With the reissue coming out it has 2 tracks that didn't make the original album so that's 12 TOTD songs along with the MLB reissue just recently announced, I'm thinking their set list at these shows will be from those two reissues along with the jimi cover by M. A. C. C. then hopefully some Mad Season tunes, hey, I can dream right?!
Tweeter Center - Aug 29, 2000;Tweeter Center - Aug 30, 2000;Allstate Arena - Oct 09, 2000;Pepsi Arena - Apr 29, 2003;Bryce-Jordan Center - May 03, 2003;Bell Center - Jun 29, 2003;Tweeter Center - Jul 02, 2003;Tweeter Center - Jul 03, 2003;Tweeter Center - Jul 11, 2003;Tweeter Center at the Waterfront - Jul 05, 2003;Tweeter Center at the Waterfront - Jul 06, 2003;Madison Square Garden - Jul 08, 2003;Madison Square Garden - Jul 09, 2003;TD Banknorth Garden - May 24, 2006;TD Banknorth Garden - May 25, 2006;Fleet Center - Sept 28, 2004;Fleet Center - Sept 29, 2004;Pepsi Arena - May 12, 2006 New England Dodge Music Arena - May 13, 2006;Grant Park - Aug 05, 2007;Bonnaroo - Jun 14, 2008;Dodge Music Center - Jun 27, 2008;Tweeter Center - Jun 28, 2008;Tweeter Center - Jun 30, 2008 XL Arena - May 15, 2010;TD Garden - May 17, 2010;Alpine Valley Music Theatre - Sept 03, 2011;Alpine Valley Music Theatre - Sep 04, 2011 Corel Centre - Sep 16, 2005;Colisee Pepsi Arena - Sep 20, 2005; Wrigley Field - July 19, 2013; DCU Center - Oct 15, 2013; DCU Center - Oct 16, 2013; Fenway Park - August 5, 2016; Fenway Park - August 7, 2016
Is it possible for any band to buyout or rent a venue and then sell tickets through their fanclub?
I don't actually know the full answer to this I guess, but I'm pretty sure that most venues have a contract with Ticketmaster and are obligated to not do this, as it would put the venue/artist in direct competition with Ticketmaster. And why do all the venues do this? I found this (below) as a summary of why they choose to do business with Ticketmaster exclusively and pass up their right to rent directly to artists (but really it all boils down to the fact that Ticketmaster is a successful monopoly. Why they are legally allowed to be one is completely beyond me or any logical thought).
Marketing - Ticketmaster.com is one of the world's top five ecommerce sites (according to Ticketmaster). They get a lot of eyeballs everyday and they help steer those people to buy more tickets. They have a huge database of past ticket buyers and they know a lot about those people... things like what sort of tickets they've bought in the past, how likely they are to buy a ticket if they're presented with a discount via email, etc. For better or for worse, for many people, when they think of buying tickets to something, they think Ticketmaster. What does all this boil down to? Venues who choose Ticketmaster think they'll sell more tickets on Ticketmaster than they would on a competing platform (or on their own website, for instance).
Money - Ticketmaster sells more tickets than anybody else and they're the biggest company in the ticket selling game. That gives them certain financial resources that smaller companies don't have. TM has used this to their advantage by moving the industry toward very aggressive ticketing deals between ticketing companies and their venue clients. This comes in the form of giving more of the service charge per ticket back to the venue (rebates), and in cash to the venue in the form of a signing bonus or advance against future rebates. Venues are businesses too and, thus, they like "free" money in general (signing bonuses), as well as money now (advances) versus the same money later (rebates).
Expertise and a big team - Ticketmaster has been around for a long time. They have a giant organization. There are teams after groups after departments after divisions to handle various aspects of the ticket selling process (e.g., teams that help box offices "build" their events in the system, teams that create customer newsletters, teams that decide which events get which marketing assets on the site, etc.). It gives venues peace of mind that things will not get messed up somehow, and hopefully gives venues new insights they can use to help them sell more tickets.
Easy to find employees who know it - There is a workforce out there that knows how to work with Ticketmaster's software (think MS-DOS command line stuff, although I understand they're releasing new tools that are a little more current). It's been around for a long time and it's probably the most-used ticketing platform in major venues. If your box office manager decides to retire, you will have plenty of people to choose from who know TM's systems and how to work with the regional offices.
