Foo Fighters Fans Locked Out of Band’s No-Transfer Pop-up Gig in New Haven

By Olivia Perreault 20 days ago

A lucky thousand fans or so will have a unique opportunity this week to catch the Foo Fighters performing in a relatively intimate atmosphere – the 1,000-capacity Toads Place in New Haven, Connecticut. But some fans are crying foul, as a full ban on ticket transfer and an insanely last-minute and hard to navigate sales process left them without a chance to grab their own passes to see the legendary group in this tiny setting – in a state where such transfer restrictions are usually against the law.

The Dave Grohl-fronted group announced the Tuesday gig on Monday. Sales were in-person only at the downtown club, with a limited supply available beginning at 4 p.m. – meaning that by the time many fans would have any hope of even getting in line at the venue after they got off of work, the tickets had long-since sold out.

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According to the local Connecticut newspaper The Record Journal, tickets sold out approximately two hours after going on sale; an additional 400 people were turned-away at the door after the inventory ran out.

Since tickets were only accessible in-person outside of the box office — and the inability to transfer tickets — many fans complained that they felt cheated or locked out of the gig.

Also, some pointed out that they missed out on the Foo Fighters’ headlining slot at Bridgeport’s Sound on Sound festival last year when the band cancelled last-minute.

Those hoping to catch the show Tuesday night won’t be able to join anyone going with tickets, either, as the band mentioned a strict rule that only those who purchased tickets will be able to enter the venue, with IDs checked at the door. Their Instagram is filled with comments of concertgoers hoping to score a spot at the show — to no avail.

A similar situation ensued years ago when The Black Keys played a show at The Wiltern in Los Angeles. The band had made tickets to the performance at The Wiltern non-transferrable, meaning any fan who purchased tickets to the sold-out show on the secondary market was denied entry, by order of the band they had paid hundreds of dollars to see.

In Connecticut — along with New York, Virginia, Illinois, Colorado, and Utah — there are requirements on the books that tickets must be offered to consumers in a manner which is freely transferable. However, according to the law, this provision does not apply to “concert or theater venues with seating capacities of not more than three thousand five hundred persons, provided a duly authorized representative of such concert theater or venue has provided written notice to the Commissioner of Consumer Protection of such theater or venue’s intent not to comply with the provisions of this section.”

TicketNews reached out to the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection to confirm the written notice, but did not hear back by press time.

Tuesday’s show will be General Admission standing, with doors opening at 6 p.m. The Foo Fighters have played a number of pop-up shows — most recently, they played Washington, D.C.’s Black Cat, as well as a pair of gigs on the west coast. Stay tuned for more last-minute shows here.