Black Crowes Reunite, Plot 2021 ‘Shake Your Money Maker’ Tour*

It's full steam ahead now...MOST of those who were smart enough to get fully vaxxed should survive. Those who did not get to play Russian Roulette...

 

What happens when a band reunites and few people cares? We are about to find out. Ticket sales have been horrible and the band is doing outdoor sheds in the midwest and east coast during the fall. Very little about this tour makes sense from playing large venues they cannot fill to picking an opening act that will not sell one additional ticket.

 

I think these are the markets with 2020 dates announced Nov 2019 that don't appear on the post-covid 2021 tour.

June 23 – Tulsa, OK – BOK Center
July 10 – Virginia Beach, VA – Veteran United Home Loans Amphitheater at Virginia Beach
July 28 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage
July 31 – Buffalo, NY – Darien Lake Amphitheater
August 13 – Minneapolis, MN – Xcel Energy Center
August 26 – Bonner Springs, KS – Providence Medical Center Amphitheater
August 28 – Omaha, NE – CHI Health Center Omaha
September 1 – Salt Lake City, UT – USANA Amphitheatre
September 11 – Las Vegas, NV – MGM Grand Garden Arena
September 12 – Phoenix, AZ – Ak-Chin Pavilion

 

It looks like it. Pretty much everything seems to be opening up again. Whether that is a good idea or not, time will tell.

 

Hopefully moving this conversation over from the SYMM CD thread to not bog that thread down ... @Moggio_4K_Ultra_HD

Like I said, I hope you are right. I hope it does well. I'm not sure where you got those numbers for this tour, but I hope you aren't basing them on the amount of greyed out tickets on ticketmaster. Those only show you what isn't available. Many of those could be comps, band holds and production kills. It's hard to know how many of those are out for each show vs actual sales, especially over one year past the on sale date. There is also a much greater overhead for a shed show vs a theater show. I admire your enthusiasm for their drawing power in 2021 and I hope you are correct that this will be wildly successful.

The Crowes also went from an originally announced 46 date tour to 37 dates. Now those could have just been lost due to rescheduling issues.

It may not matter for this tour for the band anyway. I've heard or read somewhere that the Live Nation contract for this tour was a flat fee for the band. Live Nation went all in on the reunion and the 30th anniversary of SYMM being a big draw. If that's the case the band isn't getting paid on the house so they likely will make money even if the net for a show is a negative. However, if they tour again they won't get that kind of backing. It's a lot like the Van Halen/Sammy Hagar reunion of 2004. The band got guaranteed money and the promotors took a bath at many of the shows.


If that is the case, the band making money was never an issue for this tour. However, it will change the dynamics if they ever tour again.

 

Chris Robinson (vox/guitar), Brent Rademaker (bass/vox), Farmer Dave Scher (slide/keys/vox), Ben Knight (guitar/vox), Barry Sless (guitar), and Alex Koford (drums).

 

The problem with the 2004 Van Halen tour was they booked it in sports arenas where LN didnt control/get a cut from the various revenue streams, nor did they control the venue operation to monetize upgrades of ticketing.

I cant speak for all the summer venues, but LN controls the Holmdel NJ venue, and its pretty stunning to see how they've run the place.
But for sure, theyve maxed out the sponsorships, advertising, and various revenue streams within the facility, on out to the scarce premium parking at the facility. If the Crowes sell 1,500 full price tickets (500 orchestra/1,000 mezzanine seats) out of 10k seats (lawn holds 10k)
LN will break even before the first fan even goes through the turnstile.
They've got it figured out.

 

Add to that a couple thousand freebies and all of the extra parking and concession purchases that includes and they make out like bandits. That's how they can afford to pay the bands and not worry about the houses.

Plus touring was so different in 2004 vs today. Even as recent as 2004 all of premium options upgrades to tickets weren't being taken advantage of by Live Nation/Ticketmaster and they have found so many more to use today than back then. (Not that VH was going to do meet and greets anyway.) I think the only premium they had on that tour were the tickets inside the circles on the stage.


I saw Van Halen 3 times on that tour (Greensboro, Louisville and Atlanta) and the Louisville show was maybe the worst attended arena show I've ever been to. 4K (maybe 5K) in a 20K seat building. I did get second row tickets, so that was a plus.

 

No Toronto. Crap. And we can't travel to the USA to see a show......trapped lol. Hopefully, they will announce a 2022 extension into Canada. I just logged into my ticketmaster account and, indeed, a refund awaits me re: Toronto show. I was really looking fwd to this but, alas, us Canadians need to be patient!

