Live Nation for iOS: Buy concert tix on the iPhone

Suppose you just found out Brendan Benson is playing in your town (he's in L.A. tomorrow, FYI). You don't have to run scrambling to the nearest computer to buy tickets; just fire up the new Live Nation app. With it you can find concerts in your area and buy tickets on the spot.

If your first reaction is to leave a comment telling me how much you despise Live Nation (and, by proxy, Ticketmaster), go right ahead. In fact, I'll start: If I want to pay a lot of ridiculous fees on top of already overpriced tickets, I'll just book some air travel, thank you.

But, hey, it is what it is. If you love live music, you rarely have a choice but to use Live Nation/Ticketmaster--so you might as well get some convenience out of the deal. (Say, maybe this is what all those "convenience" charges are for!)

It's a good app, letting you browse by concert or venue (both based on your location). You can search for artists or choose to see all the shows for a particular day.

Tap the Favorite button and the app does something clever: displays a list of shows based on artists already in your library. That's a huge time-saver. Of course, you can manually add artists to your Favorite list as well.

Live Nation's coolest feature? Set Lists. Choose an artist and the app displays a list of shows--sometimes dating back years. Tap a show and you'll see the entire set list. And if a song is available from iTunes, you can play a snippet or buy it.

My main complaint is that you can't look up concerts that aren't local. For example, if I'm flying to California tonight and want tix for tomorrow's Brendan Benson show, I'm out of luck--until I touch down, that is.

I wasn't able to test an actual ticket purchase, but all the elements are there: you can choose a price and/or section (where applicable), view a seating chart, and even request wheelchair-accessible seating.

For that kind of convenience, I don't mind paying a little extra.