Artists with 40+ years of history and can consistently still tour arenas/stadiums

For this thread, I think the OP really wants venues that are roughly 20,000+. He's looking for artists who can tour at the highest levels.

5000 is a lot of people but there are dozens of acts who can tour venues that big. Not nearly as many who can do 20K!

BTW, I got the 1600 figure from the Fred's website, though they don't make it clear that's current capacity. They say that was the capacity when they opened but don't specify that it's the same or has changed - at least not anywhere I could find on the site!

 

I've been to lots of big sheds all over the country, so it's not like I've been to 2 or 3 and that's it.

Most big cities are gonna have large sheds somewhere fairly nearby...

That was my point when it came to the differentiation of big sheds vs. arenas.

Arena concerts often sell out, but big sheds almost never reach capacity. That's why the potential capacity of sheds is semi-meaningless: it's an occupancy they hardly ever hit, whereas arenas max out all the time...

 

Apparently they did, in 1977 at least:
"CANADA - JULY 26: From the air; the Forum at Ontario Place last night looked like a sea of bodies as more than 25;000 young fans of K.C. And The Sunshine Band set an attendance record for the season. Since its first big hit; Get Down Tonight; two summers ago; the Florida-based group has been all but ignored by an adult rock establishment; says Star rock critic Peter Goddard. Well; the teenagers had it all their way last night. (Photo by Jeff Goode/Toronto Star)"

 

Santana

 

::: They Just Played a Sold Out Mexico City concert for close to 70,000 people...and yes...the obvious choice of songs that you're thinking...

 

I love that Phil Collins still fills the stadiums, walking in with a stick and sitting in a chair. It's almost groundbreaking. You were supposed to be young and fit to do it, it was conventional wisdom.

 

Nobody mentioned Depeche Mode yet? Not quite 40, but very close.

 

Widespread Panic has sold out the most Red Rocks shows ever! They’ve also been playing and filling out venues since 1986. They didn’t draw 100,000 fans at the same venue until 1998 though.

 

ZZ Top,
Billy and the boys can still boogie. Don't know if they can fill arenas still, but they have a pretty good draw. Happy 50th!

 

I don't think they've been an arena filler since the early 70's. Plenty of amphitheater dates (which don't have to come close to selling out to be financially viable) and lots of package deals, but not on the same level as a real arena act. The last few times Santana's been through Nashville, they played the 4,000 capacity Opry House, the 2,400 seat Ryman, and one show at the small (2,300 + a lawn) amphitheater.

(not dogging them, I'm a fan, at least pre-Clive Davis, just saying they've never consistently operated on that level)

 

There are a very very few artists that reach

He finishes on Nov 1 in Philly.

 

ZZ Top has been a theater act for years. They can play decent-sized sheds when they're paired with another "name" act, but on their own, they're basically relegated to 3000-seaters or so...

 

I thought they might've done arenas post-"Supernatural", but a look at 1999-2002 dates shows sheds mainly. Big sheds, with a handful of arenas involved, but still largely sheds, so you're right.

Their August local date was at the same enormo-shed they've played for years, but they were co-billed with Doobie Brothers.

Not sure the last time Santana played that venue without a co-headliner. I saw 'em there in 2010 with Steve Winwood, so they've needed a secondary draw for a while...

 

Good find!

It's too bad show info is so erratic for the 70s! I looked at KC&TSB's dates from the 70s on setlist.fm but it's a sparse list.

The handful of dates I did find indicated they played mid-large sheds in the late 70s, so they probably pulled audiences of 10,000+ in that era.

Now? Not so much!

 

Yeah, there was certainly a bump there. But I guess the key word here is "consistently."

I wonder if the original lineup reunion would've been an arena-level draw if they'd actually done a real tour and publicized it. But we'll never know.

 

The first part of your statement is true, but I can't agree with the second. As far as I know they actually try to vary their set adding deepcuts and tossing the songs. Can't say the same about The Rolling Stones for example.

 

In theory, Robert Plant and Mark Knopfler could qualify if they did some aggressive marketing with set lists/presentation.

Madonna is 35 years. Her guarantee in each market for her current residency theater tour equals arena pay.

Rod Stewart is worth a mention, though some tours were packages with Lauper or Nicks.

 

I was looking forward to see that. Do you know why it flopped?

 

I think Toto has been touring arenas up until recently. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rod Stewart and Deep Purple are some other artists/bands who have been around for over 40+ years and still play arenas when they tour.

 

Around here, they do nominally-priced outdoor summer shows or county fair. Haven't played in an arena in years.

 

Tupac's hologram...

 

I would add Depeche Mode and Metallica to the list. I can't confirm that they've done stadiums, the whole stadiums and nothing but the stadiums their entire career, but they're both doing so in recent years without anything like a reunion or farewell as a one-off attendance boost.

 

Probably not. To most fans, "Santana" is "Carlos and... ???"

It'd probably be like Michael Anthony coming back to Van Halen: important to a small group of big fans but irrelevant to the concert-going audience at large...

 

In a couple years you'll be able to add Bon Jovi to the list.

 

I don't have documentation of why the 2001 ELO tour flopped, but I suspect it's because ELO just wasn't that well-remembered/regarded at that point.

They were a band that hadn't had a US top 20 hit in 15 years, and I don't think they were ever really huge in the US.

Popular enough to play arenas in their day but I don't think they maintained much cultural relevance after that...