String Cheese Incident Eliminate Service Charges for Summer Tour
The String Cheese Incident have announced a summer tour that focuses on unusually scenic outdoor venues and festivals, including a three-night stand at Red Rocks in Morrison, Colorado and stops at the Greek theaters in both Los Angeles and Berkeley, California.
The jam band’s ethic has always leaned to the left; taking the lead from Pearl Jam, the band sued Ticketmaster in 2003 and won – sort of. They settled out of court and got what they wanted, which was a larger-than-normal allotment of tickets to sell directly to their fans, through their own in-house ticketing system. It was a quiet victory, however, as they agreed to not publicize the outcome. The nuts and bolts of the lawsuit have since been exposed in detail in the book Ticket Masters by Dean Budnick and Josh Baron.
For this upcoming summer tour, the band was able to go an extra step towards their vision of fan-friendly ticketing: They’ve eliminated all service charges – including credit card fees and handling expenses – thereby making the final ticket cost the same as the advertised price. A $49.95 ticket for one of the shows at Red Rocks will cost $49.95.
“We’re proud that, ten years after we filed a lawsuit against Ticketmaster, we still have control over some of our tickets,” bassist Keith Moseley tells Rolling Stone. “It’s important stuff, not just for us but for all artists.”
In order to take advantage of the deal, fans have to purchase their tickets directly through String Cheese Incident’s official website, beginning March 6th. The remaining tickets will be available through Ticketmaster, service charges and all, beginning March 10th.
On a different note, the band jokes on their website that, in honor of New York Knicks’ fast-rising point guard Jeremy Lin, they plan to rename themselves the String Cheese Lincident.