OK something’s up on the concert scene this summer, I think it’s gonna be even more of a bloodbath than last year, when half-empty venues and 2 for 1 or reduced price tickets were available everywhere.
So far, Tom Petty announced a big sale with no ticket fees, which could be him just being cool like he did when he fought high record prices. Then the Dave Matthews Band, who suck, made a pretty smart move by announcing they would take next summer off, giving their fans extra incentive to go to this year’s shows. Now Christina Aguilera’s summer tour has been postponed till next year because of “future commitments” (what exactly could take up your whole summer and still be easily forgotten?), and Limp Bizkit, also terrible, is moving their tour out of amphitheaters “because we hate chairs.” Finally, the Lillith tour announced a 2-for-1 ticket sale, probably because they relied on the brand name instead of packing in a few more marquee names, and, in a move that aroused a little suspicion in my conspiracy-theory heart, U2 postponed a bunch of their summer dates because apparently Bono lost his ability to walk on water or hurt his back or something. Now, you think he couldn’t find a doctor to sign a note for him to keep them from losing tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars, IF this tour isn’t selling well?
My point? Don’t have one. Except that it seems a lot of summer tours are being downsized or postponed before the summer even starts. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens with concert attendance this year.
And here, for no real reason, is ‘Fight from the Inside,’ a Queen song I didn’t know about until the other day. It’s from their classic News Of The World album, but it’s an deep cut featuring bassist Roger Taylor on lead vocals. I didn’t know Freddie let the other guys sing, but this is pretty darn good, especially the guitar:
