Oh great, my first post is addressing "drama."
People need to get over themselves. Like, give your heads a wobble and have done.
It's ONE show. I understand it's disappointing when you don't get to see your favourite artist at a show you wanted to attend because a) you couldn't afford it 2) you don't bank with Chase or 3) it was sold out.
It's disappointing, sure, but that's it. It's not cause to call him a sell-out, or anything like that. Is he doing stuff for money? Sure, did you think he wasn't?
As I said, it's ONE show that's been hosted by Chase bank for account holders. If someone has a "special" account i.e., that they pay more money to have-they get special access to other perks i.e., meet and greet packages with artists they've hired to put on a show.
It's a special event, not a "normal" show.
People complaining that the VIP packages for his normal shows are expensive for what you get-sure, maybe they are, but I didn't see that stopping a single person from purchasing the tickets. Somewhere down the line, you all decided barricade access was worth the additional fee and handed over your money. If that's no longer worth it to you, well, that's on you for paying the price. There were other tickets, including standing ones, at different prices, available.
No one had a gun held to your head to buy tickets that you didn't think were worth the price, Jan. I bought seated tickets that were in my budget because I didn't care about getting barricade (when people were queuing at ridiculous times anyway so what was the point of VIP) and the ticket I got was perfectly reasonably priced.
Complaining that the VIP tickets didn't come with a Meet and Greet like what? Well, they never claimed that they did come with a meet and greet and think about that logistically, for just one second.
Joe was often doing shows, back to back, in different locations, and you want/expect him to offer meet and greet packages on top of setting up the shows (often with only hours to set up/soundcheck) and you expect him to spend additional time meeting fans. The man was already coming out after shows (not all shows, I'll grant you, and it stopped after a "fan" was horrible to him but can you blame him?)
It's just not practical for him to offer meet and greet packages, even on a limited basis. It's a lot to take on-especially when it was his first big tour and he'll be trying to juggle getting used to how exhausting it is-the travel, the performing, everything. Give the man a break.
As for the "it sold out before I even got to the front of the queue!" complaints-so? What do you want Joe to do about that? Is he sitting at home, making sure all the tickets get bought before other fans get them? No.
He can't control scalpers. That's not his area. Should they be controlled and stopped? Absolutely, but he's not responsible for it.
As for the "he's a sell-out, and only in it for the money!" why do fans do this? Why do they put their faves on a pedastal that they can't possibly live up to? Is he in it for the money? Probably not entirely, but that doesn't mean he doesn't require money or desire it on some level. Don't we all? We got to eat, Sharon.
I know that there are massive issues with how much tickets for shows are costing right now-ticketmaster/livenation etc have a lot to answer for-and a lot of the artists that are guilty of over-pricing their tickets are paying the price right now when they're having to cancel/cut short their tours because they can't sell out. That's the way the consumer fights things like this-by opting out.
So, if you want to stop the resellers/the scalpers or the over-pricing of tickets, you're going to have to stop buying them. it's the only way. Throwing a tantrum because Joe is holding one event hosted by Chase Bank that isn't affordable/available to you isn't doing jackshit.
His shows have otherwise been affordable/reasonably-priced. The audacity to complain about the one show that isn't available to you when he's done a whole-ass tour that has multiple priced options that makes it accessible to a lot of people is insane.
This just in-not everything will be available to you/in your budget and that's ok. You can be disappointed in that-but Joe isn't the problem here. It's just one of those things. It's one show.
That's my rant done for now. I will probably rant more later.