And while Ticketmaster won the first battle against the band by forcing the cancellation, its victory may prove to be pyrrhic. Pearl Jam’s canceled tour probably cost the band more than $3 million. The story is also that of a battle over tremendously high stakes. The story of how that rather bizarre state of affairs came about, and where those involved in it are headed next, is both tangled and morally complicated. Just as Curtis and his band should have been joining hands with Ticketmaster to rake in a lion’s share of the gross income from America’s $1 billion-a-year industry, Curtis instead finds himself at war with the ticketing giant, and Pearl Jam finds itself pretty much out of work. To that end, he has taken on Ticketmaster, the vendor that sells tickets to virtually every live event in the nation, whether in small clubs, large concert halls, or athletic arenas and stadiums. Manager of Seattle’s Pearl Jam, currently the most popular rock act in the world, Curtis at the moment is more or less single-handedly trying to turn back the tide of greed that has forever been sweeping over the live-entertainment industry. Kelly Curtis, a chain-smoking young man who generally wears jeans, T-shirts, and baseball caps to work, presides over this grungy milieu, holding court and asphyxiating guests in an office with a smashed electric guitar hanging on one wall. … Cluttered with magazines, piles of paper, and discarded food containers, it is peopled by youngsters in torn clothes, with haircuts that look like found-art projects. It is furnished mostly with second-hand stuff: old desks, overstuffed chairs, a couch. Its floors are slanted, its door crooked, its walls grimy. A picturesquely seedy second-floor walkup above the Puppy Club at Fifth and Denny, it resembles a private detective’s office in an old B movie. The office of Curtis Management is an unlikely setting for corporate intrigue. This story was originally published on November 2, 1994, under the title “Battle of the Band.” It is being resurfaced as part of the Weekly Classics series.
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