WOW, Dan Deacon was definitely my highlight of the night! What an amazing personality! It totally transcends his whole ducted taped setup. It's the most punk electronic show I've ever seen. Make sure you get a good view of him if you ever go to his shows.

Girltalk was impressive too, but other than the energy and the absolutely crazed audience, somehow I feel I've seen it before. The thing that really captured my attention for his show was the possibility that people in front of the stage was gonna get crusted by his table. I was scared the entire time. Thank god for those big bouncers holding the whole stage back. It's the one time I've been grateful for them a-holes at webster.

O, I saw SMD/Invisible Congo People too. SMD is always absolutely kick-ass. But I still can't get over Dan Deacon.... To me, he's like the Iggy Pop of indie dance....

Of Course.... by "crusted" I mean "crushed".

The most hilarious part of Girl Talk was the security guard onstage trying to stop more people from climbing up. It was straight out of a Laurel and Hardy or something - he'd see someone climbing up stage right and waddle over and be unable to stop them, then turn around and see people climbing up where he had just been and repeat the process.

I was at Dan's table at Bowery for the first few songs and definitely felt getting crushed to be a real possibility, so I moved from the epicenter and heard the rest of the show from the back. It is cool to see up close what he does, but it did feel dangerous to be there.

I left before Girl Talk, Dan Deacon was who I was there to see and anything else would have been overkill for me.

yea i had a good time at girl talk/deacon show at bowery. but glad that I paid face value, no way would I want to spend more than 20 bucks to see these performances.

Had a feeling the 'crushed' feeling might happen as Deacon's shows get larger...maybe it's time he gets up on stage?

I was on the second floor balcony at Webster Hall looking directly above Dan's table. I felt safe and thought I had a great view. Unfortunately, I was too far away to "touch" the master.... lol. I was very happy to see the green skull back at its rightful place. He gets sooo much mileage from so little.... Mind Boggling. Yea, it's time he gets on stage... or build a raised platform on the middle of the floor. Everyone needs to see his "performance". It's all about the duct tape.

i got sweaty but i never got as sweaty as i got when i saw the Rollin Stones. super sweaty. but i ws waering a sweatsuit and it was sumr and i was nearly 20 pounds overweight at thattime cuz i just had!!! a bad breakup.

The Yard is a great little outdoor venue. I had a blast at the show last night. What an awesome line up!

Dan's da man.

When I rode my bike by The Yard on my way to study instead of going to the show, I saw a bunch of people sitting on the Carroll Street Bridge. Is $8 really too much to offer the venue and the people performing? Damn, those people were cheap.

at the show in boston on friday deacon said this may be his last tour on the floor...

if lightning bolt can do it...

was at the yard, but left before dan deacon went on...too cold by that damn canal

Aa rocked, as did USAISAMONSTER who constantly rule

seemed like the crowd was mostly a bunch of tweeny p-fork disciples waiting for dan deacon...case in point, USAISAMONSTER were heckled a bit during their set...while i like the idea of all-ages shows, i totally felt like i was at some kind of p-fork approved romper room.

some advice for the kids...

1. being obnoxious is not cool
2. pretending to be drunk is not cool
3. heckling professional musicians is not cool
4. intentionally wearing clothing/shoes with holes in them is not cool
5. being all touchy-feely is not cool
6. nut-hugging jeans are not cool
7. smoking cigs is not cool
8. making a scene so people look at you is not cool

im done

it was amateur hour out there. people puking all over the place [@ bowery show]. left early during girl talk. watching people lose their shit and jump on stage cause that's what they hear they should do is dumb.

Yea, seeing them in Toronto was amazing, Dan Deacon was the clear winner as far as amazment factor. The most entertaining part of the show though was watching the bouncers try and clear the stage during Girl Talk. One bouncer tried to pull him off stage, I guess they thought he was just one of the crowd.

i was not at that show, but one of my favourite sweaters contains holes from years of use and being left on floors, and i still like to wear it.

although i assume you mean they are buying intentionally ripped clothing, or ripping them to be "fashionable".

dan deacon was the highlight at webster. he was a really cool guy too (i talked to him a little). some of the people at the show were a little douchebaggy though.

3:33, you got 7 out of 8.

Smoking cigarettes is definitely cool.

Didn't you learn anything in Jr. High?

true, BUT i recently quit, so smoking cigs is no longer cool

Amazing....... I saw the hottest girl at the show and regret not talking to her. If your pretty tall asian with that had a black dress on..... ur fucking dope. ha.

