Touring
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The Smashing Pumpkins have had to cancel one of its recent shows. In a statement posted to the band’s official Instagram on Sunday (Nov. 13), the rock band revealed that its Portland concert — scheduled to take place at Moda Center that day — was canceled after lead singer Billy Corgan came down with laryngitis.
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“It is with great disappointment that tonight’s show in Portland, OR has been cancelled due to laryngitis. William, Jimmy, James and Jeff are deeply saddened but this decision was not made easily and was far beyond their control,” the statement read. “They look forward to returning to you all next summer. Refunds will be available at your point of purchase.”
A rescheduled date has not yet been announced.
Following the announcement, Corgan gave fans an update about his condition via his personal Instagram account. “At the voice doctor. Lots of love,” he captioned a pictured of himself giving an optimistic thumbs-up, with Portland as his geotag.
The Smashing Pumpkins are on its joint Spirits on Fire tour with Jane’s Addiction. The 32-date trek kicked off on Oct. 2 at American Airlines Center in Dallas, and made stops in Houston, Austin, Tampa, Nashville, Atlanta, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Toronto, St. Louis, Detroit, Chicago, Denver and Vancouver before its Portland stop.
The bands have four more dates left in the tour starting on Nov. 15, before concluding at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Nov. 19.
See the Pumpkins’ and Corgan’s instagram posts below.
GAYLE went to the 2022 MTV Europe Music Awards on Sunday (Nov. 13) and dished about how she ended up as an opener on Taylor Swift‘s upcoming Eras Tour.
“Obviously I’ve known about Taylor, for forever, like my whole entire life — I can’t remember a time where I didn’t know Taylor Swift,” the teen sensation told Entertainment Tonight from the red carpet in Düsseldorf, Germany. “My best friend and I went to [an] awards show and Taylor Swift happened to be there, and I did a performance and some very cool things happened after that.”
The awards show she’s referring to was September’s Nashville Songwriter Awards, where she performed her breakout hit “abcdefu,” which was voted one of the 10 “songs I wish I’d written” by the NSAI Professional Songwriter Members. Honored as the organization’s Songwriter-Artist of the Decade, Swift also happened to be in attendance at the show, and the pair ultimately snapped a cute selfie together.
“She was just like, ‘You did a great performance — I’m gonna call you,’” GAYLE went on. “Now I’m here, and I can’t believe it. I feel like I’m lying. I feel like this is a dream. I don’t know where I am. I don’t know what I’m doing.”
GAYLE is one of many openers on Swift’s tour — including Paramore, Beabadoobee, Phoebe Bridgers, Girl in Red, MUNA, HAIM, Gracie Abrams and OWENN — but don’t expect to hear a Taylor song in her own setlist for the shows. “I’m not gonna do a Taylor Swift cover, I feel like for obvious reasons,” she told ET. “She does it all great. I can’t do it any better.”
Lizzo is making North America feel doubly special. On Monday (Nov. 14), the three-time Grammy winner announced that she’s circling back through the United States and Canada next year for a second leg of her 2022 Special Tour, adding 17 new dates to her schedule.
The second leg — dubbed The Special 2our — will kick off April 21, 2023, in Knoxville, Tenn., just over a month after Lizzo’s European stint is set to conclude. She’ll make stops in Montreal, Chicago, Phoenix, San Diego and more before closing out in Palm Desert, Calif., at Acrisure Arena.
Just as she did for Lizzo’s first North American leg, Latto will join the “Truth Hurts” musician as a special guest for the second round of U.S. and Canadian shows.
The “About Damn Time” singer-songwriter first toured through North America in support of her album Special this fall, embarking on a nearly 30-date trek beginning in September. In fact, that initial leg isn’t even over yet — Lizzo still has two more shows lined up for Nov. 18 and 19 at the Kia Forum.
After that, the Yitty founder will take a few months off before returning to the stage in February, when she’ll begin her run of shows in Europe.
