I just bought a ticket, via ticketmaster.com, to see They Might Be Giants performing at the House of Blues in L.A. in August. The ticket price is $22.50, but various "facility fees," "convenience charges," rustproofing, and undercoating brought the total cost of the ticket up to $36.00. That's an astonishing 60% markup.

While I was in Vegas, I actually ambled over to the box office at the House of Blues there hoping to avoid these service charges, but it turns out that the various Houses of Blues don't sell tickets for each other (and tickets for TMBG weren't on sale yet anyway, as it turned out).

Original comments...

Anonymous: This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarium...

Rebecca: I bought tickets to a concert for my daughter and her friend. The tickets were $9.33 each, total for the 2 tickets was $37.56. Yep, over 100% markup. Ticketmaster sucks.