The concert’s at the Zoo or the concert is a zoo?
Have you seen these rockers? This Associated Press photo of Rick Nielsen, left, and Robin Zander of Cheap Trick is probably the closest some of Wednesday night’s concert-goers got to actually seeing the band.
I’ve heard and received lots of comments today about my review of Wednesday night’s Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick show at the Zoo Amphitheatre.
The consensus: The bands truly rocked, but the organizers bombed.
It’s never a good sign when 15 minutes before the show, the line to enter the venue winds from the Zoo Amp’s main gate all the way around the adjacent Science Museum Oklahoma.
A number of concert-goers have shared stories of arriving an hour or so before the 6 p.m. show time and missing the entirety of Cheap Trick’s energetic opening set. Even starting the concert 30 minutes late didn’t help many ticketholders, and some even missed part of Heart’s mind-blowing middle act.
I guess you could call them the lucky ones. Despite making prior arrangements to attend, our photographer assigned to cover the show wasn’t allowed into the venue at all. (That’s why you’re stuck with AP and publicity shots. Sorry, guys.)
Mind you, the rock fans that spent those long, hot hours in line weren’t people waiting to buy tickets; they had already shelled out their hard-earned cash to see the show. The concert was declared a sell-out weeks ago, and despite fair warning that 10,000 people would be there, the organizers clearly weren’t adequately prepared.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the Zoo is a great place to catch an outdoor show. (It is an amphitheatre, so complaining about the weather isn’t really fair.) And I’ve been impressed with the quality of talent they’re bringing in these days.
But keeping people who have tickets in hand waiting for an hour and half to two hours just to get inside the gate simply isn’t going to cut it. Having only two or three lines of staffers to take tickets, search purses and inquire about possible weapons isn’t the mark of a premier venue.
More lines, more entry points, more staffers and more security were desperately needed at the show to prevent the mob scene outside the Zoo Amp, as well as inside. During the concert, people crammed into the wide aisles trying to get as close as possible to the stage, making it nearly impossible for people to squeeze through the press of partying humanity. That just didn’t feel very safe, particularly when you see a pair of medics struggling to wade through the crowd to check on an under-the-weather attendee.
I’ve heard some of Wednesday’s concert-goers say they won’t go back to the Zoo. That’s a shame, since it’s a venue with a great history that offers some great shows.
Hopefully, the organizers will work harder to accommodate the crowds. Of course, we as concert-goers need to do our part by getting there early. If the show’s a sell-out, getting there 15 minutes ahead of time isn’t going to cut it, either.
And I don’t know if it’s comforting or maddening, but OKC isn’t the only place where the packed houses for this show have created headaches. In his July 12 review, Tom Wharton of The Salt Lake Tribune reported that thousands of fans there missed Cheap Trick’s set because they were “battling the usual frustrating traffic and parking woes.”
I guess it’s tough out there for a rock fan. But we keep on rocking anyway.
-BAM
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If I were Cheap Trick, I think I’d be kinda hacked off that people keep missing the act because of bad organization.