Ticket sales for the second leg dates will begin Friday (Nov. 18) at 10 a.m. local time on Lizzo’s website. See the full list of newly announced North American shows below:
The Special 2our 2023
April 21 – Knoxville, TN – Thompson-Boling Arena
April 22 – Lexington, KY – Rupp Arena
April 25 – St. Louis, MO – Enterprise Center
April 26 – Memphis, TN – FedExForum
May 04 – Montreal, QC – Bell Centre
May 06 – Hartford, CT – XL Center
May 09 – Baltimore, MD – CFG Bank Arena
May 10 – Raleigh, NC – PNC Arena
May 12 – Cleveland, OH – Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
May 13 – Pittsburgh, PA – PPG Paints Arena
May 16 – Milwaukee, WI – Fiserv Forum
May 17 – Chicago, IL – United Center
May 19 – Omaha, NE – CHI Health Center
May 20 – Tulsa, OK – BOK Center
May 24 – Phoenix, AZ – Footprint Center
May 25 – San Diego, CA – Viejas Arena
June 02 – Palm Desert, CA – Acrisure Arena
This past summer, the second-largest U.S. bank, Bank of America, looked at how its customers’ spending on entertainment for the month of May compared with a year ago. What researchers found was surprisingly positive for the touring industry, and there are signs the good news is holding steady, at least for now.
Spending on concert, theater and movie tickets in May was up across all income groups. Moderate- and high-income earners — households bringing in over $50,000 and over $125,000 in annual income, respectively — exhibited the most pent-up demand, with spending levels up more than 40% in May compared with May 2021.
Demand among lower-income consumers — households earning less than $50,000 a year — was up almost as much, rising roughly 38% year to year.
In October, Bank of America surveyed its customers again to ask if they expect to increase spending in the next 12 months in a number of categories including in-home entertainment. With inflation cutting into or erasing most Americans’ pandemic cash buffers, credit card spending is on the rise, and with companies proactively laying off staff in anticipation of a recession, 21% said they plan on reducing what they spend on in-home entertainment either moderately or significantly in the next 12 months. (Sixty percent said they planned no change to their spending.)
Bank of America does not have current data on whether consumers plan to cut back on concerts and other entertainment outside their homes, so the live-music industry will have to hope that consumers will pare down their audio and video streaming service subscriptions so that they can continue seeing their favorite acts at local venues while enjoying their concession fare and buying merchandise.
Goldman Sachs analysts expect they will. Although they predict growth in the global live-music industry to slow somewhat next year, they forecast it will still put up a 4% compound annual growth rate from 2023 to 2030.
In 2022 so far, the industry has seen 5% growth in revenue despite a number of high-profile tour cancellations. Growth this year is on par with the 5% compound annual growth rate the industry experienced from 2007 to 2019.
Looking at the numbers on a more granular level reveals that the global live-music industry grew most sharply between 2007 and 2009 at the onset of the global financial crisis.
During that time, industry revenue rose from $17 billion in 2007 to over $20 billion in 2009, according to research by Goldman Sachs. But between 2010 and 2015, the industry had several years of essentially no growth as the effects of the crisis — unemployment above 10%, nationwide foreclosures — caused deep financial pain.
Even then, the live-music industry grew overall by roughly $3 billion, from $22 billion to $25 billion, during that period of austerity.
Music is often called recession-proof, and while that may hold true, the touring industry feels vulnerable, given the on-again, off-again reality that artists, promoters, venues and their support have had to contend with through the pandemic. For now, industry experts say consumers continue to spend, the industry’s revenue will continue to grow, and even in a worsening economic climate, the shows will go on.
When Live Nation reported $1.8 billion in first-quarter revenue in May, CEO Michael Rapino told investors, “Artists are back on the road and fan demand has never been stronger.” But while the concert business has largely returned to financial health in 2022 after a wobbly recovery last year, a number of acts eager to get back on the road and tap back into their primary income stream have instead found prohibitive costs that would significantly eat into or eliminate profits. And that has left them frustrated, if not furious, that the bullish picture painted by promoters and venues has eluded them.
A confluence of devastating economic factors — gas prices, artists flooding venues to make up revenue lost in the pandemic, airport chaos, supply chain shortages for tour buses, drivers, crew and equipment — has throttled even the heartiest of touring acts, especially indie artists. “The smaller shows are getting annihilated,” says Brian Ross, manager of Thievery Corporation, Guerilla Toss and Forty Feet Tall. He estimates net tour profits dropped 10% to 15% in spring and summer due to higher expenses.
