Music

This DJ scammed a Tragically Hip scalper out of $2,000

by Richard Howard

Two weeks ago, the Tragically Hip shocked fans with the news that lead singer Gord Downie had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. At the same time, they announced that they would be embarking on a summer tour, saying that doing so “feels like the right thing to do now, for Gord, and for all of us.”

Unsurprisingly, tickets for what may be one of Canada’s most beloved bands’ last tour have been a hot commodity – a fact not lost on scalpers. The majority of pre-sale tickets and much of the general public allotment which maxed out at $200 were snapped up by bots then re-sold at prices approaching $1,000.

Ontario’s Attorney General has promised to investigate ticket resale practices, but that’s of little comfort to the thousands of fans unable to procure tickets. Which is why one radio DJ is being hailed as a hero after royally sticking it to one unsuspecting scalper. Listen to the tale below:

It’s a short but sweet story. Jesse Modz, on-air personality at St. Catherines’ 97.7 HTZ-FM radio station, is known to pull a prank or two on unsuspecting individuals. However, as a massive Hip fan, he took the scalper skullduggery personally and came up with a plan to exact revenge on behalf of the fans.

Finding one scalper that was selling two tickets for $1,700, he struck up a deal where he would pay a total of $2,000 for the guy to drive from Mississauga to St. Catherines in order to deliver the tickets. From the guy’s delicious dawning of realization that he’d been had (“Don’t even start, man”) to the expletive filled impotent rage thereafter, it’ll make you feel a little better about every time you’ve been screwed by scalpers.