It works (mostly) - The ticketing company cliché is everybody says they're scalable and can handle a major on-sale without collapsing, and then they get a major on-sale and collapse. Ticketmaster is pretty reliable most of the time. You don't worry too much that the site is going to break or fold under traffic.
If I had the means to rent out The Garden for the charity of my choice, do you think I could get PJ to play and make tickets only available to 10C members?
Is it possible for any band to buyout or rent a venue and then sell tickets through their fanclub?
I don't actually know the full answer to this I guess, but I'm pretty sure that most venues have a contract with Ticketmaster and are obligated to not do this, as it would put the venue/artist in direct competition with Ticketmaster. And why do all the venues do this? I found this (below) as a summary of why they choose to do business with Ticketmaster exclusively and pass up their right to rent directly to artists (but really it all boils down to the fact that Ticketmaster is a successful monopoly. Why they are legally allowed to be one is completely beyond me or any logical thought).
Marketing - Ticketmaster.com is one of the world's top five ecommerce sites (according to Ticketmaster). They get a lot of eyeballs everyday and they help steer those people to buy more tickets. They have a huge database of past ticket buyers and they know a lot about those people... things like what sort of tickets they've bought in the past, how likely they are to buy a ticket if they're presented with a discount via email, etc. For better or for worse, for many people, when they think of buying tickets to something, they think Ticketmaster. What does all this boil down to? Venues who choose Ticketmaster think they'll sell more tickets on Ticketmaster than they would on a competing platform (or on their own website, for instance).
Money - Ticketmaster sells more tickets than anybody else and they're the biggest company in the ticket selling game. That gives them certain financial resources that smaller companies don't have. TM has used this to their advantage by moving the industry toward very aggressive ticketing deals between ticketing companies and their venue clients. This comes in the form of giving more of the service charge per ticket back to the venue (rebates), and in cash to the venue in the form of a signing bonus or advance against future rebates. Venues are businesses too and, thus, they like "free" money in general (signing bonuses), as well as money now (advances) versus the same money later (rebates).
Expertise and a big team - Ticketmaster has been around for a long time. They have a giant organization. There are teams after groups after departments after divisions to handle various aspects of the ticket selling process (e.g., teams that help box offices "build" their events in the system, teams that create customer newsletters, teams that decide which events get which marketing assets on the site, etc.). It gives venues peace of mind that things will not get messed up somehow, and hopefully gives venues new insights they can use to help them sell more tickets.
Easy to find employees who know it - There is a workforce out there that knows how to work with Ticketmaster's software (think MS-DOS command line stuff, although I understand they're releasing new tools that are a little more current). It's been around for a long time and it's probably the most-used ticketing platform in major venues. If your box office manager decides to retire, you will have plenty of people to choose from who know TM's systems and how to work with the regional offices.
It works (mostly) - The ticketing company cliché is everybody says they're scalable and can handle a major on-sale without collapsing, and then they get a major on-sale and collapse. Ticketmaster is pretty reliable most of the time. You don't worry too much that the site is going to break or fold under traffic.
If I had the means to rent out The Garden for the charity of my choice, do you think I could get PJ to play and make tickets only available to 10C members?
I know you can rent the arena (don't know how much it costs but probably a shitload), but I would imagine that comes with a contract regarding what you can and can't do. I have no idea if that would say that you're not allowed to privately sell tickets for event attendance. Certainly you could just give tix away for free to only 10C members. There is a phone number you can call to ask about that kind of thing on the MSG website. As for booking Pearl Jam..... they might do it if you gave them a good enough charitable incentive and/or $500,000+. That would be up to them obviously.
Post edited by PJ_Soul on
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
I was looking on stub hub for the philly 2 show. I counted up all the tix for sale at that time. It was just over 400. Which is approximately 1/6th of the seating capacity. I wanted to count up the other shows and figure out them ratios too but I was too sick to my stomach at that point. It would of just infuriated me further. Not to sound like a complete conspiracy nut but I cannot help but to think that there is something more going on with all these concert tix for sale like that. And not just TOD or PJ shows. Its rampant for most concerts. Most of the shows seemed to be sold out, well by 12 when they went on sale. Is ticketmaster in cahoots with stubhub? Is there a shady computer programmer at ticketmaster pulling a fast one? Is it simply bots? I just find it hard to believe that 400+ tix for a 3100 seat theatre are just the average joe reselling their tix.
