Deeds: Want JoBros tickets? Show some discipline, kid

Is 19-year-old country-pop sensation Taylor Swift bigger than Mick Jagger and Keith Richards?

Based on last Saturday morning's ticket-buying crush for Swift's May 17 concert, you might think so.

Swift sold out in a little over an hour. It would have gone quicker if the Idaho Center's Web site, ICTickets.com, hadn't been transformed into digital molasses by the mouse-clicking frenzy. The online vendor never crashed, but it slowed down. ICTickets' phone line offered busy signals. Many hopeful fans were left out in the cold.

"We were reaching Web traffic more than double the Rolling Stones, if you can believe that," Idaho Center general manager Craig Baltzer says.

To be fair, the average Stones fan possibly is less Web-savvy than a teenage Swift follower. But the online attack is a sign of the times. More people use a mouse to buy tickets than ever before.

What this means is that if you're hoping to snag tickets to the Jonas Brothers concert June 26 - which goes on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 28 - you need to get your ducks in a row.

"I think it has potential to be as big or bigger than Taylor Swift," Baltzer says.

If you're a hardcore fan, maybe you're snuggled into a sleeping bag at an ICTickets outlet already. That's a concert tradition, although it's officially discouraged. Plus, if you're not among the first few people in line, you may get hosed, anyway.

I'd take the Internet route. And have a phone handy to dial 442-3232 repeatedly. Maybe you'll get lucky.

In the old days, if you couldn't get off work two days early to camp at an outlet, you were at a disadvantage. Online ticketing levels the playing field. Essentially, it's a lottery.

Get preregistered at ICTickets.com. Now. After that, the Idaho Center recommends logging into the site about 15 to 20 minutes early, then clicking your "refresh" button right at 10 a.m. From there, click on "tickets on sale now" and the rest is self-explanatory.

To prepare for the barrage, the Idaho Center has added a new server. It will function as an online "waiting room." The waiting area allows ICTickets to operate at peak efficiency, funneling users into what amounts to an online ticketing booth.

The key is to follow the instructions. Self-control isn't a trait generally associated with a screaming JoBros fan, but you'll need to show some discipline, kid. The waiting page will refresh automatically, Baltzer says. If you manually hit "refresh" or close the page, it will just start you over and put you further back in line.

"Please trust the message on your screen," Baltzer says.

There will be no map selection. Tickets on the first day are "hurry sale" only.

So, to reiterate, there are three things that could happen online: You could get through immediately and start having your order processed. You could get into the waiting zone and be patient. Or you could get stuck on the outside, which means you should start mashing "refresh" and screaming in agony.

There are about 11,000 tickets available to this concert. Many already have pre-sold to fan clubbers. The Idaho Center has its own presale happening at 10 a.m. Friday, March 27. (Check my blog for the password.) Still, more than half the house should be available to fans Saturday.

The Idaho Center is doing what it can to make the on-sale experience smooth. But chances are, there might be a few tears this weekend.

"Everybody who wants a ticket is not necessarily going to get a ticket," Baltzer says. "That's just the reality."

® Metallica fans: Use the same tactics to get good seats to the metal band's Dec. 7 show at the Idaho Center. Metallica hasn't been here since the "St. Anger" era (ugh), so this will be big. It goes on sale at 10 a.m. April 4 for $58.50 and $78.50. That includes fees.

Michael Deeds co-hosts "The Other Studio" at 9 p.m. Sundays on 94.9 FM "The River"; he appears Thursdays on Channel 6 News "Live at 6:00."