Warren Haynes Aspen show attracts scalpers

ASPEN Warren Haynes is known as perhaps the most prolific rock musician of his generation, and maybe of any generation. Still, the demand for the singer-guitarist seems to be exceeding the abundant supply.Last week, it was announced that Haynes, who fronts the hard rock quartet Govt Mule and also is a member of the long-running Southern jam group the Allman Brothers Band, would be performing as a solo act at Aspens Belly Up on Sept. 1. Forty-five tickets were put on sale Wednesday, June 18, through Haynes website, and the remaining 405 tickets went on sale through Belly Up two days later. The first allotment of tickets were gone within minutes, and the second set was snapped up within an hour.The selling out of the tickets does not necessarily mean that fans of Haynes are shut out of the show. Tickets are being offered on eBay in various packages containing between one and four tickets. The standard price per ticket is $250. The primary seller operating in the eBay Store area, where items are sold at a fixed price, rather than through an auction is Dominion Tickets LLC, which sells tickets to events across the country.That scalpers have gotten their hands on tickets, and jacked up the prices some 400 percent from the $62 face value, is disheartening to Belly Up owner Michael Goldberg.I hate it, he said. My feeling is, the people who want the tickets should have the ability to buy the tickets at what the ticket price is. Those fans are the people who need to be protected. Instead, we get people who want to make a profit on this.Goldberg said the club did what it could for the fans who simply want to pay $62 to see Haynes in an unusually small venue. The club sent advance notice to its e-mail subscribers advising them of the concert and the on-sale dates. Ticket buyers who went to the Belly Up box office last Friday were limited to six tickets.Goldberg said the scalping issue has come up only periodically at Belly Up, most prominently when Jimmy Buffett has played his Christmas-time appearances, under the Freddie & the Fishsticks pseudonym, at the club. It also was a concern last summer, when Haynes made his first appearance as a solo act at the club. Haynes appeared last year at Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Festival, playing one day with the Allman Brothers, and the following day with Govt Mule. He capped his valley appearances with a solo set at Belly Up, the same day as the Govt Mule show. Such overtime duties are not unheard of for the 48-year-old, named by Rolling Stone magazine as the 23rd greatest guitarist of all time. On occasion, he has played three separate shows on one bill with the Allmans, Govt Mule, and as a member of Phil & Friends, the rotating ensemble led by former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh. Haynes supplements such activity with the odd solo performance, but those have become increasingly rare in recent years, making tickets for those gigs harder to get.But not impossible. Basalt resident Mitch Haas landed four tickets last week through Haynes website by signing in early, and clicking the Buy Tickets icon repeatedly. Two days later, he joined a few dozen others on line at the Belly Up box office 15 minutes before tickets went on sale, and bought another four tickets.Haas said that he wont be selling any of those tickets at a premium. They are, however, all reserved for his friends.stewart@aspentimes.com