Tag Archives: Jerry Garcia

My Christmas With Stagger Lee and Billy DeLyon

27 Tuesday Dec 2022

Posted by in Music

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The true story of Stagger Lee is something I’ve known a little about for years. Maybe I heard about it once because the “incident” took place in my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. I’ve always been fond of Robert Hunter’s colorful version of the story, put to song by Jerry Garcia and performed by the Grateful Dead (some great live versions here). There are many other Stagger Lee songs, however, going back to the end of the 19th century, though no recordings seem to exist from before the 1920s.

I was working out the Dead’s version of the song on the guitar when I got curious about a couple of things and went down a proverbial rabbit hole. I’ll get into a few details about Hunter’s version of the story below, but all the entries in this long tradition in song are about how the title character killed a man at a bar (or in a cave, an alley, and maybe elsewhere).

The Facts of the Case

The true story is this: Lee Shelton had a dispute with one Billy Lyons at a bar named Clark’s in the “Deep Morgan” neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. It happened on Christmas night of 1895 (not 1932, 1940, or 1948). It’s said to have started with a political argument, not a new phenomenon by any means! Shelton “grabbed Lyons’ derby and broke the form”. Lyons then snatched Shelton’s Stetson hat. Shelton demanded it back, and when Lyons refused, he hit Lyons over the head with the butt of his gun. Lyons pulled a knife and Shelton backed away, shooting Lyons in the abdomen. Shelton “cooly”picked up his hat, according to witnesses, left the bar, and strolled a few blocks to the home of a girlfriend, where he crashed for the night. He was arrested a few hours later, at around 3 a.m. on the 26th.

Lee Shelton was a carriage driver and rumored to be a pimp. He also worked as a political organizer for local democrats, whose “club” met at Clark’s saloon. Shelton had a record as a violent criminal, but he was nevertheless well-connected to powerful players on the local scene. He was also said to be quite a dandy, and he went by the alias of Stack Lee. One theory is that Shelton, a mulatto, intimated that he was the illegitimate son of the steamboat captain Stacker Lee, whose dad owned a line of riverboats. Lyons, an African American levee hand, also participated in politics, but at a republican “club” centered at another saloon a few blocks away from Clark’s, so the two men were rivals in some respects.

Shelton’s first trial ended in a hung jury. Later he was convicted to serve 25 years at the state penitentiary in Jefferson City, Mo. He was paroled in 1909 but sent back to prison in 1911 for another crime. He died of tuberculosis in the prison hospital in 1912, at the age of 47.

The Legend and Tradition

At least one song was written about Shelton while he was in jail awaiting his first trial for murder, Many others followed, including levee work songs and field calls. His legend caught on and became part of African American folklore, sometimes with Stagger Lee cast as the hero of the story, but more often as the bad guy. He was, however, mythologized as a powerful black man who did what he pleased, which was understandably appealing to a people who, by then, had been nominally free for 30 years but still suffered various forms of subjugation.

Robert Hunter’s version of Stagger Lee is consistent with several aspects of the sung tradition of the legend. But like all other versions with which I’m aware, Hunter’s story differs from the facts of the case in several ways. His is a unique imagining of a set of events in the immediate aftermath the shooting. Hunter performed his original version of the song himself, called “Delia DeLyon and Stagger Lee”. I hadn’t known until last week that Jerry Garcia “re-ordered” Hunter’s lyrics in composing the Dead’s music for the song. Garcia cut a few of Hunter’s lines and made some other small changes. Of course, when you actually start singing a tune, the words can fall out in new ways!

Hunter must have had a good understanding of the song’s tradition, or maybe he did some deep research. I’m impressed either way, but researching a topic like this is a lot easier now than it was in the 1970s. Some of Hunter’s lyrics contain strong echoes of earlier versions as well as other legendary songs, and they share a cadence in phrasing and even pieces of specific lines from earlier variations of Stagger Lee.

The Songs, and Hunter’s Song

Here are a few points about the legend of Stagger Lee in song, and particularly Hunter’s (and Garcia’s) version. These are listed in more or less random order. They are interesting to me in part because I think they reflect the knowledge and study Hunter brought to bear on his song-writing effort.

