maxipad-sponsored Lilith Fair tour dates & soft ticket sales (happening in NJ, but not NYC or Arizona...)

Bob Lefsetz writes…

Seeing the decline in recorded music revenues, ticket prices soared. We can blame Live Nation, but let’s first and foremost blame the acts. Who not only priced tickets exorbitantly, but scalped their own tickets. They were greedy.

What’s the end result?

The club business has been devastated. Live music is about the special event, one doesn’t go regularly. It’s about paying top buck for a name brand. Take a chance? At these prices!

And now we’ve got Sarah McLachlan admitting that Lilith Fair tickets are “pretty soft” (the story is everywhere, but it originated on “Billboard”: Sarah McLachlan says Lilith sales “pretty soft”)

What Sarah says seems reasonable, that only 300 seats or so out of 16,000 are $250, and that there are 9,000 that are $25, until you click through and try to buy some.

At the local L.A. date at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre/Irvine Meadows, the first Ticketmaster choice is:

‘Lilith Universe’ – Diamond Package

The price? $750 a ticket.

Then we’ve got:

‘Lilith Spirit’ – Gold Spirit

The price is: $450 a ticket.

Then there’s ‘Lilith Spirit’ – Silver Package. Prices there are $300 a ticket.

And then, fourth choice down, we come to “NEW FULL PRICE TICKET”. Where the options are: $252, $101, $71.50, $41.50 and $31.50.

But it gets even worse. After that, there’s a line for “Citi Cardmember Preferred Tickets”. And then, at the very bottom, we’ve got “Lawn 4 Pack Offer”. Those are only $14.25 apiece, but after service charges, aren’t you just better off buying the ultimate DVD, which you can watch again and again in the privacy of your own home. up close and personal?

In other words, first and foremost, we’ve got a perception problem. No matter how many super-expensive seats there are, perception is you just can’t get a good one unless you pay up, demoralizing potential attendees.

Furthermore, no one on the bill is “hot”. There’s no GaGa that makes people NEED to go. [Bob Lefsetz]

Lilith Fair 2010, back from a 10+ year hiatus, kicks off June 27th and runs into August. The maxi pad-sponsored tour comes to the NYC area for a July 31st show at PNC Bank Arts Center. Acts at that date include Cat Power, Chairlift, Carly Simon, Sarah McLachlan, Selena Gomez, Missy Higgins, Jill Hennessy, Indigo Girls, Sara Bareilles, Priscilla Renea and a “special guest” (other acts not playing NJ include Loretta Lynn, Metric, Gossip, Beth Orton, La Roux Erykah Badu and Tegan and Sara). Tickets are currently on sale with “no service fee.”

The tour recently canceled its July 8th stop in Arizona for undisclosed reasons, but there’s speculation that it’s in protest of the state’s controversial new immigration law.

“The GoGo’s are encouraging Lilith to move this date to another state in protest of the new immigration law. We are NOT supporting the state government,” [GoGo’s Belinda Carlisle] wrote on her Facebook account a few weeks ago. “I don’t mix business and politics but I’m afraid I have to this time.”

Carlisle eventually deleted the post, but The Go-Go’s released a press statement last week informing fans the show was cancelled and tickets could be refunded. But they also said the band had not been told why the show was cancelled. [ChartAttack]

Full tour schedule is below…

Lilith Fair – 2010 Tour
JUN 27 Calgary, AB
JUN 28 Edmonton, AB
JUL 1 Vancouver, BC, Canada
JUL 2 Portland, OR
JUL 3 Seattle/George, WA
JUL 5 San Francisco, CA
JUL 7 San Diego, CA
JUL 9 Las Vegas, NV
JUL 10 Los Angeles, CA
JUL 12 Salt Lake City, UT
JUL 13 Denver, CO
JUL 15 Kansas City, MO
JUL 16 St. Louis, MO
JUL 17 Chicago, IL
JUL 18 Minneapolis, MN
JUL 20 Indianapolis, IN
JUL 21 Detroit, MI
JUL 23 Montreal, QC
JUL 24 Toronto, ON
JUL 27 Cleveland, OH
JUL 28 Philadelphia, PA
JUL 30 Boston, MA
JUL 31 “New York, NY” (NJ)
AUG 1 Hartford, CT
AUG 3 Washington, DC
AUG 4 Raleigh, NC
AUG 6 Charlotte, NC
AUG 7 Nashville, TN
AUG 8 Atlanta, GA
AUG 10 West Palm Beach, FL
AUG 11 Tampa, FL
AUG 12 Birmingham, AL
AUG 14 Austin, TX
AUG 15 Houston, TX
AUG 16 Dallas, TX