From Toxikangel :

la wasn't as bad as the stories i read about new york. ticketmaster surprised me by keeping people informed about what was going on and answered any questions. i spoke with a girl in line behind me and she told me about reading the situation in new york on this web page. there were only going to be 400 tickets and security said there were about 1000 people in line. the mood changed after wrist bands were given out and the beginning number was announced. the girl i met had a number close to mine. my friend had a far off number which of course the begining number was closer to. the girl left feeling disappointed and i felt bad. (if your reading this and remember me, sunglasses/cranes shirt, email me: toxikangel@hotmail.com) i saw several people crying and telling their stories about waiting so long after the virgin megastore disaster and still unable to see the cure. it left me wondering whether or not there was a better way of organizing the event to favor those who did invest so much.
 
 

From Jeff :

Just got back from the ticket sale. I was kinda sorta close to getting tickets, but not quite. Somebody wrote:

>>> > Tickets for the LA show go on sale at 2 pm tomorrow at only one ticketmaster location on hollywood blvd. (i didn't catch the exact > address--i am not going anyway). They are not allowing people to line up before noon.

I'd almost like a videotape of this one...can you all picture the mess that is going to ensue? You're going to have like 1,000 people waiting to be allowed to line up, and then the mad rush when noon comes around. There will be blood. There will be carnage. Everyone out there better be ready for a fight. I have an idea or two on how they think they are going to keep the peace, but I don't see how they'll do on enforcement. Good luck to all of you. <<<

This is of course nonsense. It was clear by the announcement (no lineups before noon, tickets on sale at 2:00) that they would be doing random wrist bands, so there was no reason for anybody to get there early. They obviously did allow people to line up before noon, since I got there right about noon and the line was all the way back around the block to the back of the Pantages Theater. They handed out the wristbands in a fairly orderly manner as far as I could tell, not being near the front I don't know if there were any incidences there. Don't know how many wristbands got handed out, but I would estimate a couple thousand (that means somewhere between 2 and 5000). At about 1:00 they picked the number and it was 3227, I was 3679, far enough away to think I was probably out of luck, but close enough that I had to wait it out and see. They were saying that up to 3600 had a shot at getting tickets. It took about an hour to sell all the tickets and they ended up with #3558. It was handled okay, my only complaint being that they didn't handle the line (after the number was announced) particularly well, it was just kind of a mass of people out at the curb. They should have run it along the side of the buildings and things would have run smoother and it wouldn't have taken an hour to find out I was sunk. There were some scalpers, but not a large number by what I saw. I doubt more than a dozen scalpers got tickets. There was one guy who had a group of about 6 homeless looking people.
 
 

From Rayna :