SUNY Purchase 1. NYC 257.

okay first off...
what show starts this early??
this was total ass!!
i woke up at 7pm, a show at
webster hall has almost never been on time...
fuck that
got there late
saw dan deacons last song, which was incredible!
girl talk came on, and all of a sudden i
notice how wack the crowd was...
like bad
shit got out of hand, for no reason, people
shoving and being all types of stupid,
got into a number of altercations with
a few bridge and tunnel knuckleheads...
and not for nothing...
did his set suck!!??????
it was like he would drop some hot shit,
for like twenty seconds, and then play
some stupid shit for for a whole track...
he dropped tag team-whoomp there it is!!
and the worst of all
kelly clarkson!!!
and shit wasnt even a fly mashup.
i was disappointed to say the least.
especially considering that it seemed
like they rushed the webster show for
the bowery show...which sucks, cuz we
dropped like thirty bucks for that shit...
robbed.
however i must
say, simian mobile disco
was alltogether more fun...and free!!
so yeah

Was that a series of haikus?

"it was like he would drop some hot shit,
for like twenty seconds, and then play
some stupid shit for for a whole track...
he dropped tag team-whoomp there it is!!
and the worst of all
kelly clarkson!!!"

You must have been expecting an act other than Girl Talk if that left you disappointed.

Yeah, I saw that girl dancing on stage (at webster) during Dan Deacon. She was smokin hot.

show of his mixes werent the best (in my opinion).

I know Girl Talk is ADD, but some of it was ridicoulous how little of some (good) songs he played.

The show was fun, (crowd somewhat douchey - i hate going to shows with first-timers who think pushing around is what you do at a show), but as far as the mix was concerned, it was nothing memoriable.

webster show was great, but too early.

energy for girl talk was intense,and the guards had their hands full

left in my sweaty clothes, and was freezing my ass off outside.

can someone please post more pics or videos??

I enjoyed the show at webster, but people got stupid once they got on stage and kept bringing their friends up when it was obvious that no one else could fit. People in the front kept falling off the stage. The last 2/3 of the show there was this girl and guy standing in front of the setup, so you couldn't even tell where Girl Talk was in the crowd. And everyone was pushing around him.. they pulled some chords out a few times and everyone had to stop dancing while they reconnected.

dan deacon talked the most hilarious shit on blogs and blog commenters last night... something like "all the people who never leave their house are going to make fun of us for leaving our house"

yeah, to anyone who yanked out greg's wires because you wanted to Get Close To The Action, congratulations. you are the worst.

Dan was so awesome at the Yard, but I miss dancing.

His shows used to be about people having fun and dancing like crazy (including him). Now it's all about slamming into one another and crowd surfing.

Since when is getting pushed and kicked in the head the way to enjoy a show?

please post some fun pics from the webster hall show.

i was up on stage and dancing too hard take any pics

i still say dan deacon reminds me of my uncle in Arkansas, crazy bastard that he is. all drunk and shit.

Girl Talk was amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGxLztnvG0Y

The show at bowery was the best of the 3 hands down. Much more fun and cozy.
I like dan deacon but really he should not be talking shit to anyone. Look at the guy. He might be the only musician who doesnt get laid by groupie girls or guys(he seems gay but who knows?)
And furthermore, does he look like a guy who left his house much growing up and now probably does only to play shows.

i think he was talking shit about people who talk shit. like the kind of asshole who makes fun of someone on a message board because of how they look, you ignorant fuck.

it rained glitter!!!

hey anony 1:57am i bet you went to the show by yourself you fucking loser

great pics

what about best fwends???

i was at the yard and saw best fwends for the first time.

i would describe their show as 10 minutes of mashed-up hardcore karaoke.

it seemed like people were enjoying and some of the backing tracks seemed ok, but for fuck's sake...is this the shit that people want to pay money to watch? 2 dudes jumping around for 10 minutes in front of a cartoon banner?

good if you like to party, i guess...but not so good if you like to listen to music

I printed my ticketfast tickets and got denied, even though i had purchased my own dang tickets. Did this happen to anybody else?
Sucks to be me.
Stupid TM

John G
I doubt we are hearing the whole story from you. Ticketfast tickets are just that tickets. They cannot deny you unless something else was up. DId you not bring your id or something else? I highly doubt the story was just that you walked up to the door with your ticketfast printout and the guy just said no sorry you cannot come in.
In any case you can call ticketmaster and get your money back if they just denied you for no reason

any one go to both shows? was bowery better than webster (webster sucked).

There is more to my story true. I have to figure this out.

"When I rode my bike by The Yard on my way to study instead of going to the show, I saw a bunch of people sitting on the Carroll Street Bridge. Is $8 really too much to offer the venue and the people performing? Damn, those people were cheap."

we try,
low over-head = bands splitting 80% of the door,
thanks for coming to the best show this weekend

"we try,
low over-head = bands splitting 80% of the door,
thanks for coming to the best show this weekend"

for a little bit of context here, let it be known that Bowery Presents typically is taking 35-50% of the ticket price, leaving bands and promoters to split the meager remains

The remains aren't THAT meager. Take the girl talk show. 500 x $12 = $6,000 x, say, 50% = $3,000 to girl talk and $3,000 to cover the club's rent, security, staff, etc. Granted they're selling lots of drinks...

