I haven't heard that Steve Poltz song in years. I think it's called "Me and Eddie Vedder," where he talks about the cool way for rock stars to die. What a great tune.

That has nothing to to with todays rant. But, I wanted to start off talking about Eddie Vedder and that song just leaped into my head.

When Eddie Vedder used to complain about Ticketmaster having all these service charges, I had mixed feelings. As a concert goer myself, I liked that he was sticking up for us. But, I never had a big problem with those charges. I would go to Werehouse Records in Mira Mesa, buy my concert tickets, and pay an extra $5 or whatever. No biggie.

Sometimes I'd go to Tower on Sports Arena, same thing. I remember a few times going to May Company in UTC. But Eddie would rant and rant, about how it was a monopoly. And, I started to notice, the service charges were becoming bigger and bigger.

I remember Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young played the Sports Arena. I bought my friend a pair of tickets for helping me with some computer problems I was having. The service charges were something like $27 per ticket. And I remember, as a teenager, that is what tickets would've been to see CSN&Y!

Then, a few years later, a different friend helped me out with something. I bought him tickets to see Eric Clapton at the Sports Arena. I have to admit, I was kinda hoping he'd say, "You should just come with me." After all, I knew he wasn't dating anyone. And, I also knew Escondido/Valley Center resident J.J. Cale (Cocaine, Call Me the Breeze), was going to be joining him on stage. I wanted to be there for that. The only ticket outlet was on the UCSD campus. After parking illegally and paying some insane service charge, I got him the tickets. He took someone else. And...I found out, that had I just went to the Sports Arena (or whatever that venue is called now, ipay One, ironically enough, I think it is)...I would've avoided that extra $46.

So, imagine my surprise when the sign says $15 to see Greg Laswell/Ingred Michaelson at House of Blues the other night, and the lady tells me it's $19.50 for my ticket. I ask why. She tells me $4.50 for a service fee.

I say, "Why? I'm buying the tickets here, at the House of Blues. What service am I paying for? For you ringing them up on your register?" Now, it's some girl that's probably 22 working the box office. I'm not going to yell at her. She just shrugs her shoulders.

I go to shows at the Belly Up Tavern. There's no service charge there for tickets. Sometimes if you buy tickets on the day of the show (as with other venues), they might be more.

I go to shows at 'Canes. No service charge. The same thing with the Casbah.

Humphrey's? You guessed it. No service charge.

Some of the places, even give you deals. At 'Canes, you get a discount on your meal if you are going to the show. At the Belly Up, no discount (which is unfortunate, because I always eat there and it can get pricey). But, you can avoid the line and be seated first.

I think you get prefered seating at Humphrey's, too.

Oh, that new place in Little Italy...Anthology. No service charge there.

So, as I'm waiting in a line that is going around the block, my friends and I are getting madder and madder, thinking about how the House of Blues screwed us over on the service charge. We decide we'll just get our money back, and blow off the show. We figured we could catch Ani DiFranco at Humphrey's (since I had seen her at Copley Syphony Hall a few years back, I wasn't eager to drop $50 for this show, even without a service charge).

But, House of Blues said we couldn't get a refund on our tickets. Even though we had just purchased them.

Now, that actually made more sense to me. I had no problem with that. In fact, what I think would've made the entire thing make sense....is if they said they COULD give me my money back on the tickets. But, now they would have reason for charging a $4.50 service fee for each ticket. Because, they actually did a little work. And, they weren't making money off the ticket sales.

I then remembered a time that Ted Nugent played the House of Blues years ago. I had interviewed the opening band for another publication I write for. The band put me on their guest list. A buddy of mine was in town from New York and was excited about the show.

We get to the box office and find out the opening bands bus had broken down in Los Angeles, and they wouldn't make the show. No biggie for us. We were there for the Nuge, anyway. Well, it was a biggie for us. House of Blues said, "We are not honoring the opening bands guest list."

I then tried to pull every card in the book. Meaning, every card in my wallet. I showed them my Reader business card. I said, "Come on, I'm with the media." They were having none of it.

And this is a place that I wrote two pages on when they had a grand opening party.

This is a place that I missed Britney Spears, because when I went inside to have a steak their service was so bad, it took me 20 minutes to find my waitress and get my bill. In fact, every time I've had dinner there, the food has been mediocre, and the service terrible.

So I figured....they have the power to charge me a service fee. Well, I have the power to blog about it. And have everyone read about what a lame place it is.

Sure, it's not going to do much good. I mean, hell, I'll still go back there if there's a band I want to see. But, for anyone else there that's reading this...if you buy a ticket there, give them a hard time about their service charges. Maybe they'll eventually drop them.

In the meantime, I'm just going to keep having bands there put my name on their guest lists. I refuse to let that venue make any money off me.