So last night I went to the nine inch nails/Jane’s Addiction show at the Comcast center in Mansfield, MA. I’ll get this part out of the way right now – the show itself was great. Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine)’s new band StreetSweeper Social Club opened up, followed by the legendary nine inch nails, and finally Jane’s Addiction. Not going to lie, I only stayed for a few JA songs, as NIN was clearly the best band on the bill and a personal favorite of mine for the last 15-20 years (yeah I am old, shutup). Again, the music was great and I am happy to have attended the show.
On the other hand, you have the venue itself, which sucked. And I mean SUCKED. It sucked when it was Great Woods, it sucked when it was the Tweeter Center and it still sucks as the Comcast Center. Why does it suck, you ask? Here’s a few examples from last night’s show:
$9 Beers. Yes, you read that right, NINE bucks for one god damn beer! There were other stands with $8 beers, but I saw a ton of $9 beers as well. How can the price of beer manage to go up every single summer at these venues but not at the packie? Christ! And who the hell can afford a $9 beer these days?
Overpriced food, too. While I was able to fend off the temptation to have a few cold frosty beverages, I was not able to stave off the rumbling in my belly for some dinner, having gone right from work to the venue. So, me and my fiancee head over and each grab a personal sized pizza and one bottle of water to share (more on the water bottle in a minute.) That set us back a mere $24 – $10 for each pizza and $4 for the bottle of water. Now, if we went out to eat and spent $24 for the two of us to eat dinner, we probably wouldn’t even think twice about it -but this is just your standard entertainment venue food here, not a nice sit down restaurant or a large order of general gau. Unreal!
Dumbass employees. This has been a staple of this place forever, but last night’s example takes the cake. We brought our $10 pizzas and one bottle of water past the ushers after showing them our tickets and headed to our seats, which where on the opposite side from where we entered. I was stopped about three steps in by another usher who said to me (very matter-of-factly), “Hey – you can’t bring water bottles in here, they can be used as projectiles.”
So I said, “Ummm okay (confused), then why are you selling them at the concession stands?”
Usher: “Well, they are supposed to take the caps off the bottles, actually.”
Me: “Okay, here is my cap.”
Usher: “Ummm (looks at another usher, who shakes his head)….no, sorry no bottles.”
At this point I am pissed and my fiancee is swearing up a storm at these jabronis, so we head back outside the covered area into the rain (yes, it was raining) to eat our $10 pizzas and drink our contraband. I decided that rather than sit in the rain, I’d just put the now banned item in my pocket (had cargo pants on) and walk around the other side and enter, which we did with no issues. From there we observed not only numerous water bottles inside, but numerous plastic beer bottles as well. Jackasses.
Lame people. I guess this isn’t really the venue’s fault, but I am on a roll. I will never, never understand people who need to get in and our of the row to hit the beer lines WHILE there’s a band playing. I am as dedicated to beer as I am anything, but you paid to see the show, STAY IN YOUR SEAT and watch the show! If you want to get drunk off $9 beers, get a lawn seat! It was as bad as going to a Sox game where someone in your row gets up every five seconds and you miss half the game with people shuffling back and forth (that’s a whole other story too).
Anyway, that’s why the Comcast center sucks. I’d much rather see a show at a club than that godforsaken place but I decided I didn’t want to miss NIN’s last show for a long time, as they’re putting it.