The Biggest Hit: Versions have been recorded by a number of great artists over the years, including Cab Calloway, James Brown, Fats Domino, Elvis Presley, Taj Mahal, Doc Watson, Bob Dylan, The Clash, Nick Cave, and many others. However, in 1958 Lloyd Price released a version of the song, and maybe the only version, that garnered broad popularity. His R&B tune is nothing like the Hunter/Garcia effort, but Price speaks of the moon, a dice game, the Stetson hat, and he refers to the victim Billy as “that poor boy”. Other versions reference Billy as a “poor boy” as well, including Hunter’s. But many traditional songs have used “poor boy” to describe victimized or sympathetic male characters, so this isn’t a big coincidence.

Mississippi John Hurt: Recorded in 1928, Hurt’s version is said to be the “standard”. His lyrics refer to the victim as Billy de Lyon, rather than Lyons. DeLyon is the name used by Hunter. I’m not sure Hurt was the first to use “de Lyon”, but his version was influential. Here is another part of Hurt’s lyrics:

“Gentleman’s of the jury, what do you think of that?
Stack O’ Lee killed Billy de Lyon about a five-dollar Stetson hat.”

And here’s Hunter:

“Do you know what he shot him for? What do you make of that?
‘Cause Billy de Lyon threw the lucky dice. Won Stagger Lee’s Stetson hat.”

He’s a Bad Man! The refrain, “He’s a bad man, oh cruel Stagolee”, is repeated many times in Hurt’s early version. However, the refrain Hunter used at the end of each verse was simply “He’s a mad man”. Garcia must have removed Hunter’s “mad man” refrain from the Dead’s version, and it’s easy to see why it wouldn’t have worked as well there. But there’s still the line: “Stagger Lee is a mad man and he shot my Billy dead”.

Interestingly, Hunter’s original “Delia DeLyon and Stagger Lee” is sung to Hurt’s country blues melody (with a few differences – compare here and here). That means, in turn, that the same lyrical cadence is used in both Hurt’s and the Dead’s versions, despite completely different melodies.

Did He Pack a .45… Or a .44? Shelton apparently used a .44 Smith & Wessen revolver to kill Lyons, and almost all versions of the song refer to a .44. Perhaps Hunter simply liked the rhyme of “I won’t come back alive” with “He packs a .45.”

Cowardly Cops? Or Just Corrupt?: The corruption theme was common to many versions of the song. That might have been a product of black resentment in that era against a lackadaisical (and probably racist) attitude toward prosecuting crimes against blacks. Here are a few lines from the 1927 song by Little Harvey Hull and The Down Home Boys, casting Billy as a cop:

“How can it be,
You arrest a man that’s as bad as me,
But you won’t arrest Stack O’Lee?”

Here’s a verse from one of the traditional versions reprinted at this site:

“The woman asked the sheriff, said ‘How can this be?
You got all them bad men, but you can’t get Stagolee’
Deputies took their badges and they laid them on the shelf
‘If you want to get that bad man, you get him by yourself’”

Those deputies sound scared! Either way, Hurt followed Hull in describing a cop who wouldn’t do his job:

“Police officer, how can it be?
You can ‘rest everybody but cruel Stack O’ Lee”

These words will ring familiar to anyone who’s heard Hunter’s version. Hunter’s cop was definitely frightened. The lines from “The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics” are:

“Baio, Baio, tell me how can this be?
You arrest the girls for turning tricks
but you’re scared of Staggerlee
Staggerlee is a madman and he shot my Billy dead
Baio you go get him or give the job to me”

I should note that there are a few slight differences between the “Annotated” lyrics and those on dead.net.

Nearer My God To Thee: This reference appeared in a tale about a different St. Louis murder taking place in either 1890 or 1899, depending on the source. Like the Lyons shooting, it was remembered in song. Quite a few songs, as a matter of fact. Many were called Frankie and Albert, though many others were called Frankie and Johnny. Same story. Basically, Frankie killed her man Albert (Johnny) for cheating on her.

The following is from Leadbelly’s long 1939 version of Frankie and Albert, followed by a corresponding Hunter reference in Stagger Lee:

“Little Frankie went down Broadway
As far as she could see
And all she could hear was a two-string bow
Playing, ‘Nearer, My God To Thee’…”

And here’s Hunter:

“Delia went a walkin’
Down on Singapore Street
Where a three-piece band on a corner played
‘Nearer, My God To Thee’…”

Singapore Street? I thought perhaps Hunter placed the location of the story in San Francisco, but there is no evidence of a street by that name historically. Maybe elsewhere, but there is no Singapore Street in the U.S. at present.

