Tool ticket sales still far from sell out

They spent hours in line, either to make sure they'd get their hands on tickets before they sold out or as a show of solidarity. But if they were worried about a sell out, they were wasting their time.

When tickets for Tool's June 16 Show Me Center concert with Japanese noise rockers Melt Banana went on sale last month, a couple of hundred Tool fans waiting for hours, showing up as early as 8 a.m. to get the tickets that went on sale at 5 p.m.

"Not many bands as big as Tool come to Cape so it's well worth it," said Ricky Skaggs, 20, first in line for tickets because he'd been at the Show Me Center since 8 a.m. "I would have gone to the St. Louis show, but once I found out they were coming here I figured this would be much better. This is much closer and for the price it is amazing. Usually most bigger bands like this charge much more than this, but $54 per ticket and right around the corner is an offer you can't pass up."

But a little over two weeks before the show, ticket sales were still far from sell out level.

Show Me Center Marketing Director Shannon Buford said about 2,900 tickets for the show had been sold as of May 30. It's hard to tell exactly how far that number is from a sell out, since the number of seats won't really be determined until a plan for the show is laid out.

A safe bet is that at least 5,000 seats would need to be sold for a sell out.

Real Rock 99.3 has been pumping the Tool show since before it was officially announced. Real Rock Program Director Scott Hartline said the show needs to sell out if Cape wants to see any more big, modern rock shows come to the Show Me Center, and he's heard a lot of interest in the concert. But Hartline wonders why the slow ticket sales.

"Everybody is super excited, and they all say 'We're going,' but obviously that's not reflected in the ticket sales," said Hartline. He can only speculate on the reason -- maybe a lack of regional promotion and the lack of college students in the area during the summer. But it's all speculation.

Buford said he's sure the hype around Tool won't be for nothing. At this point, the band is highly unlikely to pull out of the date because of a lack of ticket sales, Buford said.

Tool's ticket sales have nearly caught up with those of country singer Martina McBride, who will play the SMC June 7 with Little Big Town. As of May 30, McBride had sold 3,100 seats, but tickets for that concert went on sale much earlier.

But outlaw country legend Merle Haggard still lags behind, only having sold about 1,200 tickets as of May 30.

The three June concerts mark the busiest summer in years for the Show Me Center, which has had trouble attracted summer fare in recent years.

But if these three concerts don't do well, often counted as a sell out in today's concert industry, how many more busy June months will the venue see?