The Walkmen @ Masonic Temple in December (more by Natasha Ryan)

"We live in scary times. Sure, we might wonder how that inane Southern California woman is going to feed fourteen mouths, but what about the family whose breadwinners lost their jobs, and now have not only no money to pay the mortgage, but feed their kids?

No one seems to care about those people. Everyone's too selfish. I've got mine, fuck you. But what if you suddenly don't have yours anymore?

You used to sell ten million records, now you can't even sell two. Those damn pirates! But those pirates are real people. Who overpaid to hear one good track on a CD. They've got no sympathy for you. And they may overpay to see superstars once, but not forever. The Stones don't sell out anymore. Nor does Springsteen, not even Madonna. The printed grosses are high, but that's because of the inflated ticket prices.

Is the concert industry headed for a fall? Just like the recorded music industry?" [Bob Lefsetz]

Most of the bands in this post recently announced a tour, or an update to their previously announced tour, and did not include a NYC-area date. All of them below...

Continue reading "TOUR DATES: Kings of Leon, Walkmen, Coldplay, Bloc Party, Black Mountain, Jason Isbell, Dr Dog, Little Ones & more"

The Vancouver Sun asks, "Can There Be Too Many Concerts"?

"I don't think it's over-saturated," said Riley O'Connor, Chairman of Live Nation, which produces about 1,500 concerts across Canada each year.

"It will get over-saturated when everybody starts losing money and nobody's making money. I haven't seen that yet. I've been doing this 30 years and I've never seen a point of saturation."

Part of the reason for the increase in the number of concerts -- and O'Connor agrees there has been an increase -- is the dramatic decline in album sales. Since artists can no longer depend on album sales for their income, they are having to tour more than they would have in the '80s and '90s.

"There's no doubt there's been a trending back to reliance on playing live, because you can capture that revenue stream right away. You can live on that revenue," O'Connor said.