica, and Motorhead at the Coliseum. Nowadays, good luck even seeing one decent act for that.
All of which is preamble to the fact that I was reading the LA Weekly over lunch yesterday, and saw that A-ha were coming to town.
Yes, A-ha. I know they're perceived as a cheesy '80s joke over here, believe me. Years ago, I tracked down a greatest hits album in the UK (since it wasn't available stateside). If ever I'd tell somebody about my purchase, they -- to a one -- all said the same thing:
"Oh, is it an EP? Ha ha!"
Chris Kattan singing "Take on Me" in the CORKY ROMANO trailer was another low blow, not just because Kattan sucks, but because he actually threatened to kill me once when I was an assistant manager at the Sunset 5. True story. It helps that he's so lame I can hate him without reservation.
Everyone knows "Take on Me" -- the video is justifiably held up as one of the best ever, with its then-groundbreaking use of rotoscoped animation. But in Europe, where I grew up, the hits kept coming.
Why the appeal over here didn't last, I'm not sure. After all, one of their subsequent hits was the second-greatest James Bond theme ever:
But even more appealing than that, I always found, was the way Morten Harket's sweet vocals often masked an undercurrent of darkness; a hint of insanity, even. Listen all the way to the end of "Early Morning," a sensitive-sounding love song with a sting in its tail:
Or how about the sheer unpredictability, deranged stream-of-consciousness in the unlikely hit "Train of Thought"Not to mention, you'd hardly expect a song entitled "The Blood That Moves the Body" to be anything but death metal, and yet here you go...
In their native Norway, A-ha never went away, so I'm sure there's much later-career stuff I've missed out on. But I'm very much looking forward to May 15 at Nokia, and would be even if I knew for certain that "Take on Me" would not be on the set-list.
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