"$3,000 to cover the club's rent, security, staff, etc. Granted they're selling lots of drinks..."

make that LOTS of drinks - at $6-8 each. The Bowery isn't hurting, they have an effective monopoly of being the least sucky place to play a 600 capacity show in NYC.

And yes, they are milkin' it - and that should be common knowledge. The high ticket prices in NYC are partially due to bands and agents wanting bigger and bigger guarantees, but more so because the clubs and promotion companies are wanting bigger and bigger chunks of the door.

They should be able to get by largely on the bar proceeds, period.

No indie rock show should ever cost over $20. For the most part it shouldn't get above $10.

If you're willing to pay these crazy ticket prices and then the crazy drink prices once you get in there, then you're a damn fool.

if 20 dollars for a show is too much for you, you're either going to too many or you need a better job. or both.

or else I'm like more than 90% of the population of this country and budgeting over $20 a night to go to shows is a ridiculous amount of money.

apologies if you're a trust funder / ivy league graduate type and can bring in a six figure salary, but most people aren't and don't.

Ticket prices have risen at much quicker than the rate of inflation, as have the price of records. This is really not up for debate, it's stark truth.

20 years ago nobody would have believed that you could charge this kind of ridiculous cash for a fucking rock show. But these days we live in a society that's complacent with letting interesting art be a luxury for the wealthy.

That's an ugly, elitist world for all of us to be stuck in.

If you're bigger band, make money by attracting more people to your shows - 3000 people at $15 a head obviously makes more money than 300 people at $12 a head - don't try gouge by charging more money than average people can afford.

Then how come the black market rate (Craigslist) was 40-45 bucks? Looks like we don't have an efficient market and Chairman Mao over there is still complaining

Anon 2:40: You should familiarize yourself with the expenses and inner workings of the economy of a band on tour and of a venue before running your mouth like you have any idea what you are talking about.

A band playing a 3,000 capacity venue and charging $15 per ticket would probably be able to make exactly $0.00 or less after covering venue expenses (which, yes, are often inflated), paying their crew, and covering their touring costs (gas, cars, hotels, food, etc.). Most bands big enough to sell 3,000 tickets would probably lose thousands of dollars if they went along with your plan.

hey anono 5:48

you don't know who you're talking to or what you're talking about. I once regularly paid out bands that bring in 1000-5000 people and I can tell you they can make plenty of cashola at $15 a head.

Let's start by pointing out something obvious. 3000 people at $15 a head is $45,000. No 1000-5000 capacity venue spends even half of that, $22,000, in one evening putting on one show. Venue costs are pretty much rent, insurance, soundsystem, staff pay and advertising - you tell me how that adds up to more than $20,000 in a single evening unless you're Madison Square Garden.

What venues do spend is much more than recouped by concessions (aka "the bar"), which will typically pull between half and parity with the gross of ticket sales (unless you're charging crazy high ticket prices.)

The problem bands often run into is that there is a de facto monopoly on 2000+ capacity venues. Across the nation, and especially in New York, big clubs are by and large ALL run by one company, Clear Channel aka "Live Nation" - and that company asks for absolutely off-the-chart venue fees.

Partly this is due to union contracts that Clear Channel can't get out of, partly it is because they have a monopoly and hence no incentive to streamline their costs, and partly it is because they are a greedy, uncaring publicly-held company who couldn't give a damn about whether average people can afford to go to their shows regularly.

This monopoly does cut into the amount of money a band can make, but there are alternatives, albeit rarely pursued. Of course there are other ways to throw a show than to go through Clear Channel, and it doesn't have to turn out like Altamont.

That said, even if you go with Clear Channel there are ways stay affordable and not bleed money, if you give a damn about your fans and their ability to see you without going broke.

Bottom line, don't tour like you're rock stars when you aren't and you will make money.

For one thing, no band needs a tour bus - a van does just fine. The only "staff" you need is a soundguy (necessary for larger bands) and a tshirt guy, or guys. Everyone else is needless entourage. You don't need to stay in hotels, and if you do, there are affordable options - staying at the W or the Four Seasons is really uncalled for. Food doesn't cost any more when you're a bigger band than it does when you're a nobody - and regardless there's always a food buyout included in the contracts anyway.

I could go on and on. The point here is, don't buy into the line of bullshit that anono 5:38 and his ilk try to sell you - they using your ignorance of the numbers to keep you from questioning a crazily inflated ticket price structure.

