Well, that was the plan, at least.

Me buying tickets today was going to be difficult enough as it was, being as they went on sale at 1pm and I was scheduled to be at work at 12pm. Unless some sort of miracle or natural disaster occurred, I'd be right in the midst of my shift when those tickets went on sale. Luckily, I was able to work it out to where I was on the computer at work a few minutes before 1:00.

At about 5 minutes til, I noticed that the Ticketweb site started loading slowly. That worried me a little, but I had no idea what was in store for me.

Apparently, Ticketweb was unaware of the draw of the Smashing Pumpkins and didn't have their servers fully equipped to handle the load that was being dumped on them. Why were they unprepared for this? Well, I can't say for sure but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it's because they're ABSOLUTELY RETARDED.

Listen, Ticketweb: The Smashing Pumpkins are one of the biggest bands of the last 20 years and it's a big enough deal that they've got a new album coming out. It's a bigger deal that they're touring to support the album. And it's an absolutely monumental event that they decided to not only tour, but to play a 9-show residency at a relatively small club in Asheville, NC. This isn't the kind of intimacy that one would expect from a band that could just as easily play a 16,000 seat arena and sell it out.

Add to that the fact that, besides these shows, the Pumpkins are only play a single other show on the East Coast.

So yeah, Ticketweb, a lot of people are going to want these tickets. And when you've got nine shows going on sale simultaneously that the entire East Coast legion of Smashing Pumpkins fans are going to want to get their hands on, it'd probably be in your best interests to be prepared.

I buy a lot of concert tickets. I mean... A LOT of concert tickets. In the past two months, I've purchased tickets to Charlie Daniels, Elton John, Loretta Lynn, Bright Eyes, Hank Williams Jr, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ben Harper and the White Stripes. And not once have I come across a problem like this.

For all of my bitching and moaning about the ridiculous fees that Ticketmaster tacks onto it's tickets and as much as I hate the fact that they practically have a monopoly on the event ticketing industry, one thing I can say about Ticketmaster is that they've always been reliable. I've never experienced "technical problems" with them. I've never had their servers crash or lag. I've always been able to puchase tickets without incident.

After my experience today with Ticketweb, I can honestly say that I'll gladly pay those high fees that Ticketmaster charges if it guarantees that I'll be able to get these highly-sought after tickets. If other ticketing sites, like Ticketweb, want to be any competition at all to the big guns over at Ticketmaster, then -- honestly -- they're going to have to get their shit together.

Luckily, The Orange Peel has come to its senses and there is still hope for us who wish to go to see the Pumpkins:

Sunday May 20. 8.48pmThe current plan is to move ticket sales to ticketmaster.com (this will not happen until sometime tomorrow) Further details will be announced some time after 10am EST Monday May 21. Watch this space!

DUE TO A MAJOR CRASH WITH THE TICKETING SERVICE'S SERVER, THE ON-SALE FOR THE SMASHING PUMPKINS RESIDENCY AT THE ORANGE PEEL IN ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA HAS BEEN TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED. WE ARE TAKING STEPS TO FIX THE PROBLEM AND WILL RE-LAUNCH TICKET SALES SOMETIME ON MONDAY, MAY 21 OR PERHAPS TUESDAY, MAY 22, AS SOON AS WE CAN BE ASSURED THAT ALL PROBLEMS HAVE BEEN RESOLVED. THE ON SALE TIME WILL BE ANNOUNCED AT LEAST 4 HOURS PRIOR TO THE ON-SALE AND WILL NOT OCCUR PRIOR TO MONDAY, MAY 21, AT 6 P.M. EASTERN.

WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE AND APPRECIATE YOUR PATIENCE AND UNDERSTANDING.

I'm not sure if I have much patience or understanding in this situation, but it's nice to know that they're working on the problem.

And, and Ticketweb... one more thing: