Tickets.com Can Bite It

OK, so I haven't said a whole lot about this here, but on or about September 1st I am moving to Washington D.C. It's probably just for a year or so, as my business partners and I get our new Internet startup up and running. At the end of that year, I'll either come back to my beloved NYC or go to Chicago. We'll see, it's a long way off.

Anyway, the reason I'm mentioning this? The National just announced two shows in D.C. at the 9:30 Club at the beginning of September -- specifically, Wed., Sept. 5th and Thurs., Sept. 6th. Tickets are on sale.

I've been to the 9:30 Club a bunch of times in my life, but I've never seen them (or Tickets.com) completely and utterly rape people the way they are for this show. Check out this math:

Ticket price: $18.00
Service charge: $4.75
-----------------
Subtotal: $22.75

OK, to this point we're fine. But then you get to choose "delivery method", and the only choice they have is Will Call. Fine. THEY CHARGE $4 FOR WILL CALL. So, instead it looks like this:

Ticket price: $18.00
Service charge: $4.75
Will-call fee: $4.00
-----------------
TOTAL: $26.75

Kids, I'm no math major, but a quick check of my calculator shows that this is a 49% MARKUP of the ticket price. (And that's before their $10 parking fee, which I'll skip, thanks very much.)

Seriously, are these people (and the RIAA, and the CRB, etc. etc.) trying to destroy the music industry by alienating every last fan on Earth?