Invalidate my VIP ticket but please don’t steal the magic!

Last week, my wife and I had plans to attend the Seu Jorge tribute to David Bowie concert together. She is nine months pregnant and this was probably going to be our last date out for a while. On Sunday night she started having contractions every five to ten minutes. On Monday we decided that she should not go even though her contractions were slowing. When looking at Craiglist to see about selling the other ticket, I saw a VIP ticket for sale, allowing the owner of that ticket to meet and greet with Seu Jorge. I imagined meeting Seu Jorge and asking him to say a blessing for the new baby and maybe even recording the conversation to share with my wife when I got home. Instead, I discovered that the promotional company providing the meet and greet (ironically named Future Beat) would find a way to steal the only important thing about music the internet hasn’t radically changed.

The show was amazing. Jorge played most of the David Bowie songs he created for the movie The Life Aquatic by Wes Anderson. They are imaginative and beautiful but I was thrilled when Jorge played one song by the incredible Jorge Ben (no relation). Jorge felt a need to explain his Brazilian musical roots with that song, and it illustrated why he was surprised by the call from Wes Anderson asking him to rework Bowie’s songs, songs he had no connection or understanding of before the call. The show was particularly special because in between the music he told stories in his limited English about his life during and after the movie. It felt like destiny when he talked about having a six month old baby while talking to Wes Anderson and I was sure providence would somehow provide and let me meet him after the show.

That never happened. The production manager heard my story and came back saying “Sorry, we are all done here.” The woman who sold me the ticket offered to give me the T-shirt which came with the VIP package. So, I wrote to the email address provided in the package confirmation email to ask about the missed connection.

I purchased a meet and greet ticket for Seu Jorge last night in Portland. The person I purchased the ticket from did not check their spam folder and incorrectly told me I should show up at 7 pm for the show to be at the meet and greet, so I missed meeting Seu Jorge.

I purchased this ticket at the last minute on Monday night. My wife is nine months pregnant and was going to attend the show with me but she started having contractions on Monday night so we thought it best she not come to the show. To establish a connection with the concert for my wife, I was hoping to meet Seu Jorge and have him say a quick blessing for my new baby that will be coming in a few days, Norah Jeanne.

I know it is too late to get that, but the person who sold me the ticket wanted to offer to have the merchandise associated with the ticket sent to me instead. Can you transfer her account/email to mine? Her email associated with the ticket purchase is … and she said she will agree to a transfer if that is possible.

I don’t know if it is possible to pass on to Seu Jorge my request for a blessing for our baby, but that would make me happy to know he heard my request. I was really moved by his discussion of his 6 month old baby when Wes Anderson initially called him during the concert. I love Seu Jorge, have been an avid fan of his and have seen him in Portland and in Seattle, and flew down to SF years ago just for the purpose of seeing him live with Almaz. I lived in Brazil and his music reminds me so much of the beauty and potential of all people in the world.

Their response was completely tone deaf:

Hello Chris,

VIP packages cannot be resold—the only way to validate a VIP package gift transfer is to have a copy of the purchaser’s ID and note explaining the purchase. All VIP information is sent to the email address provided at purchase. An additional email will be sent this week with instructions on how to place an order online so that the VIP merchandise can be shipped. She may forward the merchandise instructions to you and it is up to you to coordinate with the purchaser.

We hope to continue working with Seu Jorge and that you’ll be able to make it to another show and meet & greet next time.

Thank you,
Future Beat

I noted I find it ironic this company calls themselves Future Beat. Here are the reasons why:

• I paid cash for the ticket at the door. Not sure why they assumed otherwise. And, clearly that wasn’t the point of my email.
• The seller of this ticket didn’t get the VIP email Future Beat sent because it was delivered to her spam folder. In that email Future Beat said “make sure to check your spam folder,” but how would you know this if that email was in your spam folder? There is an incredibly simple solution to this: use an email delivery service that will give you absolute information on click through rates. Every single email service will do this in their dashboard. This is twenty year old technology. If you don’t see 100% click throughs on an experience you are selling for more than $200, make a phone call to the buyer.
• I’m totally baffled that Future Beat cannot change an email address to which they are directing the remaining merchandise for the VIP package. The seller never forwarded any correspondence to me prior to the purchase, probably assuming I might steal the ticket somehow. I met her at the door and paid cash for the ticket. And, she obviously didn’t think to check her spam folder when selling the ticket. So, I’m justifiably nervous about her forwarding everything to me correctly. Why a “futuristic” company can’t change an email address they must have scratched on a post-it note is beyond me.

All of these things are debatable and forgivable. Being a person who looks to be responsible for my experiences, I can see where I could have done things differently: I could have asked the seller to confirm by phone or contacting Future Beat by email whether the ticket was transferable and what the exact time was to meet (I did ask about whether it was transferable and triple checked the time with her, but did not ask that she confirm explicitly with Future Beat). But there is one thing about the response from Future Beat that really annoyed me that I felt they could and should have handled much differently.

I asked if they could try to pass on my message to Seu Jorge. If nothing else, I would have loved to have sat with the mystery that maybe he would get that message in a few weeks and think for a split second about my new baby. Or, even said a little blessing. Or, even thought about her while writing a new song. I never would have needed confirmation of any of those requests. Future Beat could have responded by saying: “I will see if I can pass your message on.” And, I would have never bothered to follow up because the mystery was more important than the reality.

You would think Future Beat would get that, promoting a concert about the music of a Wes Anderson film: movies all about magic and wonder. David Bowie was a flawed person in many ways, but the music and experiences people had with his music lives on, and that drew thousands of people to the concert last week. It is supremely sad that a company representing the connection to dozens of musicians has lost sight of that, the one thing the internet can’t take from us, the serendipitous and chance connections with these musicians we love at their live shows.