Christmas Day or Eve? Hunter placed the murder on “X-mas Eve” (Garcia sang “Christmas Eve” at least once), but the shooting actually occurred on Christmas night at about 10 p.m.

I only found one other reference to Christmas Eve in the versions I checked out (not even close to half of the total), and I’m not sure it would have influenced Hunter. These lines are from a traditional version with lyrics at this site:

“Stagalee, Stagalee — you must-a been a sinner
Ev’ry- Christmas eve they give Stagalee a dinner”

The Dice Game: Many versions of the song have the dispute between Stagger Lee and Billy arising from a dice game. That seems to have been an embellishment prompted by a newspaper article that ran more than six months after the killing (and one day before Shelton’s first trial). It stated that Shelton and Lyons had been shooting craps, but there’s no evidence that dice were involved that night. Here is Paul Slade on that point:

“In fact, there’s no mention of gambling in either the earlier newspaper reports or the inquest statements. Either the reporter responsible was genuinely confused, or he could not resist embellishing the story with one extra little colourful detail. Whatever its beginnings, the gambling is now an immovable part of the song”.

The Bucket of Blood: In 1967, a black inmate at the New York State Pen named “Big Stick” recited a “toast” that contained the following:

“He walked through rain and he walked through mud, Till he came to a place called the Bucket of Blood.”

Apparently Nick Cave’s lyrics were taken in large part from the Big Stick toast, and that, in turn, was based on “traditional” versions going back to at least 1911.

The “Bucket of Blood” was another St.Louis bar in the 1890s where some versions of the song have incorrectly placed the shooting. Perhaps it’s a stretch, but the name of that bar has such a gratuitous ring that it seems reminiscent of Hunter’s lines:

“She waded to De Lyon’s club through Billy De Lyon’s blood”

Minor point, but Lyons‘ “club” actually met at a bar called Bridgewater’s, which was just a few blocks down the street from Clark’s. It would have been odd for her to look for Stagger Lee at Bridgewater’s in order to exact her revenge, but I’m getting picky!

The Gallows: Shelton was not sent to the gallows, but many versions have it that way, including Hunter’s (if we’re to presume that Delia’s wishes were honored).

Delia DeLyon: Billy Lyons was likely married, but not to anyone named Delia. However, there is another murder song called “Delia’s Gone” about a shooting that took place in Savannah, Georgia on Christmas Eve in 1900! I somehow doubt that Hunter’s choice of “Delia” was coincidental.

The Cop’s Name: The name of the lawman in Hunter’s version seemed like a curiosity to me. It’s written as “Baio” in The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics. “Bayou” is probably what most people imagine they hear, and I’ve seen it that way on guitar charts. I poked around to see if I could learn of any historical basis for that name. There are a few people here and there who’ve gone by the name of Bayou… it might be confined to the lower Mississippi Valley. Nowhere could I find any reference to that name in the true story of Stagger Lee or in any other versions of the song. Woodie Guthrie’s rendition has the line “The bayou calls”, which doesn’t seem pertinent. The Rulers recorded a song about Stagger Lee called “Wrong ‘Em Boyo”, later covered by The Clash, but that’s apparently coincidental because “Boyo” is a reference to Stagger Lee himself. So I couldn’t find a source for the name of the cop in Hunter’s story.

Wrap Up

The music of many Stagger Lee songs could be described as old country blues, but there have been ragtime, swing, R&B, folk, reggae, and punk versions as well, not to mention spoken “toasts”. I like Garcia’s Stagger Lee melody for several reasons. It’s catchy, and it also has an “old-timey” or even “rag-timey” feel, despite its electricity.

It’s a fascinating Christmas tale, but probably not one you’ll want to tell your children as you tuck them in next Christmas Eve! Of course, Hunter’s lyrics describe something well beyond the actual facts of the Stagger Lee case. Nevertheless, he respects much of the tradition common to so many versions of the story. Meanwhile, his focus on Delia’s passion, revenge, and righteousness in avenging Stagger Lee’s brutality gives a whole different flavor to the story.

