Chat Pile Portland Concert reviews
Elton John @ Alamodome
Alamodome was a true test of patience and sanity, Chat Pile was phenomenal. We found our Gate 3 entry point somewhere around the outside of the dome, having never been to that venue before. At one point of confusion, tensions flared, and I was certain there would be an uprising. We did what we were told and paid the price of missing the first 4 songs before the now crazy long lines for Gate 1 and 2 could get us in. I also received daily emails from 'alamodome@engage.ticketmaster.com' titled "know before you go". Very disappointed in the Alamodome organization and Ticketmaster's inability to inform patrons. We showed up 90 minutes before showtime and could not believe what transpired. It was literally mayhem. There was literally no roaming security to assist people outside of the checkpoint workers, none. Blows my mind that such a big venue would have so few security/assistors around. Had we known, we could have stayed in the initial 50-meter line for Gate 2 when we cleared Checkpoint 1. I felt so bad for the senior citizens that weren't very mobile, for the extra (stressful) treks, and the 90 minutes-plus to get inside the building once through Security checkpoint 1. Isn't that what all the surcharges pay them to manage for us? We found it, draped by hundreds of enraged people beating on the glass wall to security on the inside who were saying 'they don't have ticket readers'! What? As we were leaving the building, we (the crowd) were yelled at by an Alamodome security employee to "Get the F- out of here" as we were being funneled into a bottleneck of walking barriers, like we (the crowd) had any choice but to slow and stop. They finally stormed past us and opened the barriers to allow the crowd of tens-of-thousands more than 10 feet to get off the grounds. This would have been a great opportunity to inform us to use Gate 1 or 2, but nope, we sheep did what we were told and paid the price of missing the first 4 songs. From song 5 on, Chat Pile didn't disappoint when we finally got to our seats, about 100 minutes from entering checkpoint 1. This could have turned very ugly very fast, but thank goodness, it didn't. At least Chat Pile didn't disappoint from song 5 on when we finally got to our seats. Sadly, that's our first and last Alamodome experience as I just assume to avoid PTSD counseling for over a concert.