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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Pearl Jam First Client Of New Ticket Company

Gene Stout Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Pearl Jam will launch its first U.S. concert tour since last April with the help of a new California-based ticket company.

ETM Entertainment Network, in Costa Mesa, Calif., made its public debut Tuesday with an announcement that it will handle all ticketing for a series of summer shows by Pearl Jam. The Seattle rock band will be its first client.

Pearl Jam hasn’t toured the United States since a dispute with Ticketmaster over service fees prevented the group from playing at venues with exclusive Ticketmaster contracts.

The group, which recently finished a concert tour of Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, was forced to look for alternate venues and a different method of selling tickets in the United States.

The tour will kick off June 16 in Boise with tentative dates in Denver, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix, Austin, New Orleans and Milwaukee. Additional shows in other cities will be announced later.

Some of the venues are unusual. A June 22 concert will be at the Boreal Ridge ski area in Truckee, Calif.

Tickets will go on sale in about a month. Ticket buyers will be able to call an 800 number to order tickets by mail, with delivery promised two weeks before a show. The system will be completely automated, allowing ticket buyers to order tickets by pressing the buttons on their phones.

The base ticket price for each Pearl Jam show will be $18, with some shows priced as high as $21 for sites that require extensive preparation. Curtis said there will be a flat $2 service fee for each ticket regardless of cost, plus a handling fee of about 45 cents.

To protect against fraud and bootlegging, ETM plans to include a bar code on each ticket. If someone comes to an event with a ticket that already has been scanned at the place of purchase, the system will catch it and the person will be denied entry.