¡Oy vey, qué malo! Yo La Tengo Hanukkah show tickets snatched up by scalpers

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An annual eight-night indie rock extravaganza put on by Yo La Tengo has been marred by scalpers that snatched up tickets to the Hanukkah celebration.

Bowery Ballroom, which was set to once again host the event featuring an array of surprise guests, said it’s trying to claw back tickets from the secondary market. Fans said tickets appeared to have been bought in bulk moments after they went on sale.

“We are actively working to recover as many tickets as possible for redistribution,” the Lower East Side venue wrote in a statement posted on social media . “We realize this is especially disappointing in that these are benefit shows.”

Industry analysts and bummed-out fans say it’s a sign of the times that the voracious resale market has come even for the quirky tradition of an aging indie rock band.

“This is not the sexiest event in town. It’s not like Dua Lipa or some s–t,” said 44-year-old marketing manager Michael Hirsch, who’s attended the show for the past two years. “It's just a bunch of old Jewish people playing music for other Jewish nerds like me.”

Yo La Tengo has been playing their Hanukkah shows for the past two decades. Each night has a laid-back, variety show feel, and has featured surprise guests like Sun Ra Arkestra, Built to Spill and Lucinda Williams, as well as comedians like Janeane Garofalo and John Early.

Hirsch said he had logged on at 10 a.m. Friday to buy tickets. But he said there was not a single ticket available once the drop started.

“ It was just hard to believe. It's not exactly the thing that I would think to target if I was a scalper,” he said.

Ticket scalpers’ use of armies of automated bots is a growing issue across the live music and events industry.

Last year the Federal Trade Commission sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster for turning a blind eye to resale ticket brokers and allegedly profiting off the secondary market.

Jesse Jarnow, a WFMU radio host who wrote a book on Yo La Tengo, said he has “endless contempt” for these large ticket companies.

“The ticketing app thing has infected almost every venue in the city,” he said. “ It's like I live in New York, this venue is in New York, this band is from New York, but somehow to enter this room in New York where this band from New York is going to play, I have to do all these interactions with some giant-ass corporation of people who probably don't go to see live music.”

It’s not clear how exactly Bowery Ballroom could recover tickets purchased by bots. A spokesperson for the venue did not respond to a request for comment.

In the meantime, the venue advises in its public statements “against buying from resale sites.”

Hirsch, the marketing manager, said he’s not waiting around.

He said he bought a pair of tickets for $150 each on the secondary market – about triple face value. He said he’d rather pay the “exorbitant” price and be done with it.

“ I don't have unlimited time to look for tickets,” he said.

Walter Wuthmann is a reporter covering public safety and the legal system.

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