LCD Soundsystem: Scratching the scalp

James Murphy has got the hump with scalpers who bought up the entire allocation of tickets for the LCD Soundsystem at Madison Square Gardens in seconds. (Although, as Bob Lefsetz points out, the "allocation" was probably around 1,000 tickets per show.)

Murphy has announced five extra New York shows to try and compensate, while railing at those who swooped down to mop up the tickets:

we tried calling our lawyer about the ticket scalping. “it’s legal”. no joke. it’s fucking legal. i tramped around with friends and band getting insane. i wanted to buy some expensive tickets and then track the seller down to BEAT him. i acted stupid. i did some classic, shakespearean vain “fist shaking”, etc. i made angry tweets. (i’m wondering now what on earth could be less effective and more of a first-world spoiled idiotic move than “angry tweets”? jesus.)

Impressively, Murphy wants the fans to be able to buy the tickets, at face prices, and not be ripped off.

And he seems genuine.

There is one small question, though: if Murphy was interested in fans being able to get hold of the tickets, why was priority given not to, say, Facebook followers or people on an LCD Soundsystem mailing list, but, erm, people who happened to have an American Express card? Shouldn't at least some of our rage be directed at this new habit of hiving off tickets to be part of some brand's market USP?