Search Results for: finish ticket

Los Angeles – Bright Eyes principal Conor Oberst delivered a finished album to his label last February with an eye on a summer release, but then he had other ideas. He went back into the studio and recorded enough songs for a second set. Unwilling to scrap or combine any of the material, Oberst told his label, Omaha, Neb.-based Saddle Creek Records, that he wanted to release two separate albums – on the same day. “We felt like, ‘Why not kill two birds with one stone and put it all out there?”‘ Oberst says. On Jan. 25, Saddle Creek will… Read more »

The North American touring business is breathing a sigh of relief as the curtain drops on what many call the industry’s worst year in a decade. The final Billboard Boxscore tally shows the industry finishing with a microscopic increase in gross ticket sales of 0.2% in 2004. But that does not tell the full story of a year in which profitable shows were hard to find and promoters scrambled to fill seats, especially in an oversaturated summer season. As promoters lick their wounds, the big question facing the industry is whether the flat performance of 2004 was a blip on… Read more »

The success of the Black Eyed Peas flies in the face of the conventional wisdom that the music business sacrifices long-term artist development in favor of quick hits and short-term corporate profits. Signed to Interscope Records more than six years ago by chairman Jimmy Iovine, the progressive hip-hop group’s first two albums, “Behind the Front” in 1998 and “Bridging the Gap” in 2000 earned rave reviews but failed to go gold (shipments of 500,000 copies). The first album peaked at No. 139 on the Billboard 200 with sales of 197,000 units, according Nielsen SoundScan, while the sophomore set stalled at… Read more »

You say you want a revolution? Well, you know – we all want to change the world. Except for Chris Colus. He’s the drummer for a reggae-roots-rock band, freshly signed to a major record label, and he’s trying to explain that band’s name, which is O.A.R. – Of A Revolution. “There’s no political motive,” the 25-year-old Rockville, MD native insists. “This is the music we’ve wanted to play, the music we wanted to hear – that’s a revolution for ourselves and our fans.” The “Of A Revolution” name actually comes from “The Wanderer,” a short story singer-guitarist Marc Roberge wrote… Read more »

Bruce Springsteen and his mighty E Street Band put up some huge numbers on the road in 2003. But Springsteen was not the top touring artist of 2003, despite numerous media claims to the contrary. The record-setting Rising tour kicked some major stadium-level tail all over the world. Springsteen even threw in a world-record stand in his home state of New Jersey. At 54, he put together the top-grossing run of his 30-plus years of national touring. The Rising tour, the Jersey stand and Springsteen’s remarkable year of touring were well-chronicled in these pages. We love Bruce. But any way… Read more »

The Jagermeister Fall Music Tour is coming, and heavy metal icons, Slayer, will lead the assault! Produced and promoted by Clear Channel Entertainment, the tour will let loose on October 8th in Minneapolis, MN and finish up in Los Angeles on November 29th. Slayer’s recent release of their live DVD, War at the Warfield (American Recordings/UME), debuted at #3 on the Billboard charts in its first week. Their highly anticipated box set, Soundtrack to the Apocalypse (American Recordings/UME), due out on November 18, 2003, commemorates Slayer’s 20th anniversary as the undisputed thrash/punk/metal kings and will include classic Slayer tracks taken… Read more »

The largest North American power blackout in history plunged more than 50 million people into darkness in a 9,600-square-mile swath from the East Coast to the Midwest and Southern Canada on Thursday, affecting everything from subways in New York to the water supply in Cleveland. The outage also cut the power to a number of summer tours, knocking Bob Dylan and Tori Amos offline and sending many other bands scurrying for backup plans and places to crash for the night. An eagerly awaited hometown reunion of punk pioneers the Stooges, scheduled to play their first Detroit show in more than… Read more »

When Good Charlotte last played here in October 2002, their “Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous” was about how the other half lives and they barely filled the 1,500-capacity Rave in Milwaukee. Since then, of course, the band’s sophomore album, The Young and the Hopeless, has gone platinum, and this time through the Brew City they moved upstairs to the much larger Eagles Ballroom, where they sold out 4,000 tickets in a couple of days and packed the place for Friday’s show. They had a little help from their friends this time, too, as they were joined by New… Read more »

When Guns N’ Roses announced they were going on tour this fall after a nine-year hiatus, fans of the heavy metal band snapped up tickets. Axl Rose was back and there was talk of a new album. But the comeback has been no “Paradise City.” Rose, the mercurial frontman whose disappearing acts have long irritated fans, failed to show up for the opening show Nov. 7 in Vancouver, prompting thousands of ticket holders to riot outside the venue. The band was a no-show again last week in Philadelphia, and fans got unruly. By then it became apparent that the “Chinese… Read more »

Take ambassador off the list of careers Britney Spears might want to pursue if she ever tires of singing. The pop star, who seems to have no problem maintaining good relations with fans at home, suffered another international incident this past week by twice angering her Mexican fans, who chanted, “Fraud!” when she cut short the final show of her world tour. It’s customary for American artists playing to international audiences – who don’t get to see certain performers as often – to go out of their way to charm fans, either by adopting local protocol, attempting the language or… Read more »