Since Rapino’s rosy report in the spring, numerous previously successful touring acts have canceled shows for a variety of reasons, from COVID-19 to mental health to expenses, including Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, Ringo Starr, Jimmy Buffett and Animal Collective. “It’s pretty bad out there,” says Tom Windish, the Wasserman agency head of A&R who represents Billie Eilish, Tove Lo, Viagra Boys and others. “A lot of bands are going out on tour thinking they’re going to make money, and they came home and lost money.” Before the pandemic, Windish adds, many artists made their take-home pay on the “last 20% of the revenue — and now that 20% goes away.”
“It’s an extraordinarily challenging time,” says Joady Harper, founder and CEO of Rocky Road Touring, agent for U.K. bands The Mission, The Chameleons and Theatre of Hate, which postponed their 32-date triple bill club and theater tour until fall 2023 due to exorbitant costs and difficulties procuring visas. “Everybody’s sitting at home, twiddling their thumbs and counting their pennies, because the income they thought they’d have for that period just isn’t there.”
For Harper, whose company represents more than 50 acts, 2022 began in a “high spot,” with artists excited to hit the road post-quarantine and fans buying plentiful tickets. Then Russia invaded Ukraine, gas prices and plane fares shot up, and many tours were “no longer financially viable.”
“All of that on top of the already-tapped mental, spiritual, physical and emotional resources of just having made it through the past few years,” Santigold posted on Facebook in September when she announced she was canceling her tour. “Some of us are finding ourselves simply unable to make it work,” she wrote, striking a chord with frustrated musicians.
With a larger number of acts booked into a pandemic-reduced number of venues, the concert business’ supply-and-demand mechanics have shifted as well. An act that drew 1,000 fans to a show might now wind up with 800 people, according to David T. Viecelli, Chicago agent for Pavement, Joanna Newsom, Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Wire. “There’s too much going on, and people aren’t going to four shows a week anymore,” he says.
Even for largely sold-out tours like Pavement, the no-show rate has spiked due to illness or fear of it, which means a drop in merchandise sales, he adds. “It kind of hits you from all sides.”
In order to stay on the road, artists are strategically cutting costs. Ann Henningsen, who manages singer-songwriter Chris Berardo, says he has been performing more frequently with his acoustic trio than his preferred six-man rock band. Ross says Guerilla Toss has cut down on hotels. Sam Luria, who manages New Zealand’s Broods, says the duo’s lighting director programs the technology remotely rather than traveling with the crew. “You’re getting a pretty similar outcome,” he says, “but saving a good amount of money.”
One solution is that bands who might have been poised for headlining tours are pairing with others — Bodysnatcher is opening for Hatebreed, for example. “Maybe you’re not going to sell the same level of merchandise you would, but eventually you will,” says Scott Givens, senior vp of rock and metal at MNRK, the label representing Bodysnatcher. “You don’t want anybody losing money.”
Givens is optimistic the touring economic storm will pass, hoping for a broader recovery in the world economy. “We’ll be fine,” he says. Jeff DeLia, manager of The Blind Boys of Alabama, A.J. Croce and others, acknowledges the financial pain but adds that his clients remain upbeat, telling him, “We know this isn’t going to last, and we’ve just got to fight through these things.”
P!nk is hitting the road again in 2023 and this time she’s bringing along some very special friends. The singer announced the North American dates for her “Summer Carnival 2023” outing on Monday morning (Nov. 14), revealing that the 21-city tour will hit stadiums across the continent from July through October with special guests Brandi Carlile and brand new Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Pat Benatar & Neil Girlado on select dates and Grouplove and KidCutUp on all the shows.
The Live Nation-produced tour will kick off on July 24 in Toronto at the Roger Centre and hit Cincinnati, Boston, New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit, Nashville, San Antonio, San Diego and Los Angeles before wrapping up on Oct. 9 at Chase Field in Phoenix. Tickets for the tour will go on sale to the general public starting Nov. 21 at 10 a.m. local time here.