The system as it stands keeps venue staff, agents, and other music industry bottom feeders generously employed, but it doesn't serve bands or fans.

I've got some photos from the Baltimore show here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/baonguyen/sets/72157602078390921/detail/

Anon 4:44, Anon 5:48 here:

I think you mistook my missive as advocacy for the current "system." Believe me, I am aware that ticket prices are too high and that there's no way it actually costs $22,000 to put on a show at Webster Hall (or any venue). But the facts on the ground are what they are, and if you are going to put on a show in a big city, you have limited options, and most of these options are presented as costing that much money or more. True, you don't HAVE to use Bowery or Clear Channel, but if you don't you put yourself in an unknown situation: Will the PA work? Will the city shut the show down before it's over? Will people get their tickets? Will the tickets be counterfeit? Will people know that the show is taking place if it's not in a place they know to look for it? Etc. I know that it's entirely possible for put on a show without using major promoters, but it is a shitload more work, and a shitload less reliable, and if you are an artist playing the biggest city in the country and selling 2000+ tickets, you are probably going to err on the side of caution. Not to mention, $20 is really not THAT unreasonable of an amount to pay for a night out, especially in New York. How much do Broadway shows cost? Or hamburgers? Surely either can provide at least as much entertainment as a 4 hour concert.

Regarding other road luxuries, it's also not as simple as 'just stay at a friend's house,' 'just keep your crew to a minimum.' That can work for awhile, but if you are playing places like webster hall, most bands have and NEED a tour manager, a sound person, a merch person, maybe you have 4 people in the band, etc. Do you have a friend in every city that is ok with housing 8-9 people? Do you want to sleep on someone's floor every night for 3 weeks? So all of a sudden you need 4 hotel rooms per night, and then you spend the entire day driving. All of a sudden getting a bus for the same price of hotels + gas and NOT needing to get hotel rooms and getting your driving done overnight so that you can arrive to your next destination earlier in the day and maybe do some interviews, get a proper soundcheck, and not spend your hours leading up to your show frantically running around getting everything in place. There's a difference between living like a 'rock star' and living a life that provides a slight-to-moderate level of comfort, which might be nice for someone who is committed to being on the road for 4-5 months out of the year.

"there's no way it actually costs $22,000 to put on a show at Webster Hall (or any venue)."

so in that case, you're conceding that the venues are taking around half, which is $20,000 or so on a 3000 capacity show @ $15.

That means what you're -really- saying is that the remaining $20,000 (!) or so is not enough money for a band on tour to make, every night, and still make a profit on tour?

What kind of tour expenses do you have, man?

"How much do Broadway shows cost? Or hamburgers? Surely either can provide at least as much entertainment as a 4 hour concert."

a Broadway show is a huge undertaking with elaborate staging and dozens of extremely uniquely talented performers who can sing and dance and act simultaneously, in sync with dozens of behind the scenes set and lighting crew and musicians.

a Broadway show should be a comparatively expensive ticket because they are doing a helluva a lot more than what any rock band, or the behind the scenes crew at a rock show, has to pull off on stage.

AND - if you're buying a lot of $20 hamburgers, I think we can all agree that you aren't in the same income bracket as the rest of us.

I think anon 5:48 was just not making himself clear.

Broadway shows cost hundreds of dollars. The show in question cost $20. Live concerts don't have as many props, but they're still using expensive lights, sound equipment, and venues on expensive real estate, and the people putting them on still need to make a living.

Also the quote of $20,000 for a 3000 capacity venue was probably off by about $40,000. It's probably more like $50-60,000 to do a show at a 3000 capacity venue.

I'm not sure why there is a perception that bands are getting wealthy off of indie rock. Few are, and if they do - what's wrong with that?

"Also the quote of $20,000 for a 3000 capacity venue was probably off by about $40,000. It's probably more like $50-60,000 to do a show at a 3000 capacity venue."

this is simply not true. it does not cost $50000 to put on one night of rock show. It costs closer to $10000, if that.

"I'm not sure why there is a perception that bands are getting wealthy off of indie rock. Few are, and if they do - what's wrong with that?"

there is no perception that indie bands are getting wealthy, there is a perception that bands are dupes and terrible business people and that very large sums of money are being made in their names - but that little of it trickles down to them.

Perhaps if bands weren't adverse to paying attention to how high the prices are and where the money is being spent - to whom it's going and on what - then bands would make more money and fans wouldn't be being bilked for ridiculous ticket prices.

Gotta love the Internet where any piece of information can be debunked by labeling it "simply not true"

"this is simply not true. it does not cost $50000 to put on one night of rock show. It costs closer to $10000, if that."

When was the last time you looked at the stated expenses for Roseland? If you can find a 3000 capacity venue in new york with a $10,000 house nut, you will be a VERY popular person.