If your local bar's charging $15 to see four of the biggest rock bands on Earth, you might want to double-check who's really on the line-up.
A South Island music fan learned that the hard way recently. He bought two tickets to a gig promising the sounds of Rage Against the Machine, Deftones, Korn and Alice in Chains.
The gig, at the New City Hotel in Christchurch, and featured four tribute bands - Sabotage Theory playing Rage, Tone-def (Deftones), Kron (Korn) and Alice Would (Alice in Chains).
Complainant N McLean told the Advertising Standards Authority his partner bought tickets to the show before he "checked the page and realised it wasn't the original musicians".
He says advertising for the event on Facebook didn't clearly state it was a tribute night featuring cover bands.
"My claim that the disclosure is not adequate comes from the way the concert was explained to me, not by my own interpretation of the advert," he said in the complaint.
"If it slipped past her then it wasn't good enough, just because I was able to read it in a way more accurate to reality."
The complaint was thrown out, with the ASA chairman noting "the bands in question are well-known American rock or metal bands and it would have been reasonable to expect that the entrance fee for such a concert would be more than the advertised price of $15".
The chair also said the word "tribute" was used more than once, so it was clear they weren't the greatest bands in the world - just tributes - and the complaint was rejected.
Sabotage Theory guitarist Alex Newfield told Newshub the complainant's girlfriend failed to "read between the lines".
"One person got it wrong, that's the reality of it. We've been doing this for four years now, and we promote every show we do in the same manner, and we've never had an issue before."
The band, based in Christchurch and Auckland, says the original bands have never complained either.
Newfield says their recent Dunedin and Christchurch shows were the best they've ever done, and well worth the $15.
"The feedback I got was we could charge a bit more - you don't hear that often."
Newshub.