The official announcement of the dates came after P!nk and Carlile playfully teased the tour in a fun viral video on Sunday night. In the clip, the pair sit next to each other on a couch, with both dressed to impress as P!nk apologizes for having to take an important call. Carlile then picks up her cell and the pair get down to business. “I was really afraid to ask you this question to your face,” Pink says. “Oh, I’m married,” Carlile reminds her.
“Yeah, you love your wife… will you come on tour with me?” P!nk asks. “F–k yeah!” Carlile responds excitedly. P!nk and Brandi warmed up earlier this month when they joined forces for a performance of Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors” at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, held Nov. 5 in Los Angeles.
The Summer Carnival will kick off on June 7, 2023 at University of Bolton Stadium, the first of several U.K. dates, followed by shows across continental Europe. P!nk has just released the upbeat anthem “Never Gonna Not Dance Again.”
Check out the North American dates below.
^ with Brandi Carlile | ! with Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo | GROUPLOVE + KidCutUp on all dates
July 24 – Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre ^
July 26 – Cincinnati, OH @ Great American Ball Park ^
July 31 – Boston, MA @ Fenway Park !
Aug. 3 – New York, NY @ Citi Field ^
Aug. 5 – Pittsburgh, PA @ PNC Park ^
Aug. 7 – Washington DC @ Nationals Park !
Aug. 10 – Minneapolis, MN @ Target Field !
Aug. 12 – Chicago, IL @ Wrigley Field !
Aug. 14 – Milwaukee, WI @ American Family Field !
Aug. 16 – Detroit, MI @ Comerica Park ^
Aug. 19 – Fargo, ND @ FARGODOME ^
Aug. 21 – Omaha, NE @ Charles Schwab Field ^
Sept. 18 – Philadelphia, PA @ Citizens Bank Park ^
Sept. 22 – Nashville, TN @ GEODIS Park ^
Sept. 25 – San Antonio, TX @ Alamodome ^
Sept. 27 – Houston, TX @ Minute Maid Park ^
Sept. 29 – Arlington, TX @ Globe Life Field ^
Oct. 3 – San Diego, CA @ Snapdragon Stadium ^
Oct. 5 – Los Angeles, CA @ SoFi Stadium !
Oct. 7 – Las Vegas, NV @ Allegiant Stadium ^
Oct. 9 – Phoenix, AZ @ Chase Field ^
Less than a year after the final coronavirus restrictions were dropped on concert capacity and attendance, the country’s largest two concert promoters are forecasting record sales in 2023 across a broad swath of building categories and genres. Although another promoter says he’s concerned the future is not nearly as bright for new acts.
Live Nation’s chair for global touring, Arthur Fogel, says his company has seen “absolutely no diminishment in sales” since the full-scale return of concerts and believes there is still significant growth opportunity for the company’s top-line touring acts to command record grosses.
Likewise, AEG Presents president for North America Rick Mueller says that ticket sales for shows already on sale in 2023 indicate record revenue and attendance at every capacity level in the concert space, “from [13,000-capacity] Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, N.Y., to the [500-capacity] Roxy in Los Angeles. We’re going to make a little more next year and work a lot harder for it,” he says, predicting that staffing and supply chain shortages will remain substantial challenges.
“I used to think oversaturation was the biggest threat to the industry, but I no longer believe that bears out,” Mueller adds. His counterpart at Live Nation, Fogel, agrees, noting that less than 1% of events promoted by Live Nation were canceled in 2022.
Neither executive believes economic headwinds from prolonged inflation will significantly diminish sales or lead to a short-term rollback on prices for big-ticket tours, like Bruce Springsteen’s 2023 Live Nation run. “The level of spending around the show hasn’t changed,” says Fogel.
He also says that the top 20 stadium and arena tours “at any given time” are now more diverse than ever, representing multiple genres across multiple demographics. For example, Bad Bunny’s El Último Tour del Mundo tour is the highest-grossing Latin outing in Billboard Boxscore history.
Independent promoter Jim Cressman, founder and owner of Canada’s Invictus Entertainment, says that Live Nation and AEG’s bullish outlook for 2023 is good news for the concert business but worries there’s not enough entry points for new fans or new bands.
“The added expenses that artists have because of inflation and rising energy costs make the economics very difficult for developing acts,” he says, echoing the complaints of indie managers. Cressman recommends that these artists connect early with sponsors to underwrite their tours. “Before the pandemic, sponsors provided a nice income bump,” he says. “Now, they’re critical to covering your costs.”
Forty-five years after it felt like the first time for Foreigner, the veteran rock troupe is planning to tour for the very last time.
The band, formed during 1976 by British guitarist Mick Jones, will launch its Historic Farewell Tour next July 6 in Alpharetta, Ga., with 32 U.S dates running through Sept. 3 in Holmdel, N.J. Loverboy will be opening. More legs, both domestic and overseas, are on tap through the end of 2024.
“Foreigner is a completely revitalized band with a whole new energy that has won the hearts of our fans all over the world, and I want to go out while the band is still at the top of its game,” Jones, 77, tells Billboard. “I had the idea that was to become Foreigner back in 1974, and I was 30 years old at the time. By the end of our farewell tour, over 50 years will have passed, and that’s a long time to be on the road.”
Kelly Hansen, Foreigner’s frontman since 2005, says that he and Jones had been discussing the move for a while. “It’s a very difficult decision to come to,” he notes, adding that maintaining the caliber of the band’s performance, and his is in particular, was a driving factor in the decision to pull the plug.
“This catalog of songs, it’s extremely challenging for a rock tenor vocalist like myself to sing,” explains Hansen, 61. “I never would have thought in a million years I’d be singing these songs in the keys at this age, and I don’t know how much longer I can do that at the level I need do. You can drop keys and do this and do that, but I’m more of an old school person. If I’m not doing it for real then I shouldn’t be doing it.
“We’re at an era in life where a lot of bands from the ’70s are right on the ragged edge of still being able to do shows. I see other musicians sometimes that I go, ‘Wow, that was disappointing,’ and I don’t want to be someone that other people say that about. I want to do this band the way it’s supposed to be, and when it’s not like that I don’t want to be doing it.”
Since its formation, Foreigner has released nine studio albums — five of them multi-platinum, plus the 1982 hits set Records — and sold more than 50 million records worldwide. It’s also notched nine top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including rock radio staples such as “Feels Like the First Time,” “Hot Blooded,” “Double Vision,” “Urgent” and the chart-topping power ballad “I Want to Know What Love Is.” More than two dozen members have been part of the roster over the years, and members of the first two lineups made a series of guest appearances with the current lineup during 2017 and 2018.
Jones, the last original member still active with Foreigner, has become something of a special guest at the band’s concerts, not attending every show due to health reasons and playing during the latter portion of the set. “Mick does all the shows he can do with us as his health allows, and we’re cognizant of that,” Hansen says. “I can’t say that doesn’t have an effect” on the farewell tour decision, “but that’s also a reality of life and time, so you take what you’re given and you make your decisions based on that.”
Foreigner has a number of concerts scheduled this month and also in the spring, prior to the farewell tour launch — including March and April residencies at the Venetian in Las Vegas. Hansen adds that while Foreigner is calling a halt to touring it may not go away entirely. “I’m sure there might be the odd or occasional things we do,” the frontman says. “You can never say never about things. But for me this (tour) is it. It’s not like one of these, like we’ve seen, ploys to get people out to shows.”
Both Hansen and Jeff Pilson, Foreigner’s bassist since 2004, say that Foreigner – whose last studio album, Can’t Slow Down, came out in 2009 — may release some new music in the near future, too. “There’s a whole bunch of stuff in different stages of completion, so that’s not outside the realm of possibility,” Hansen predicts. Pilson says that Jones has been writing material with Marti Frederiksen that he expects the band to work on at some point.
“There’s probably four I’m aware of that are close, and some other snippets,” Pilson says. “Chances are there won’t be a whole new (album). I can see some new songs being added to some kind of a package or some kind of a single. I definitely see some new material coming, hopefully within the next year. We don’t need new material, but it’s always nice to have.”
Tickets for The Historic Farewell Tour go on sale Nov. 18 via livenation.com. The group is again working with the Grammy Museum Foundation to recruit local choirs at each stop to perform with the band for “I Want to Know What Love Is” via foreignerchoirs.com. More information and updates will be posted to foreigneronline.com.
The full itinerary for the first leg of the tour:Thu July 6th Alpharetta, GA – Ameris Bank AmphitheatreSat July 8th West Palm Beach, FL – iTHINK Financial AmphitheatreSun July 9th Tampa, FL – MIDFLORIDA Credit Union AmphitheatreTue July 11th Nashville, TN – Ascend AmphitheatreFri July 14th Rogers, AR – Walmart AMPTue July 18th Kansas City, MO – Starlight TheatreWed July 19th St. Louis, MO – Hollywood Casino AmphitheatreFri July 21st Indianapolis, IN – Ruoff Music CenterSat July 22nd Tinley Park, IL – Hollywood Casino AmphitheatreMon July 24th Cleveland, OH – Blossom Music CenterTue July 25th Toronto, ON – Budweiser StageFri July 28th Darien Center, NY – Darien Lake AmphitheaterSat July 29th Burgettstown, PA – The Pavilion at Star LakeTue August 1st Saratoga Springs, NY – Saratoga Performing Arts CenterWed August 2nd Wantagh, NY – Northwell Health at Jones BeachFri August 4th Gilford, NH – Bank of New Hampshire PavilionSat August 5th Mansfield, MA – Xfinity CenterTue August 8th Raleigh, NC – Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut CreekWed August 9th Charlotte, NC – PNC Music PavilionFri August 11th Dallas, TX – Dos Equis PavilionSat August 12th Houston, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell PavilionMon August 14th Austin, TX – Moody CenterWed August 16th Denver, CO – Ball ArenaFri August 18th Salt Lake City, UT – USANA AmphitheaterSun August 20th Phoenix, AZ – Ak-Chin PavilionMon August 21st Irvine, CA – FivePoint AmphitheaterWed August 23rd Wheatland, CA – Toyota AmphitheaterThu August 24th Mountain View, CA – Shoreline AmphitheatreWeds August 30th Detroit, MI – Pine Knob Music TheaterFri September 1st Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun ArenaSat September 2nd Syracuse, NY – St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at LakeviewSun September 3rd Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center
Tyler Childers and his longtime band The Food Stamps will hit the road in 2023 for the Send in the Hounds Tour, which launches April 14 at New Orleans venue The Fillmore.
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They will bring a range of openers with them, including Charley Crockett, Drive-By Truckers, S.G. Goodman, Wayne Graham, Abby Hamilton, Elle King, Marcus King, John R. Miller, Miles Miller and Margo Price.
Pre-sale begins Wednesday, Nov. 16, and general on-sale begins Nov. 18 at tylerchildersmusic.com.
The tour takes its name from Childers’ recently released triple album Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?, which arrived earlier this year on Hickman Holler Records/RCA Records. That project follows his previous acclaimed projects, including Purgatory, Country Squire, and Long Violent History.
See the full list of tour dates below:
April 14—New Orleans, LA: The Fillmore*
April 16—Georgetown, TX: Two Step Inn
April 20—Irving, TX: The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory†
April 22—Rogers, AR: Walmart AMP‡
April 24—Phoenix, AZ: Arizona Financial Theatre#
April 26—Santa Barbara, CA: Santa Barbara Bowl#
April 27—Berkeley, CA: The Greek Theatre at UC Berkeley#
April 30—Indio, CA: Stagecoach
June 6—Detroit, MI: Masonic Temple Theatre+
June 8—Chicago, IL: The Salt Shed^
June 9—Maryland Heights, MO: Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre St. Louis^
June 11—Cleveland, OH: Jacobs Pavilion+
June 14—Minneapolis, MN: The Armory~
June 15—Kansas City, MO: Starlight Theatre~
Aug. 2—New York, NY: Radio City Music Hall×
Aug. 3—New York, NY: Radio City Music Hall×
Aug. 5—Boston, MA: Leader Bank Pavilion
Aug. 6—Portland, ME: Thompson’s Point**
Aug. 10—Philadelphia, PA: The Met
Aug. 11—Columbia, MD: Merriweather Post Pavilion††
Aug. 13—Raleigh, NC: The Red Hat Amphitheater‡‡
Aug. 15—Charlotte, NC: Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre##
Aug. 16—Charlotte, NC: Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre##
Aug. 18—Wilmington, NC: Live Oak Bank Pavilion at Riverfront Park‡‡
Aug. 19—Charleston, SC: Credit One Stadium‡‡
Sept. 27—Morrison, CO: Red Rocks Amphitheatre‡‡
Sept. 28—Morrison, CO: Red Rocks Amphitheatre++
*with Wayne Graham†with John R. Miller and Wayne Graham‡with Charley Crockett and Wayne Graham#with Charley Crockett+with Miles Miller^with Marcus King and Miles Miller~with Marcus King×with Elle King**with Margo Price††with Drive-By Truckers and Abby Hamilton##with S.G. Goodman‡‡with S.G. Goodman and Abby Hamilton++with S.G. Goodman and Wayne Graham
Lorde is dishing about the reality of touring in 2022.
On Wednesday (Nov. 9), the “Solar Power” singer sent a newsletter to fans that included a “spiel” on the difficulties artists are facing on the road, highlighting “a storm of factors” that have led to this moment.
“Basically, for artists, promoters and crews, things are at an almost unprecedented level of difficulty,” she wrote. “Let’s start with three years’ worth of shows happening in one. Add global economic downturn, and then add the totally understandable wariness for concertgoers around health risks.”
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Lorde went on to cite crew shortages, overbooked trucks and tour buses and venues, the inflated prices of flights and hotel rooms and COVID-related costs, among other issues. She added that freight costs are “truly mindboggling,” with prices three times higher than they were pre-pandemic.
While Lorde counts herself lucky in the current touring market, she explained to her fans that this is not the case for most artists, stating, “for pretty much every artist selling less tickets than I am, touring has become a demented struggle to break even or face debt.”
“Ticket prices would have to increase to start accommodating even a little of this, but absolutely no one wants to charge their harried and extremely-compassionate-and-flexible audience any more f—ing money,” she wrote. “Nearly every tour has been besieged with cancellations and postponements and promises and letdowns, and audiences have shown such understanding and such faith, that between that and the post-COVID wariness about getting out there at all, scaring people away by charging the true cost ain’t an option. All we want to do is play for you.”
For some artists, Lorde continued, touring is financially unfeasible even if they sell out the entire run of dates, given the price of production and how much they’re willing to charge their fans. She cited this dilemma as a likely cause for the spate of recent tour cancellations due to mental health concerns.
“Understandably, all of this takes a toll — on crews, on promoters, and on artists,” she added. “You’ll notice a ton of artists cancelling shows citing mental health concerns in the past year, and I really think the stress of this stuff is a factor — we’re a collection of the world’s most sensitive flowers who also spent the last two years inside, and maybe the task of creating a space where people’s pain and grief and jubilation can be held night after night with a razor thin profit margin and dozens of people to pay is feeling like a teeny bit much.”
In 2022, acts like GAYLE, Shawn Mendes, Justin Bieber and Anuel AA have canceled tours to focus on their mental health. In addition, artists including Animal Collective and Santigold have called off their runs due to various economic issues, including those cited by Lorde.
The last year of touring has proven a difficult time for many artists, most prominently mid-tier and emerging acts — some of whom have gone public with their struggles. According to many independent promoters in the concert business, the live music industry is no longer enjoying the post-lockdown boon thanks to oversaturation in the market, high ticket prices and budget-conscious consumers. Among other myriad issues, tours are struggling to get tour buses, while many experienced drivers have left the touring sector during the pandemic. Items that used to be easy to come by — such as cymbals, in-ear monitors and lighting fixtures — have also been a struggle to procure for even major acts like Coldplay and Jack White.
Even with her rescheduled Solar Power tour selling well, Lorde wrote that she still feels the immense pressure and was even forced to cancel her March 3 show at Bowl of Brooklands in New Plymouth, New Zealand due to low ticket sales.
“I’m not immune to the stress — just a month ago I was looking at a show that was pretty undersold and panicking, only for it to sell the remaining 2000 tickets in ten days. Wild stuff,” she wrote. “I wanted to put all of this in your minds to illustrate that nothing’s simple when it comes to touring at the moment, and if your faves are confusing you with their erratic moves, some of this could be playing a part.”