The Elton John concert at McKenzie Arena on Nov. 19 is sold out, sort of. In fact, it officially sold out in about four hours, setting a new record for a concert in the building, according to facility manager Ken Kapelinski.
Here’s where the “sort of” comes into play. There are still some tickets on hold for fan clubs, and the configuration of the stage setup is still being tweaked to accommodate more people. Some of the fan-club tickets might become available to the general public in the coming days.
The original setup for the almost 12,000-seat arena was to put the stage at one end and block off the seats to the sides and behind the stage. When the front-of-the-house seats sold in an hour and 45 minutes – breaking Kenny Chesney’s 2-hour-and-30-minute record – arena officials began selling side seats and contacted John’s people about reconfiguring the stage to open up seats behind the stage.
Those sold quickly as well. If all are indeed sold by day of show, Kapelinski said the total will be in the 10,500 neighborhood.
In a community that rarely – and you could write that word in all caps – buys its tickets in advance, the question might be why did this one sell out so fast.
Without asking all 10,500 people why they sprung for tickets priced between $37 and $137 (the highest ticket ever there), I’ll offer some possibilities.
First of all, it’s Elton John, and he is doing “all hits, all night.” Few artists can match his catalog. We can maybe quibble over whether his later stuff is as good as the early stuff, but for every “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” there are several “Bennie and the Jets.”
Second, let’s be honest, he is not getting younger. Now is the time to see him do the hits.
Third, he is playing with two members of his original band from the early 1970s: Davey Johnstone on guitar and Nigel Olsson on drums. Joining them will be John Mahon on percussion, Bob Birch on bass and Kim Bullard on keyboards. It should sound good.
Fourth, as soon as the show was announced, it took on the feel of an event. People like events, and they want to be a part of events.
I had at least four people call the day after the concert was announced wanting to know the best route for buying good seats. I actually called the arena folks, and they recommended online. That still translated into waiting in line online at least a couple of hours to buy tickets.
One of the people who called me about tickets called back this week to give the arena staff some kudos.
“They took my name and promised to call me if better seats became available, and they did just now,” he said.
If you didn’t get a ticket, it can’t hurt to keep trying, especially as the date gets closer.
In last week’s column, Betty Brown’s father should have been identified as Edwin “E.R.” Varnell.