In case I failed to provide links to some of the source articles I drew on, here’s a list:

Several articles by Patrick Blackman on Singout.org

“The Baddest Man In Town”, by Eric McHenry

“A Brief History of Stagger Lee and Billy Lyons”, by Matt Marshall

“A Christmas Killing: Stagger Lee”, by Paul Slade

“The murder ballad of ‘Stagger Lee’ created a gruesome legend”, by Jeff Terich

NFT Assets, Artists, and Con Games

08 Saturday May 2021

Posted by in Art, Corruption

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The art world is buzzing about “non-fungible tokens” (NFTs), or digital files in which ownership is secured by blockchain technology. As the name suggests, such a crypto-asset can exist only as a whole piece. That’s unlike crypto currency, which is infinitely divisible and, well, fungible. NFTs are diverse in their features and functions, and various kinds of art are now being traded as NFTs: digital images, GIFs, and audio clips, for example.

Beeple Crap

A digital artist named Mike Winkelmann, otherwise known as Beeple, makes digital “Beeple-crap”, as he calls it, like the giant “Xi-bot” shown above. He has successfully monetized the digital images he’s posted on his web site over the last 13 years, and in a coup de grace, he recently aggregated all those images into a one-file mashup NFT for which a buyer paid $69.3 million in Ethereum (less a substantial fee to Christie’s auction house). And Beeple isn’t the only one making big bucks on NFTs!

Beeple’s “collage” is available for anyone to see or copy on the web. It’s called “Everdays: The First 5000 Days”. But precisely what are the rights now held by the buyer of “5000 Days”? Apparently, they are limited to the satisfaction of knowing digital proof of ownership is his, and whatever that smug feeling might be worth on potential resale! In fact, Beeple himself retains the copyright to 5000 Days, so it’s not as if the buyer is the only guy who can ever print a high-resolution copy. But here’s what Beeple says the buyer got:

“The biggest thing he actually bought is a relationship with me to promote his purchase. He and I are very aligned. I want to see this artwork go up in value. He wants to see the artwork go up in value, which benefits me. So the idea that he bought nothing is kind of misleading.”

The buyer, known as Metakovan, is the founder of Metapurse.fund, a highly influential player in crypto ventures and NFTs. But Metakovan’s purchase of 5000 Days is not his first collaboration with Beeple. They already had a significant “relationship”, and this transaction obviously won’t be their last.

If this smells a bit like a con game to you, you’re not alone. Don’t get me wrong: Beeple does produce art … very striking images, in fact. They might not be your cup of tea, and many are a bit cartoonish, but Beeple has computer skills and a real creative streak. He also has a knack for self-promotion unequalled, in relative terms, by perhaps any of the old masters or impressionists.

I’m perfectly happy to know there is a vibrant market in anything people call art. Whatever floats your boat, baby! However, I have trouble believing that long-term growth can occur on top of this kind of “valuation” without an escalating monetary inflation. Between the Federal Reserve’s open-spigot policy of near-zero interest rates and the advent of crypto-currencies with supply limits, dollars are getting cheap. Asset markets, still denominated in dollars, usually receive more than their fair share of bidding as excess dollars accumulate on balance sheets. So the outlook might be bright for NFTs as an asset class, such as it is.

Art In the Ersatz

The most regrettable thing about NFTs like 5000 Days might be what they reflect about the state of the art world itself. Richard Bledsoe of the Remodern Review has a lively take on 5000 Days and NFTs as a new stage in the long decline in the quality of what is called art. Bledsoe is no fan of contemporary art, which he argues has been enabled by elites who have successfully corrupted the art market.

I’m no expert, but I generally view contemporary art as less ambitious and requiring less skill than earlier forms. I think that’s easy to prove (see here and here), but it’s outside the scope of this post. I have wondered whether the emergence of contemporary art was impelled by the tremendous increase in prosperity during the late 19th and 20th centuries and the attendant expansion in the market for original art. Artists such as painters and sculptors, whose labor productivity did not greatly benefit from technology growth (we can argue about the last several decades), might have adjusted to this reality by focusing on simpler and more abstract forms. This is a digression, but it’s surely worthy of a much longer treatment. 

There’s no accounting for tastes, of course, and while I like some contemporary art, I’m definitely sympathetic to Bledsoe’s views. As for NFTs, he quotes from his book, “Remodern America: How the Renewal of Art Will Change the Course of Western Civilization”:

“Billions are being spent on unskilled and intangible contemporary art. Just like in the good old days, many of the suckers are the newly rich or globalists looking for social credibility and a fast buck. There’s a lot of money laundering and tax evasion in the equation as well.