its twenty to two and where am i? in line for cure tickets? no...... its a long, sad story. but i am going to bring a lot of cash with me tonight, in hopes that my friend and i will get in. agh. i went to virgin yesterday. i skipped class, didn't turn in my paper, and called the store about eleven-ish. the woman i spoke to told me that people were already waiting so i called a taxi and ran out the door. i ordered my galore cd and sat down in line, which was not very long at all...about twenty people or so. i made a friend and everything was going okay. the virgin megastore employees even seemed sympathetic to our cause, giving us reassuring smiles and "wow. you sure are patient." patient or neurotic, you can all decide... anyway, all of a sudden, some security people started strutting around, digustingly absorbed with their pathetically high need for power. they told us to get out or they'd call the police. we were on the sidewalk. we had already bought something from the store and yet, we were considered to be loitering. slowly, most of us, moved to the tables in the cafe (right next to virgin), angled so we could see all. some people ran across the street so they could bolt across sunset blvd. when the line started? i have no clue. and some other people refused to move so the police came in to do their cleaning up job. hours passed. i saw two people i knew from school, which made life more bearable. we people-watched and waited until five so we could listen to kroq. i couldn't hear it that well, but my dear roommate taped it so if you want a copy, email me. anyway, they finally announced that tickets were to go on sale tuesday at two. people were already lining up and staking out their spots even though they said no lineups before noon. more hours passed. around six-ish, we started lining up again. i was freezing, smoking cigarrettes and talking, trying to pass the time. security became really strict and cruel, yelling at us: "i want two lines! the lines have to have two people in it!" i dont think he knew what the hell he was talking about cos my friend, aaron, yelled, "the lines can only have two people in it??" the security guy got all riled up, and screamed, "FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DON'T UNDERSTAND, YOU CAN JUST LEAVE!" ooh......oh dear. they passed out the wristbands, and we took turns going into virgin to save ourselves from the cold. i can't say i was having fun, but it was definitely an interesting experience. if a limo drove by, people would scream, "LOOK! its the cure!!" its not like we live in la, and there is only one limousine, but anyway....kroq interns were roaming around, getting people to sign up for the raffle for free tickets to tonight's show.. finally, finally....around 11:30 pm, they handed out the cds, and for the next hour and a half, we waited for some people without wristbands to leave. they wouldn't. eventually, they called the swat team or some sort of law enforcement agency to get them out. the line began to move. i was inside the store at one-thirty. and the line moved so ridiculously slow. it was okay, though. i was delirious and tired and cold, and shaking, just laughing at everything. the cure took a bathroom break, and the manager said: "okay, now don't panic. the cure are JUST taking a bathroom break. remember they're human beings too. they ARE coming back." i didn't know they were human beings, mister, but thank you for fucking telling me. most of the people who had the authority to speak were stupid pricks who believed they were more intelligent than the rest of us. i thought that was funny. robert would occasionally walk around, and stick his tongue out at people. cheers of: "we love you robert!" filled my head like a nightmare. this one really annoying group of girls (and there were several), came to the realization that they had screamed everyone's name except jason's, so they crooned: "oh ....poor jason. hi jason! we love you!" ahh, how utterly thoughtful and endearing. never mind, that it was obvious that we love the cure. i would not wait for anyone else for thirteen hours. to satiate the mayhem, they put on the galore video (probably to shut some people up), but instead, people sang along. they ended up stopping the tape mid-way through the thirteenth. i don't know if they started it up again later, but judging from other posts, i guess they did. anticipation built. and i was trying to save myself from making the same mistake i made last time, which i won't go into. (shy smile) as we walked through, jason was first, then roger, perry, simon, and robert. jason looked kindof sleepy, but greeted people with smiles. he signed my disc and i said thank you. roger didn't look up at hardly anyone. he just signed the disc, and slid it on down towards perry. i thanked roger. perry signed it. i thanked him, too. he had a tired, but mischevious smile on his face. they were all drinking beers, and perry said, "hello." he also asked me if something was mine, but it wasn't. anyway....everything kindof came to a halt when i got to simon. my friend in back of me, had caught up to me. and so had a few other people. some manager guy started saying, "simon...simon....SIMON!" simon was drunk, or at least appeared so, talking to perry. i didn't want them yelling at him, but they started yelling at me, too, for holding up the line. simon finally signed my friend's, with an "si" forgetting the rest maybe? and signed mine as well, but he signed the inside cover instead of the disc. he didn't notice and i wasn't going to demand that he sign somewhere else. its almost better this other way. then, i got to robert, who was looking up from time to time. one of my friends, who had met robert on a previous occasion, gave robert a picture of them together. my friend left, and robert picked up the picture, looked at it confusedly, and then looked back towards my friend. but he was out the door. robert started grinning. he signed mine. i thanked him. and he looked up really intensely to pretty much everyone who passed by him. it was penetrative, but distant, reminding me of something you can never quite capture, but can always feel. i guess its a strange way to describe his glance, but he smiled and i forgot the feeling for a moment. and then security, "said, okay now you have to leave." they made it seem like i was there forever, but it was really only a couple minutes. so that was my night. i felt all strange when i was finally done and out of the store around three-ish. all in all, it was worth it. quite the adventure, if that is the appropriate word? but, it should have been better organized. the store was expecting a huge crowd, someone said they were expecting ten-thousand, but even around three pm, they had no idea as to how they were going to deal with it all. with things like this, organization is crucial. people like me don't know what exactly is going on until we get there, but they should have some sort of definite plan. when they don't know what the hell to do, and we don't either, everything just becomes hellishly messy. oh yeah, i dont know how i forgot (but alot did happen), but during the signing, some guy ran into the store, threw something at robert, and ran out. you would think that security could have prevented that. i'm sincerely sorry to all of you who tried to get in, but couldn't. its just miserable. but at the same time, i have a feeling that no matter how much money i can bring tonight, i'll end up going home at nine, lying around, and listening to the cure. i have to go write my paper now. i better finish soon. thanks for reading.