String Cheese Incident Fight Ticketmaster By Buying Up and Reselling Own Tickets

Jam band String Cheese Incident are no strangers to standing up to Ticketmaster, but they took their stance one step further recently by scalping their own tickets for one show so fans could be basically guaranteed avoiding ticket surcharges.

According to the New York Times, the group recently had roughly 50 friends and fans stand in a queue outside the Greek Theater in Los Angeles to purchase tickets to the band's July 13 show at the venue.

Armed with about $20,000 cash the band gave them, some 400 tickets -- each priced at $49.95 as walk-up purchases contained no ticket surcharge -- were then sent back to the band's Colorado home base where they were placed on the band's site for $49.95. The band's site says July 13 in Los Angeles and July 14-15 in Berkeley have "limited service fee-free tickets back on sale now!"

"It costs us money to sell the tickets," the band's bassist Keith Moseley told the publication. "But we are going to eat that cost this summer in order to make a better deal for our fans and let them know how much we appreciate them."

According to Ticketnews, the group's actions for the upcoming Los Angeles show saved fans purchasing through Ticketmaster a $12.90 surcharge per ticket. In March, when the band announced its 2012 summer tour, they also sold tickets through their official site at face value, going so far as paying for credit card processing charges.

"...if you order tix thru the band's website there will be no service charge add-ons aside from shipping (which is out of our hands)...," the band wrote on its Facebook page on March 1. "...the ticket price that is listed is the price that you will pay...." The band also included a photo featuring the band with the statement: "Hate Service Fees? So Do We...Check Out Our Service Fee Free Summer!"

The band has had a long, combative history with Ticketmaster after suing the company for denying them access to a certain percentage of tickets usually available to artists.

The String Cheese Incident will play in Rothbury, Michigan June 28-July 1 before a three-night stand at Red Rocks Amphitheatre July 5-7 in Morrison, Colorado is slated. The group released its last studio album One Step Closer back in 2005.