How does the art world convince well-heeled fools to part with their money, when they are offering so little real value in return? Simple. The art market follows the tried and true methods honed by generations of confidence tricksters: the elaborate pantomime known as the long con…”

Don’t You Let That Deal Go Down

Bledsoe gives a brief sketch of the mechanics of the “long con” and how it’s practiced in the art market. He describes players such as the “Shill” (a promoter who avoids revealing a personal stake), the “Face” (a celebrity whose presence helps to “guarantee buzz will exceed rationality), and the lastly the “Roper”:

“… whose affluence leads to influence, a savvy and powerful individual whose participation gives credibility to the whole enterprise. What is ignored is how much moguls like this manipulate the market to serve personal interests, using insider trading, shady financing and backroom deals to inflate the value of their own collections.

In any other industry, common practices of the establishment art market could probably lead to criminal charges. But in the unregulated free-for-all of the art world, it’s very hard to bring these cases of potential white-collar crime to justice, and the victims here are less than sympathetic. After all, the buyers are people who have so much money it’s meaningless to them. Who cares if a bunch of billionaires are getting ripped off?”

All of these players seem well ensconced in the world of promoting NFT art: Beeple in particular, and the “art experts” at Christie’s, Beeple’s celebrity pals (OMG! Katy Perry!!), and finally Metakovan’s stature as an authority on NFTs and “tokenomics”. By the way, his considered opinion is that 5000 Days is “worth a billion dollars”. Well, okay then!

Carbon Indulgences

Another insane aspect of NFTs and the crypto-currencies used to buy them is the pushback over the carbon footprint of crypto-currency mining. This is discussed briefly by Bledsoe as well. While the electricity used in mining is significant, the amount attributable to any given transaction is minuscule. Yet now, sales of high-value NFTs are accompanied by the purchase of carbon credits. Read this description of an auction to be held for a piece of art created by Jerry Garcia on a Mac in 1990. It says “… carbon offsetting to be provided by a company called Aerial.” Now, Jerry Garcia was a talented visual artist on canvas and on his early Mac, not to mention his considerable magic as a guitarist and songwriter. God bless his family, and no offense to the Garcia Foundation, but they were perfect suckers for what has quickly become a standardized virtue signal or buy-off. The fact is that carbon offsets generally don’t have an impact for many years, and there are doubts as to their efficacy in permanently reducing carbon when the time comes.

Redeeming Potential

While the artistic value of NFTs like 5000 Days can be debated, my doubts about their value as assets center around the lack of real ownership rights conferred to buyers. Work is underway, however, on new NFT standards that would allow an NFT buyer to collect royalties, which would obviously carry real value. So, for example, a musician or band could immediately monetize a recording’s future royalties by selling it as an NFT. No one should have qualms about that, and good for the musicians.

I believe other kinds of NFTs have real value, in principle, such as the digital racehorses discussed in this article. Apparently, virtual horse races have already achieved a degree of popularity. These crypto-horses actually win prize money and collect stud fees, based on their digital bloodlines. Another example: NFTs can be concert tickets, electronic possession of which entitles the bearer to a particular seat at the venue; or, an NFT might remain in your “digital wallet” as a season ticket to sporting events. Among the claimed advantages over “normal” electronic ticketing is security, and NFT tickets live on as tradeable memorabilia as well.

Conclusion

It’s still early days for crypto-currencies and especially for NFTs. I can’t object to a free individual spending their hard-earned crypto-wealth on crypto-art like 5000 Days. Unfortunately, the market for NFT art does seem to embody aspects of a confidence game. And like Richard Bledsoe, I’m a skeptic when it comes to most contemporary art. However, there are circumstances under which the value of NFTs can be compelling, and the development of more “use-cases” will increase the value of digital currencies. New NFT standards and applications might well revolutionize certain industries. Continuing asset inflation instigated by central banks, and especially the Federal Reserve, will cause the dollar value of crypto-assets to rise. Big institutions like investment banks are starting to jump on the crypto bandwagon as well. So, while some NFTs might be short-term plays and might even be dangerous swindles, crypto and NFTs in general should not be dismissed as an asset class.

In Praise of Ticket Scalpers

04 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by in Secondary Markets

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fare-thee-well-2015

I have been a fan of The Grateful Dead since I was a teenager and have seen the band perform somewhere around 35 times prior to Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995 … I actually lost count. This summer, the four surviving original band members, along with some prominent guest musicians, will perform three reunion shows over the July 4th weekend at Chicago’s Soldier Field. They have said that this will be their last performance together.

