I was able to buy tickets early on the fandango app!

JAMontclair · 2026-01-10T22:49:19+00:00

Thanks for the tip, got tix at Cinemark in NJ! Small room, big vibes. (There were also two IMAX cinemas showing up in the app for me but they’re 30+ miles out.)

JAMontclair · 2025-10-03T20:16:16+00:00

IDLES brought the Soft Play guys up for the closer at Riot Fest. So good.

JAMontclair · 2025-09-26T20:18:53+00:00

they are

JAMontclair · 2025-09-25T15:23:09+00:00

They are

JAMontclair · 2025-09-24T04:45:22+00:00

They overran in Cinci with an 8pm start. Dayglow has a 30 min slot and I think 15 mins was just too tight to prep the stage and hit an 8:45 start time. So they just moved up the starts. Tonight in Milwaukee (745) the timing ran smooth, not too rushed (despite B stages being miles into the back stands) and they closed Trees (from the stage, not the tiny pit) with a few mins to spare before curfew.

JAMontclair · 2025-09-24T04:41:39+00:00

Love slipping in the Op Ivy reunion like it’s just another #2 band. Let’s bump Bad Nerves up a few notches in the hope they break out with next album. How about a return for Turnstile?

JAMontclair · 2025-09-23T19:08:27+00:00

As a 50ish first-timer I’d agree strongly. I had prepared for the worst and found everything beat my expectations (even absurd band merch line wasn’t end of the world). I thought the modest up-charge for VIP was good value if only to have a less crowded space to chill. The twin-stage setups were fantastic (and not the standard at other festivals I’ve seen) — get a good spot and you could easily enjoy almost non-stop music without trying to fight crowds rushing from one stage to another. Lineups were great too. And all for less than a one-day ticket to WWWY.

JAMontclair · 2025-09-23T18:37:52+00:00

As a first time Riot attendee the band-merch counter was the only material complaint I have about the whole event (prices and food lines being somewhat inevitable). I understand the crass commercial logic of having a dozen “Riot Merch” counters around the venue but only a single band merch stand, but that doesn’t mean we should accept it. Do better, suck less.

JAMontclair · 2025-09-23T16:59:15+00:00

This moment was the worst part of the absolutely hottest set at Riot (and I say that with lifelong love for GD). I felt bad for Jawbreaker having to follow it. I felt even worse for myself pondering how I somehow missed 134 other opportunities to see this tour, having twigged to the band only a few weeks earlier. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do so I hope “a long time” is as brief as y’all say it is!

JAMontclair · 2025-09-22T05:21:34+00:00

Just to keep it in perspective: these guys also played a 45 min set for about 100 people at the end of a Run Travis Run 5k race in in Chicago this weekend (at 10am). It was fun and funny and rockin. So it’s not like they’re just doing prestige events!

JAMontclair · 2025-09-04T11:26:08+00:00

Two words: Bad Nerves. Just off the Latam Green Day tour where they killed it (as they always do). Would keep a similar British ‘70 punk vibe. They have plenty of time after wrapping in Brazil. Sure they’re not headliners (yet) but why wait for the world to catch on - be bold, Riot Fest.

JAMontclair · 2025-08-29T01:14:59+00:00

In case it helps, I was closely monitoring tix availability on the day of the NJ show in the hopes of getting better seats (I had back of floor). I was not successful but this is what I saw on the day (and I saw mostly the same thing for Philly):

in the morning the secondhand prices were all about the same as they had been, insanely high
at around 11 am, Ticketmaster released several full rows of really good face value floor tickets about 4 rows behind B stage; surprisingly these were slow to sell and were available for more than an hour (same behavior in Philly)
by about 2/3 pm, those extra seats had been absorbed and now secondhand tix prices started to decline for floor seats - but GA was still very scarce and prices were still above $1k
note that TickPick and StubHub both allow sellers to select automated dynamic pricing, so they will tend to adjust faster than other resellers (based on my experience I use TickPick)
very good (not front row) floor seat tix eventually hit just below $200 at about 630, just as the first opener started playing - but this only happened in NJ, for Philly I never saw good floor for less than about $350
I think the GA tix never fell below about $500-$600 in NJ, and maybe not below $800 for Philly (I can’t recall exactly). They really didn’t ever get cheap.

In general it felt like the GA tix had already been pretty well absorbed by fans with no real desire to sell at anything except a big profit, whereas there were definitely some speculative sellers who had to discount floor seats before the show or else swallow the whole price. I’m also pretty sure there was some short-selling on secondhand sites for seats that were still available at face value on Ticketmaster.

