Jesse Ruins Concerts: How I snuck into Blink-182

With all the political content we’ve had lately, I felt compelled to bring some light to this week’s issue, to reduce the endless stress of this election. Over the course of the semester, The Review has attempted (emphasizing the attempted) to cover a handful of concerts. These shows offer media passes for newspapers to take pictures at them as well. I’ve officially become the joke of the newsroom, as I have in some way been either kicked out or denied entry to all of the concerts I’ve tried to get into.

My endeavors with these concerts have fueled the idea for this article. As the old saying goes, “One man’s misery is another man’s fortune.” So, please be rich in laughter as I share my story, starting with the “honest” ones.

UVUphoria recently took over the UCCU Center, with Jason Derulo rocking the house. Fortunately, we had tickets to cover the event. I waltzed in and headed backstage with ease, only to find out that my press pass was revoked. After much negotiation, I was finally allowed access, only to get kicked out halfway through the night.

The next show was a fun trip to SLC to cover the sold out Crystal Castles concert. My writer and I showed up after a long drive from Orem, only to find out that the promoter, who reached out to us and advised us that they wanted it to be covered, had failed to work with the venue/band to get our names on the guest list. Short and sweet.

Finally, we have the Lindsey Sterling benefit concert, again at the beloved UCCU Center. Some internal error lost us our tickets and our press pass (go figure, it’s just my luck). After 25 minutes of negotiation, only my writer was granted access, losing my access for pictures. Sorry Lindsey, I guess we’ll just have to meet another time. My love for you continues to grow strong.

The final concert happens to be the most fun yet an (slightly) unethical one. Blink-182 recently visited West Valley at USANA Amphitheater. I decided to exercise some persuasion, media credentials and authority to see if I could sneak backstage, score an interview with Blink and all things aside, simply get into the sold out show, for free.

This adventure started out with me taking a 2-hour drive (damn you rush hour, traffic, accidents and weather) to USANA. After finally getting to the venue, I parked and turned my camera on to document the whole thing.

I made my way to where they took tickets and allowed entry. I flashed my media pass with a confident smile and was redirected to the VIP section, which was gated off.

Upon arriving at VIP, I flashed the same said smile and pass to the man in charge there and was allowed entry. I was one step closer to seeing Blink.

As I meandered through VIP, I had to flash the pass at another checkpoint, only to be awarded access. Then came another checkpoint, and finally the last checkpoint before I was into the physical show.

That last checkpoint required me to flash my pass to four people, who were all ready to give me a wristband, but was slightly resilient, as they had to wait for word on an upper level individual. I sat around for damn-nearly 25 minutes till someone came over. This was it; this was my escort into Blink-182!

This guy came over with a look of confusion as to who the hell I was and why I was back there. He was the one who would have taken me backstage, being the liaison between the bands and myself. Unfortunately, he didn’t buy it, not for a second.

After much conviction he was kind enough to offer me a ticket, but no access to Blink. Like a dog with its tail between its legs, I walked out of VIP with defeat on my face. Although it was not the most professional way to conduct business, it was an amazing opportunity/experience to even try. It will make for a great story for the grandkids one day. Moral of the story, always be ethical, and always follow up with promoters.