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Anyone here "big time" concert fans?

I've been to relatively few concerts in my life, and never really cared before now... This Friday, my daughter and I are going to see Weird Al (3rd row Center tickets! Yeah!). I thought it would be cool to hang out with her after the concert at the exit to see if I could get her (and, incidentally, myself) an autograph from him. Then I got to thinking that back stage would be even cooler.

Anyone have any tricks or tips on getting back stage passes?

Thanks.


Eric

hard rock casino down here sells it.
meet n greets. dinner with the performer.

it just takes $$.
to walk/sneak backstage at other show. good luck. expect to get caught and banned from the venue.

In my limited experience, you either have to purchase the passes for a lot of extra money, or win them through a radio promotion or something.

Something that has apparently worked for others is to find something the performer loves and bring it as a gift that you want to deliver personally (or better yet, have your child do it). If Weird Al likes chocolate cake, bring in a little home made chocolate cake with "Weird Al is #1!" scrawled on it, that sort of thing. The worst that could happen is that you have to eat some cake before heading home.

Not sure how old your daughter is but Weird Al concerts are pretty raunchy.

kturock wrote:to walk/sneak backstage at other show. good luck. expect to get caught and banned from the venue.

No. I have no desire to try to sneak in. I'm too old for that now... and that is NOT the kind of example I want to set for my daughter.

aurak_merc wrote:In my limited experience, you either have to purchase the passes for a lot of extra money, or win them through a radio promotion or something.

Or know someone who knows someone.. LOL
I have a (ultra slim chance) line on some at work. It's a "Someone I work with knows someone who knows him" kind of a thing. : )

aurak_merc wrote:Something that has apparently worked for others is to find something the performer loves and bring it as a gift that you want to deliver personally (or better yet, have your child do it). If Weird Al likes chocolate cake, bring in a little home made chocolate cake with "Weird Al is #1!" scrawled on it, that sort of thing. The worst that could happen is that you have to eat some cake before heading home.

That's an idea. Just time for a little recon. : )

xghostmakerx wrote:Not sure how old your daughter is but Weird Al concerts are pretty raunchy.

I would not have expected that from him, to be honest.
She's 15, though. In all seriousness, I doubt he'll be raunchier than I am. LOL If she can deal with me (for the record, I DO "dial it down a notch" around the daughter... but JUST a notch), he'll probably be okay. I've seen BAD... at an AD/DC concert. I would NOT want her to go to one of those at her age. LOL
Granted, *I* liked it...

Thanks for the warning, though.

Eric

Yeah, you would totally not expect it from Weird Al but I guess as he's getting older he's trying to get "edgier"

I would like to go to one of his shows someday. Of course, if they did not play "Dare to be Stupid" or "Amish Paradise" I would be a sad panda. Both of those tunes make me smile.

aurak_merc wrote:I would like to go to one of his shows someday. Of course, if they did not play "Dare to be Stupid" or "Amish Paradise" I would be a sad panda. Both of those tunes make me smile.

Great - now I have "Amish Paradise" stuck in my head.

...and I've got "Dare to Be Stupid" stuck in mine. LOL

"... You can eat a bunch of Sushi, then forget to leave a tip..."

xghostmakerx wrote:Yeah, you would totally not expect it from Weird Al but I guess as he's getting older he's trying to get "edgier"

Actually, I've looked into it since reading your post. All the blogs and descriptions I'm seeing of his live show says it's family friendly for all ages.

Ah, well... it's tomorrow, so we'll see.


Eric

Sometimes an email to the performer is all it takes. Al is supposed to be very fan friendly, shoot of an email to him and see what happens. At worst he ignores it.

Doctari wrote:Sometimes an email to the performer is all it takes. Al is supposed to be very fan friendly, shoot of an email to him and see what happens. At worst he ignores it.

Revision: Have your 'daughter' write an e-mail to Al.

in my young age, all the backstage passes i got was either because i was press (interviews...) or i knew the performer already. I do not think you can actually buy backstages passes like that as performing on a scene is a quite an effort.
in my memory there were always 2 rooms: one for media and contest winners and the other ones for the bands to rest, eat and drink, the last one being the real backstage.

In that time, the scene i was following was small and performers weren't different for their public, so they were easily reachable and talkable

The best bet would be to have your daughter send an email, even if it would be only for a picture or the like...

After that it is always depending on the size of the venue and if the performer manages him/herself the PR. I do not Weird ID so i can't say.

J

I'd thought about the email thing but, frankly, I figured time was too short.
For the record, we went and we had a BLAST! There were NO boundaries between fans & the stage. We were able to walk right up to is and take pics before the concert. There was even a set of steps going from the stage to the seating area.

The most non-family friendly song he performed was "Wanna B Ur Lovr," which is just a bunch of corny pick up lines strung together into a song. As typical with Weird Al, though, it's really funny. During the performance, he came off the stage and wandered around the floor (even climbed up into the "cheaper seats") and flirted with/grinded on various women (including a 60+ yr old usher!)... but it was an "all in good fun" kind of grind, and not overly sexual.

Al was AWESOME. My daughter and I got to meet him by waiting by the loading dock after the concert. We (and the others who waited) got autographs from him and his keyboardist, and my daughter got a hug from him. She's still gushing over the hug because (in her words), "It wasn't one of those fake hugs you give to someone you don't want to hug, it was a REAL hug, like [she] was someone he knew and WANTED to hug. He smelled really good, too."
She's a fan for life.

He was gracious and kind and, if he wasn't sincere about appreciating us as fans and that we waited in the cold to meet him, his acting job about it was Oscar worthy.

I'll never miss a local concert of his again.

Eric

post that as a review on his website and/or the website of the venue and/or anywhere else that he might see it.. like on yahoo or facebook.

artists like hearing/reading that their fans appreciated what they did.

Oh, yeah. I intend on putting something GLOWING on his site from home. This is actually my first chance to get online since then, though. LOL

Eric