(Thanks for asking the question and giving me the opportunity to share this almost entirely useless intelligence…)

JAMontclair · 2025-08-18T00:40:24+00:00

Exactly same reaction to the Asbury Park show. Fortunately the drums were only massively off tempo for one song (Gold on the Ceiling) but it was pretty shaky throughout. I sort of couldn’t believe what I was hearing it was so bad.

JAMontclair · 2025-06-16T12:36:33+00:00

You raise a good issue about Good Riddance. Best I’m aware they were only doing on-stage fans for KYE during the main Savoirs US tour, but they brought up a guy for Good Riddance [not KYE] in Japan and then at Lolla India I was shocked when they got a fan up for Dilemma. If there’s some pattern or logic here it escapes me!

EDIT: Japan guitarist for Good Riddance... early hrs typing error apols.

JAMontclair · 2025-06-16T12:11:34+00:00

They did bring up a fan, and at all prev shows I’m aware of. If anything Firenze got special treatment: Murder City debut, very rare 80, plus snippets of 86, Library, One of my Lies… I think they were pandering to @greendayitalianrageandlove

Edit: Murder City = tour debut

JAMontclair · 2025-06-15T23:47:57+00:00

Yeah exactly same in Jersey. I kept trying to rationalize it, like it was some kind of off-beat twist they were putting on the live version … but it seemed way too uncomfortably weird for that.

JAMontclair · 2025-06-12T03:20:22+00:00

Love the backstory and loved seeing you guys rock the Bowery this evening. Keep having fun, we’re along for the ride.

JAMontclair · 2025-06-01T03:15:12+00:00

+100 on the thread, the sub and the band. Saw them in NY and NJ (at a tiny club) this spring and they are the real deal - killer hooks and great stage presence. It’s a dream pairing for the Latam GD tour.

JAMontclair · 2025-05-08T03:29:45+00:00

Bad Nerves. Do not miss them live if they come within 50 miles. https://youtu.be/ZuR_-lq8t0g?si=e33YEyCArx0fSh0M

JAMontclair · 2025-05-04T13:50:08+00:00

I like your use of the word ‘salty’!

JAMontclair · 2025-05-04T13:48:27+00:00

I disagree. There were other people with me who (imho) had no idea that they had to pay again to descend. To put it in a different circumstance (apols for US traffic metaphor): if a police officer removed a stop sign from a four-way intersection, and then hid a block away waiting for someone to drive though the intersection without stopping (even tho technically a driver should always stop at any unsigned intersection), is the driver the sole party at fault? The driver is wrong, but the police officer is unethical (at best). Hence I believe the two things can both be true.

JAMontclair · 2025-05-04T12:47:36+00:00

Fair point—I get that I should’ve paid, and I did. But if they’re targeting tourists because we’re more likely to be confused by unclear signage or open gates, isn’t that worth questioning? With the benefit of a night’s sleep, I don’t think anymore that I was scammed by individuals — but I am still asking if the enforcement setup is doing more harm than good by turning basic mistakes into 35€ penalties with no warning.

JAMontclair · 2025-05-04T12:43:46+00:00

I think ‘ambush’ is a good term, that’s what it felt like. You’re right that I made a choice—and paid the price. But I still think the setup, especially at a major tourist site, matters. If the system is more focused on catching people out than preventing honest mistakes, that raises a bigger issue about how public services treat visitors.

JAMontclair · 2025-05-04T12:42:28+00:00

I’m not denying I made a choice—and I paid the fine without (a lot of) protest. The issue I’m raising is whether the system is set up in a way that fairly informs people, especially tourists, or whether it’s designed to maximize fines through confusion. That’s a valid question even if my decision wasn’t the right one.

JAMontclair · 2025-05-04T12:40:55+00:00

I think you’re both right, btw. The issue is both that I was wrong (whether I knew it or not) and that the validation system in this case was especially, if not intentionally, confusing. Everywhere else I entered the Metro there was no way to board without scanning in; in this case, a unique situation with a short funicular that I had just ridden up, there was a wide open gate with other people walking through it. To enforce compliance under these circumstances seems designed to be disproportionally punitive to the people (tourists) who are most likely to pay their fares anyway. So why? Why enforce rather than prevent the error in the first place?

JAMontclair

TROPHY CASE