Saltair: Historical Significance, Sucky Venue

I went to see Ben Folds in concert last week with my roommate. I was pretty excited because it was my first time to see Ben Folds in concert. It was also my first time to see a show at Saltair. This venue is significant because it is built on the site of the first Saltair which was constructed in 1893 by some of the first residents of Salt Lake City. Consequently it was rebuilt three times due to it catching fire and burning down three times. The newest rendition of the build was built in 1981 but was flooded several times, and finally restored in 1991. For any outsider it would seem that Saltair is a victim of some serious bad luck, but after going there myself I began to understand that perhaps there is a reason for the misfortune.

Anyway there's your short history lesson, here's my experience at Saltair...

I found out about the Ben Folds concert the night before he was to come via an e-mail I received from facebook stating that Ben Folds had just added Salt Lake City to his tour. Awesome, thanks for the notice. Needless to say at 9:00pm it wasn't the easiest to find out if tickets were available. I looked everywhere online with no luck and I also called the number listed for Saltair and instead reached a portable bathroom company, twice. They informed me that everyone calls them expecting to get Saltair. Luckily I'm a craigslist junkie, so eventually I just went there and found someone selling tickets for cheap and just bought those.(from a computer nerd at the Talmage Building)

On the ticket it states that the doors will open at 6pm and the show will start at 7pm. So like any responsible, short, concert goer I wanted to make sure that we got there in plenty of time so that we could find a place where I could see. So we left early and got there about 5:15. Here's where the true adventure begins.

When we arrived there was already a sizable line, I would guess at least 150 people were in front of us. So we got in line and waited. 6:00 came and we waited...by 6:30 we were freezing after being outside for an hour and by the size of the line and the dwindling cars coming in I would think that most people were there by then. It wasn't until 6:55 that they opened the doors...and the inside scoop begins.

There are so many details I could share, but I've narrowed it down to 4 things that bugged me...

1. Hidden Fees. I've been to my fair share of concerts, and I don't remember ever having to pay for parking. I mean sometimes it says on your ticket that there is an extra fee for parking, but usually parking is "free." At saltair, however they charge you $5 to park in their dirt field, and you have to pay them because where else are you going to park? Ten miles down the road at the next exit and walk back? Because the only thing at the 104 exit on I-80 is Saltair. I only had 3 dollars cash so they made me give them my drivers licence for collateral and directed me inside to the ATM which by the way has a $3 service charge, so in the end I paid $8 for parking, awesome. I think the thing that bugged me the most is that there was no warning about this fee. I had checked out the website for the venue, I called their info line before coming and there was no mention of a parking fee. Also once you get into the building if you happen to want to go upstairs to the balcony, so you can actually see the concert you will be charged an additional $2. And last but not least, they ask you to donate money to use the bathroom. No I'm not kidding. Of course the most disturbing thing about the bathroom is that the plumbing isn't working too well, so all the toilets (which was at least 15 of them) were constantly flushing by themselves. What a freaking waste of water!

2. Stinking Charity. There was a charity going on, Care for Cambodia, and after researching their cause online I've concluded it's a good charity, their tactics for getting donations however...not so good. Besides being super unorganized there were three things that bugged me: -no one knew what the charity was really raising money for. Hence I had to research it online. The info that was handed out had no info of use on it, and the volunteers where also pretty much clueless. Next -the WASTE OF PAPER, there were so many fliers, bookmarks, handouts that were being literally thrown into the crowd from the balcony, it felt like "kill the trees, but wait, Care for Cambodia". And last -hostile volunteers...yep I totally got elbowed hard in my shoulder by a volunteer trying to move through the crowd. Awesome. I am planning to contact the charity and share some pointers with them, as well as donate so that villages in Cambodia can have wells, something that I didn't know they raised money for until I went home and looked up their website.

3. Crap Bands. There were 4, yes 4, opening bands. They all sucked rocks, all of them. One, Ben Lee, was the real opening act that travels with Ben Folds, and then Saltair for some reason felt the need to book 3 other local crap bands. And I'm not talking about your typical garage band, we're talking acts that cover popular hip hop songs and U2 on their acoustic guitar. It was bad, and it lasted 2 hours!!!

4. The last two things that sucked were the sound system and the floor. There are only speakers hooked up in the very front of the "concert hall", if you stand close to them, it's so loud that you can feel yourself vibrate, if you stand where you can comfortably hear, you can't see. Unless of course you are 6'7'', which most high schoolers in the middle section seemed to be. The stage isn't high enough to see if you're short and the floor is completely flat. Then there's the back, you can see, it's not crowded, but the sound is not amazing. We started out in front, but soon realized that we valued our hearing too much so we moved. After struggling to see even the hair doo's of the opening acts in the middle section, we finally moved to the back for Ben Folds.

The light at the end of the tunnel of course was Ben Folds, who is phenomenal live. He played an awesome show, with great songs, lots of energy and he really has a fun sense of humor. I loved every second he was on the stage. I'd have to say my favorite moment was the song he made up about why he never plays in Salt Lake City complete with a dance. And even though he didn't start playing until 9:20, thanks to the 4 openers, he played till 11:00 and is was awesome.

I just wish I had had more energy at the end, but since I had been standing and waiting in line, during openers etc. for almost 5 hours waiting for Ben Folds, I was dragging a bit a the end. Which made me sad, and I left thinking that I hope I never have to come to another show at Saltair, and if I do I will for sure show up 4 hours late.

To conclude, at some point during the night I was venting my frustrations about the crappy venue and made the comment that we should accidentally burn it down, this was before I knew its history. Later when reading about the history and 3 burnings of Saltair, I had to wonder, was it bad luck, or has it always been a crappy venue with a list of enemy's? Or perhaps the the building itself, which is beautiful, is just as pissed off as everyone else.