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Tix avail. in first 5 rows!I’m amazed! The concert has been on sale for two weeks and there are still seats in the first 10 rows. Maybe the economy really is in the tank.
Jack, I think that’s a factor, but also the fact that Lucinda has gone up on her ticket prices $5-10 per seat. I think that is also hurting her. It’s sad to see so many empty seats, but she and the band were playing their hearts out every night that I saw them this year. When she came onstage in Albany in October she said that she promised to NEVER go up on her ticket prices again. I do not expect that to happen though.
I have great seats for the Calvin Theatre show and can’t wait for it. There’s something about The Calvin & Lucinda; I’ve seen some great shows by her there and I’ll be expecting another. Also hoping for another show between that one and the Burlington show.Hmmm… Could it possibly be that she is not drawing the crowds that as in the past is because of her current record and (rock) sound? Is the LW market now saturated? What about the fact that Buick 6 is opening and backing her? And what about the “newness” of her setlists? Perhaps considering a meaty double-bill might boost ticket sales…? Although the variables are endless, ticket sales appear everything but endless.
I think by having Buick 6 open also might be a factor, though a smaller one. She’s probably saving money doing that also, by not having an opening act traveling with them and paying them. She’s always had some real interesting opening acts (some that I’d never heard of before), that I’ve really enjoyed. I would rather have that than seeing Buick 6 every night. As far as the “newness” of her setlists, I don’t see it being that new. She usually did five or six songs a night from Little Honey, and I think that is normal from any act that has a new record out. She also did songs from the 80′ & 90’s each night. She’s also written some great songs in the last ten years; what is she supposed to do, not play them? It’s a good problem to have when you have so much great material to do in concert. Alot of acts wish they had that problem.
Good post Tim. Looks like we can look forward to this dead horse being beaten regularly throughout 2009. Yippee.
@tonyg wrote:
Good post Tim. Looks like we can look forward to this dead horse being beaten regularly throughout 2009. Yippee.
Indeed. That poor horse’s corpse… 🙄
Tom
Doesn’t seem like such a dead horse–it appears very much a live issue in terms of setlists. It’s especially relevant coming from a new observer versus an established forum cheerleader. Towards the end of the last tour, it appears that much more pre-CWOGR material was seeping into the sets–the two shows at the Fillmore are a good example of this. Indeed, what will 2009 bring for setlists especially in light of the need to sell tickets?…
I think that Lucinda did start doing some older songs later in the fall tour. I thought that the mix was very good. She also did alot of different songs from night to night which made it exciting. I don’t know of anyone that would want to go to a Lucinda show and see her do all old material. We have to stop living in the past. Look at Dylan, Neil Young, etc; they constantly changed and rarely did the same thing twice. I think Lucinda had it right when she said, “I already made “Car Wheels”, I don’t want to do it again.”
Nice post, Tim. I would have to disagree however and after seeing NYs latest tour with Wilco; he is doing some of the things he always does–playing a lively mix of old stuff with new stuff. Here his latest setlist:
Love And Only Love / Hey Hey, My My / Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere / Powderfinger / Spirit Road / Cortez The Killer / Cinnamon Girl / Oh, Lonesome Me / Mother Earth / The Needle And The Damage Done / Light A Candle / Unknown Legend / Heart Of Gold / Old Man / Get Back To The Country / Just Singing A Song / Sea Change / When Worlds Collide / Cowgirl In The Sand / Rockin’ In The Free World // A Day In The Life.
As you can see, there are many oldies along with some newer material. Sure it was different with Greendale but that was a musical story of sorts. I still think that many fans would like a mix from LWs as well. Here is a grid of Neil’s latest tour: http://www.rustradio.org/chart.php?tour=uscan2008 Speaking of which, I wonder what a similiar grid would look like from LWs tours? Hard data tells a story!
Thanks, David
Every show I caught since August had plenty of empty seats. I caught Neil in Madison Square Garden a couple weeks back, the entire 400 section was empty and there were plenty of other empty seats. You could snag pit tix (the first 20 rows on the floor) from the so called “brokers” for less than face preshow. John Hiatt in New Brunswick—a fabulous show by the way–about half full. Aimee Mann in Englewood, maybe 3/4 full on the floor and essentially empty upstairs. Though I ended up not going to the Who, I checked TM several times and there were plenty of good seats.
I think this has much more to do with the general economy and very little to do with setlists, opening bands, or the like.
I agree in terms of the economy however with one caveat: NY was charging $250 face value for his tickets on this tour along with ~$60 for GA in Worcester for floor seats. At that price, it’s no wonder that seats go empty. Worcester was almost at capacity with lots of tickets on the streets. The challenge will be to sell $59.50 tickets for any musician that tours as much as LWs. David Byrne is having no problem selling out a world tour but then again he tours only once every four years or so… John Hiatt tours a lot in one form or another. Amiee Mann is arguably a much different artist than LWs, JH, or NY–not the same caliber I would argue–more of a small club act–The Birchmere in VA, 1st AVE in MPLS or The ‘Dise in Boston. Maybe one of the variables is an artist saturating their own “niche” market, which makes people not want to go and see them. Back in the day, LWs shows would sell out instantly but that was well before the many dates over several years…
Just to clarify, DavidInMaine; when I mentioned Lucinda, Dylan, Neil, etc; I was talking about their records, not their live shows. Neil could have made many more “Harvest’s” but decided that he already did it once before. Dylan was like a chameleon in his heyday; baffling the critics regularly. I disagree that Lucinda’s new sound is rock. There are a number of rock songs on ‘Little Honey”, but there is also blues, country and folk songs. For some reason the press keep putting this “rock” tag on it. I think it may be because “West” had very few rock songs on it.
Actually Tim, NY revisted his Harvest sound when he made the record Harvest Moon so in fact, some things come to fruition via a full circle (there were many interviews and press releases that discussed how NY processed and produced Harvest Moon in light of Harvest). I remember seeing that tour when he was with Booker T and the MGs (Sound Garden and Blind Melon were the openers). Nonetheless, when we frame Little Honey against her earlier works, I must agree with the “critics” from the perspective of the album is a rocker. Doug’s guitar persona comes through loud and clear. I find West to have much more of a LWs footprint to its sound: reflective and deep are several of the songs. Little Honey’s lyrics and melodies don’t have the same power to their punch but again, that’s only how I see it.
I really can’t compare Harvest Moon with Harvest too much. Harvest was much more commercially driven. That scared Neil off of making a record like that again. The sound & instruments are similar on it though.
I only come up with Real Love, Honey Bee, & It’s A Long Way To The Top as rockers. Little Rock Star is half ballad; Jailhouse Tears is country. I do think it’s the first Lucinda Williams album in a long time (maybe ever) not to have a great song on it. All of the songs were leftover from other sessions and I think that it shows. If Wishes Were Horses is my favorite and I think it was written 20 years ago or so. The only songs that were written last year were: Honey Bee & Little Rock Star. I thought that Lucinda’s voice sounded very tired on a number of the songs; maybe due to all the touring in 2007. When I saw these songs done live this past year she was singing them much better. It still has made alot of critics top 10 & 20. I feel that it’s been overrated in that regard but I still like it.
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