Demand for tickets was so high that it surprised the band and the promoter. In January, an initial mail order tallied about 65,000 orders for more than 350,000 tickets, far more than the mail-order allotment and the stadium capacity for three days. On-line requests went mostly unfilled as the system was swamped when tickets went on-sale. Chicago Bears season ticket holders had the right of first refusal on a large number of tickets, which is unfortunate given the probable extent of the intersection between Bears fans and the set of Deadheads. And so there is a problem of scarcity and excess demand, a common occurrence for big concerts and sporting events.

Naturally, a secondary market has arisen to allocate the limited supply of tickets available from brokers and other willing sellers. However, as noted at the links above, asking prices on outlets like StubHub, often well above $1,000 per ticket, have shocked observers. Few transactions will actually take place at those prices. Repricing will occur until enough willing buyers are found. Nevertheless, many “Deadheads” are outraged. There are complaints on Facebook from self-righteous Deadheads, boasting of their honor as music fans and condemning the “greed” of resellers. Needless to say, some of the resellers are, in fact, lucky Deadheads who, having landed tickets, now find the prospect of a pecuniary gain from a resale just too good to pass up!

I am very much in favor of a free secondary market and so-called “ticket scalping.” First and foremost, these transactions are voluntary. There is no coercion involved, just a willing buyer and seller who reach a mutually beneficial deal. A buyer will agree to pay a certain price only if that price is less than the subjective value they assign to the ticket. Of course, a potential secondary buyer would rather have been lucky in what amounted to a lottery for tickets. But if not, they are not shut out altogether. A little patience on the secondary market might bring prices well within reach.

Second, the allocative mechanism in play on the secondary market is little appreciated, but it contributes to social gains. Tickets will be allocated to those who value them most highly. In fact, individuals who value their own time most highly might avoid the time and aggravation of participating in the mail order or joining the on-line sales queue. Instead, these individuals know they can fall back on the secondary market to obtain seats, thereby conserving a valuable resource: their time. Some will contend that all tickets should be made available and allocated via some other, non-price mechanism, such as a lottery or a queue, whereby willingness to pay cash is rendered moot. Unfortunately, such mechanisms have severe drawbacks in the presence of excess demand: they tend to waste time for both the lucky and unlucky participants, they may allocate tickets to buyers who value them less highly, they infringe on personal liberty by preventing individuals from taking part in mutually beneficial exchanges, and they waste scarce law enforcement resources.

Another advantage of the allocative mechanism embodied in the secondary market is its ability to create value in the presence of risk. Performers and promoters are loath to price tickets optimally, partly because there is risk in doing so: damage to goodwill with their fan base and the risk that they will over-price tickets and possibly fail to fill the house. Secondary sellers will gladly accept pricing risk, and the frenzy surrounding an active secondary market can serve as a promotional device for performers. Moreover, by allowing tickets to be allocated to buyers who value them most highly, the venue and the community benefit by bringing in the most appreciative crowd, adding to the success and vibrancy of the local entertainment market. A prohibition on scalping closes off a convenient channel through which some of the most valuable customers can obtain seats to events. Here’s what one ticket market scholar states:

“… a curtailment of scalping markets would not only prevent allocation according to maximization of utility, it would also have the dynamic effect of reducing in the long term the supply of cultural events! This is very rarely mentioned, but following the adoption of an anti-scalping law in Quebec, industry experts have indicated that cultural centers like the Bell Centre in Montreal have reduced events and potential audiences by some 6% to 11%.”

Finally, the fact that prices are high on the secondary market implies great scarcity. The Grateful Dead may have aggravated the situation by stating unequivocally that these would be their last shows. They could have remained silent or vague on that point. But scarcity can be addressed in other ways by performers and promoters: they can agree to price the tickets more highly; they can arrange to perform more shows and appear at more venues; and they can create imperfect substitutes for the actual concert experience, such as providing live-feeds of the show to other venues, including live streaming.

In this case, the band has taken steps to alleviate the shortage. First, they have reconfigured the plan for the floor of the stadium to allow a larger crowd in a “GA Pit” (presumably standing room), and they are opening up the set and directing sound to accommodate seating behind the band. Second, they are discussing the possibility of providing high-quality, live feeds to other venues. This should help to take some of the pressure off prices in the secondary market.

My wish is that the band would also announce additional performances, either in Chicago or a few other cities. My mail order went out on the first day with an early postmark and it is still unanswered. My hopes remain high, but if I don’t get into the show, I’m sure to attend a viewing party!