I’d vent like for a minute. The Pavilion is a fantastic venue. It’s treated me well for previous show, it has great facilities, and pretty damn clean compared to other venues I’ve been to. But holy shit, some of the “employees” here are total jackasses. I don’t know if the two I saw were actual full time employees or just the people who help out for some shows. But still, their attitude and demeanor really takes the experience down a notch.

I get it. It’s cold, wet, and raining this afternoon. But there’s zero reason to be a complete jackass when folks who spent some good money to see a show. Grow up and be professional or just don’t bother to work a show.

Edit: A couple people asked for specifics. I couldn’t quite seem to get Reddit to load up after I had entered the venue last night. I wrote my original complaint as I was standing in like at the gate, but my service basically died on the other side. So I thought I’d expand this morning.

The issue that I had was a parking staff member literally slamming his hands on my window because I “ignored his directions” on where to park when I pulled in. I want to be clear he even in the lot when I pulled in nor was there anyone else directing traffic inside the lot. The dude who came over to scream at me for “no obeying his commands” was with two other people off to the side of the entrance lighting up a blunt. He only came running over after I parked in the row. He had me move my car twice because he didn’t like that I “disrespected him” and didn’t “obey his rules”.

I then saw this same dude, about an hour later, laughing at a woman who slipped and fell in the parking lot. He was three feet from her when she slipped. Maybe don’t be a jackass and help? But if you don’t want/can’t to help don’t just stand there and laugh at her? I will say, another employee, a much younger guy ran over to give her a hand which was awesome to see.

A couple other things we saw/dealt with.

There was a couple who were having issues getting Ticketmaster to load up due to poor cell service (go figure). And the two staff members next to the check in line were chuckling to themselves (within earshot of these people) “How come we always get the fucking morons who can’t work a phone?”

There were a ton of communication issues between Pavilion staff and Tour Staff over VIP packages and extras that came with some tickets.

One person was having an issue getting into a VIP lounge because she “didn’t have the right ticket”. Turns out she did, but the venue didn’t recognize it but the staff member told her “Look, I can’t help you if you’re going to be hysterical.” ~35 year old, completely composed but asking a question because she’s confused and you’re going to talk down to her?

A couple people in my party also got tripped up with those package details. They went to the lounge and the person who let them “leave the venue” to go into the lounge told them that so long as they have the red wrist band on (they did), that they’re able to go back in. The lounge is outside a gate on the backside of the venue so you are “leaving” to go there and then “re-entering” technically. But when my party members went to go back in that same gate, there was a new person standing by and refused to let them in because they didn’t have tickets on them, only the wristband. After getting a hold of me, I walked over to show the girl our tickets but that wasn’t good enough. She wanted to see a “physical ticket”. It’s fucking 2024 there are no physical tickets. I had to get a manager over to tell her that not only did their wristbands allow them access back into the venue but also the Ticketmaster ticket is the ticket.

The rest was mostly just attitude problems.

Overall, it was just an experience in deal with rude and condensing people. I’ve been fortunate to see a good number of shows over the last ten years, mostly in the northeast but a couple in the Midwest. Every venue has its highs and lows. But this is the first show I’ve been to where staff just seemed to want to treat people like shit. I went to three shows there last year and all of them were 100% better hosted than last night’s. It had me annoyed. Hence the reason why I wanted to write out a small “woe is me” post. Not everyone is going to empathize with this post, I get it, but I do appreciate the other folks who shared their experiences.

Three things I did want to point out that were positives:

1) We had an 80 some year old usher who went out of her way to help me get my friends back into the arena and straighten things out with the front of house manager. She was hustling and she was incredibly kind.

2) Staff helped get a woman to EMS wicked quick after she booted all over herself. She had a bit more than she should have (we all do sometimes), but it was amazing to see how quickly staff jumped in to get her medical attention and clean up the seat and floor where she was.

3) Security broke up two fights pretty quickly and got those folks out without disturbing the show. One looked petty, one looks serious. Both were handled within seconds of shit going sideways. Lesson of the evening: don’t throw beer on people and you won’t be asked to leave.