 

https://twitter.com/theblackcrowes/status/1394718337951617029

Promo pic with Sven added.

 

Van Halen absolutely did packages for the 2004 tour that included pre-show soundchecks and premium seats (usually in the first 6 rows). I did the "5 Star" package for the Anaheim Pond show we got a backstage tour, saw the band (minus Hagar) do a 8 song soundcheck in the afternoon (that was honestly better than the show that night thanks to Eddie getting trashed), a (poorly) catered meal, a bag of swag and in my case, a front row seat.

 

Cool, I did not remember those options for the shows I went to but it's been awhile. All I remembered was the seats inside the stage. I should have guessed they also did those other bonuses for that tour, but I didn't recall it. Thanks for the info.

 

Just as an aside, i don't think any tour are doing meet & greets for awhile. Soundcheck packages are probably off limits as well. I've also seen reference to artists being prohibited from meeting fans in person around the venue before/after shows or around hotels for c19 insurance purposes.

LN also seem careful about the brothers being around each other too much. All 3-4 versions of the tour dates had lots of random 2 night down time and a week(ish)off in the middle of the 3 months. That is more hotel expense for LN and not date availability issue or holding too many dates for crazy ticket demand other than Red Rocks. Brothers may not even see each other than a bit of tour rehearsal and the shows themselves.

 

I'm glad Sven's back, but that picture kind of looks like it should be captioned, "The Robinson brothers with the only remaining band member they haven't alienated."

 

The next easy win would be to never play It's Only Rock 'n' Roll again.

 

Saw Black Crowes in all their glory January 91 opening for zztop
I'm good

 

Not to be disrespectful, but this photo really only exists to entice 'undecided' long term fans.

Otherwise, its a 'who's that?' for the target audience who wouldn't know or care whether it's Sven Pipien, Johnny Colt, Greg Rzab or Andy Hess or any other bass player for this charade.

And, Rich sure looks delighted to have his old Magpie Salute buddy along for the ride.

 

I think that is Rich's best smile.

 

“You’re our new bass player? Hi, my name’s Rich. It’s nice to meet you.”

 

That’s the same expression Rich had at the birth of his first child.

 

Those packages are still being sold.

 

Very interesting to see how this plays out. Money grab over artist safety, insurance liability if a show in cancelled for sickness, or they keep them on sale and only do partial refund if they skip the photo but you keep the ticket/schwag bag. I think the Crowes also offer super VIP where you can watch the show from onstage.

Taken from roadie on another forum and referring to California only. This rule may expire before they hit Cali in Sept.

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Funny you guys should mention the pre-show soundchecks. Cal/OSHA just recently released their most recent revised rules (and guidance) for reopening live venues. As roadies we have to abide by whatever they say just so we can work at a venue or to even work a show. Some of things that stuck out to me were: -- that they want the production traveling party to be very limited to only essential personnel. -- the number of workers is reduced for travel and work site -- dressing rooms limited to one performer per -- catering will only be provided by the touring artist. outside local catering is cancelled for now (that means anyone not directly with the artist has to leave the venue to eat) -- limit the production crew departments interaction and keep their tasks separate from one another (i.e. lighting does their thing away from sound who is away from the set crew. this kind of happens on major load-ins anyway but they've added when the stage is together that the crew continue to do their work separate. no more soundchecks going on during lighting focus.) -- the limits for a touring Broadway type stage show, especially for costumes, hair and makeup will be even harder for them.

But the most important thing I read, at least for California venues, is there is to be NO interaction between the artists and their fans pre-show or post show. Pretty much means no Meet and Greets for awhile.

So add this to trying to get venues booked and the Covid specific cancellation insurance about who covers what and who in case of outbreak or someone suing because they got the virus at a show.

 

the year long absence of concerts will absolutely play in their favor. i myself had little interest in this in the running - but I haven’t been to proper show now in over a year, i’m much more inclined to go than before. likely will be more people who are not invested in the band willing to check it out for the same reason I’d think

 

Amphitheater reserved seating comp tix aren't anywhere near the quantity (a few hundred per show, at best) that lawn comp tix are (at times, several thousand per show) distributed. So in other words, you can still easily "estimate" how many tix have already been sold. I can assure you that most, if not all, of the 9 dates that have been cancelled, have next to nothing to do with lower than expected sales (in fact, some of them might be added to the schedule shortly (?)). They primarily have to do with a tour like this being re-routed / re-scheduled, which obviously causes numerous financial / logistical issues...

Also (similarly to what Efus pointed out), Live Nation own many of the major amphitheaters in the US. And hence they don't have to worry about as many costs as they would for arena tours.

This tour is already profitable...