A Steely Dan Ticket Costs More Than Fine Colombian

Earlier this month we came across a pair of Steely Dan tour dates near Chicago that we figured were just the first of many shows the jazz-rock band will play this summer. Today, another date has surfaced, as the bayside San Diego venue Humprey’s By The Bay has announced its 2013 lineup, which finds Steely Dan performing there on August 21st.

NBC’s SoundDiego website lists all shows and ticket prices for the season and we were surprised to see Steely Dan tops the list of ticket prices by a whopping $45. Steely Dan fans will have to pay $155 face ($169.50 with fees) to see the band play at Humphrey’s By The Bay. For comparison’s sake, tickets to see Los Lobos, Los Lonely Boys AND Alejandro Escovedo are only $55 a piece, while tickets to see legendary performer Willie Nelson run $88. Jazz pianist Diane Krall, who will play the venue on September 20th, is the only show on the lineup for which tickets are over $100 (tickets to see Krall’s Glad Rag Doll show cost $110).

Steely Dan famously sang about making “tonight a wonderful thing” in their 1980 hit Hey Nineteen by enjoying “the Cuervo Gold” and the “fine Colombian.” If you pair those two things with a Steely Dan concert in San Diego, you’re looking at a $300+ night as Huffington Post puts the street price of a gram of cocaine in the U.S. at $120, while you can buy a liter of Cuervo Gold for $15.98. Bear in mind Humphrey’s By The Bay is an intimate venue with a capacity of 1,450, but it isn’t often a ticket to a Steely Dan show costs more than the “fine Colombian,” though some say the Dan were singing about weed not coke.