Screen door slammed. Then I found a way to get it open.

Unlike my younger sister, I'm something of a latter day Bruce Springsteen fan.

Trish? She's been a fan since high school, when Bruce was just getting started. In 1976 or 1977, Trish and a couple of her friends took the bus into Boston from Worcester for a concert. They slept on my floor. The next morning, my BF and I took them to breakfast at the Parker House. They were still all jazzed about the concert they'd scene the night before. 

Me? I'd vaguely heard of Bruce Springsteen. Maybe I'd heard "Born to Run" on the radio. Maybe not.

Time went on. Trish stayed a fan. Not a rabid one, not a camp follower, traipsing from city to city for concerts. But a solid fan. A regular concert goer.

Me? Weirdly, I had a (vaguely erotic) dream that Bruce Springsteen featured in. Maybe I'd heard "Born in the USA" on the radio.

Then, in 2007, Trish got me a ticket for Springsteen at the Boston Garden.

Unlike everyone else in the audience, I didn't know all the words. I didn't know any of them. I'd never even heard "Thunder Road" - the iconic piece sung at nearly every concert - so I faked singing along. But that concert made me a fan. I bought, and listened to, most of his CD's. 

The next time Springsteen came to Boston, I was in. I've seen him at the Garden twice. At Gillette once. At Fenway once. When I go to concerts, I know most of the words. 

He's a phenomenal performer, and the shows are magnificent.

I read his autobiography, which was quite good. I watched his Broadway show when it came on Netflix. 

I'm a fan. Not a rabid one, but a fan nonetheless. 

When his post-covid 2023 tour was announced, with the European tickets to be sold first, I got up at 4 a.m. to try to get tickets for Dublin. I was actually able to get online and put tickets in my cart. Alas, there was some peculiarity on Ticketmaster.ie and I wasn't able to change my country to US and, without being able to give an Irish address, I wasn't able to actually buy the tickets. Pogue mahone, Ticketmaster.ie.

Then the US 2023 tour dates were announced.

Trish and I both registered to be "verified fans," which meant that we'd be able to vie for tickets on Ticketmaster before they were made generally available.

You could select 5 shows to get verified for. We both picked Boston as our first choice, on down through Connecticut (Mohegan Sun), NYC, Brooklyn, Albany.

I lucked out and got Boston verification; Trish got Albany.

I logged on with my verification code the split second the gates were opened. After spending nearly an hour in the queue, I was in the ticket sale zone.

Every time I clicked on a pair of tickets, a message popped up telling me that another fan had beat me to the purchase. So I'd try again. Again. Again. And again. And before my very eyes, the tickets that I had clicked on were showing up again, only for $100 more. Or more. Tickets went from $200, to $300, to $500, to $600. Then tickets priced at $1K, $2K, $4K, $5K began cropping up. 

Dynamic pricing in action. 

Apparently, Ticketmaster and/or Bruce Springsteen didn't want to leave any money in the hands of scalpers. If there were any demand dollars out there, they wanted them.

I accidentally hit on tickets for $1,250. A piece. I don't know whether someone else beat me to them, as I was busily hitting the Exit key. 

When a message popped up saying there were no tickets available for under $800, I texted Trish. "Screen door slams." The opening words to "Thunder Road." (Yeah. Now I know all the words.)

I was out. It looked like tramps like us, baby we were born to run to the concert in Albany. If Trish could score a pair. 

This was on a Wednesday. Trish's chance was coming up on Friday.

On Thursday night, we conferred on our ticket strategy. 

I decided to see what was available on the Ticketmaster secondary market, where people who had extra tickets could sell them at a premium. Obviously a lot of the folks who made it through the queue and were able to buy tickets before dynamic pricing set in bought four (the limit), even if they only needed two. That or Ticketmaster had set some aside. Most of the tickets available were in the rafters, behind the stage.

Anyway, there were plenty of tickets available. Yes, the prices were inflated and crazy, but once we factored in what we were willing to pay for a ticket + a hotel in Albany + gas, tolls, and mileage, the prices didn't seem quite so crazy. I got us two tickets. And, while they were in the rafters, they weren't in back of the stage. (Not that we wouldn't be watching on monitors, wherever we ended up.)

It was a lot of money, but not completely crazy. And, personally, I was happier that the scalping premium went to a civilian scalper, rather than to Ticketmaster or to Bruce.

I know, I know. Bruce has told us for years:

Poor man wanna be rich, rich man wanna be king
And a king ain't satisfied till he rules everything
I wanna go out tonight, I wanna find out what I got

Well, based on the take from the dynamic pricing, you're gonna find out that you're getting plenty out of this tour. 

Still, the crazy dynamic pricing process, that revved tickets up to sky-high prices - and priced out a lot of fans - leaves a bad taste in a lot of mouths. Especially given that the Springsteen brand revolves quite a bit around "man of the people." He's a guy with blue collar roots, who writes and sings from the heart of those roots. 

Fans, predictably, hit the 'net to complain. Twitter was,  on fire, as those who'd been priced out vented their spleens, while showcasing their bona fides as Springsteen fans who've been to dozens, even hundreds of shows over the years. It's been quite something. Talk about the dogs on Main Street howling.

Me? I'm just happy that, come next March 20th, Trish and I will be in the nosebleeds of Boston's TD Garden. We believe in the promised land. 

And, oh, I still haven't given up on Dublin.