I was looking on stub hub for the philly 2 show. I counted up all the tix for sale at that time. It was just over 400. Which is approximately 1/6th of the seating capacity. I wanted to count up the other shows and figure out them ratios too but I was too sick to my stomach at that point. It would of just infuriated me further. Not to sound like a complete conspiracy nut but I cannot help but to think that there is something more going on with all these concert tix for sale like that. And not just TOD or PJ shows. Its rampant for most concerts. Most of the shows seemed to be sold out, well by 12 when they went on sale. Is ticketmaster in cahoots with stubhub? Is there a shady computer programmer at ticketmaster pulling a fast one? Is it simply bots? I just find it hard to believe that 400+ tix for a 3100 seat theatre are just the average joe reselling their tix.
Shady stuff. I was in LA this past spring and I wanted to see a hockey game. Right across from staples center is a stub hub box office. Staples center is a ticket master venue. They inflate prices based on what the other box office is offering. The step businesses seem a little "buddy buddy" if you ask me.
Down with electronic ticket sales!!! We shall all have to line up at box offices the day of to get tickets
I was looking on stub hub for the philly 2 show. I counted up all the tix for sale at that time. It was just over 400. Which is approximately 1/6th of the seating capacity. I wanted to count up the other shows and figure out them ratios too but I was too sick to my stomach at that point. It would of just infuriated me further. Not to sound like a complete conspiracy nut but I cannot help but to think that there is something more going on with all these concert tix for sale like that. And not just TOD or PJ shows. Its rampant for most concerts. Most of the shows seemed to be sold out, well by 12 when they went on sale. Is ticketmaster in cahoots with stubhub? Is there a shady computer programmer at ticketmaster pulling a fast one? Is it simply bots? I just find it hard to believe that 400+ tix for a 3100 seat theatre are just the average joe reselling their tix.
Shady stuff. I was in LA this past spring and I wanted to see a hockey game. Right across from staples center is a stub hub box office. Staples center is a ticket master venue. They inflate prices based on what the other box office is offering. The step businesses seem a little "buddy buddy" if you ask me.
Down with electronic ticket sales!!! We shall all have to line up at box offices the day of to get tickets
At this point, I'm not even sure why it is not clear to everyone, yes Ticketmaster and Stubhub, even if not owned by the same companies, do talk to each other! Yes, there is nothing defendable in Ticketmaster, they are just shady as f. and their actions in answer to the lawsuit just confirmed it by x1000. In many countries ticket re-sale is illegal and called black market. We have to fight for the legal re-sell system to become illegal, or... go Mr. Robot, I'll be really down for some of the IT guys music fans to just spread some bots to the community, fight the bots by the bots!
I was looking on stub hub for the philly 2 show. I counted up all the tix for sale at that time. It was just over 400. Which is approximately 1/6th of the seating capacity. I wanted to count up the other shows and figure out them ratios too but I was too sick to my stomach at that point. It would of just infuriated me further. Not to sound like a complete conspiracy nut but I cannot help but to think that there is something more going on with all these concert tix for sale like that. And not just TOD or PJ shows. Its rampant for most concerts. Most of the shows seemed to be sold out, well by 12 when they went on sale. Is ticketmaster in cahoots with stubhub? Is there a shady computer programmer at ticketmaster pulling a fast one? Is it simply bots? I just find it hard to believe that 400+ tix for a 3100 seat theatre are just the average joe reselling their tix.
Shady stuff. I was in LA this past spring and I wanted to see a hockey game. Right across from staples center is a stub hub box office. Staples center is a ticket master venue. They inflate prices based on what the other box office is offering. The step businesses seem a little "buddy buddy" if you ask me.
Down with electronic ticket sales!!! We shall all have to line up at box offices the day of to get tickets
At this point, I'm not even sure why it is not clear to everyone, yes Ticketmaster and Stubhub, even if not owned by the same companies, do talk to each other! Yes, there is nothing defendable in Ticketmaster, they are just shady as f. and their actions in answer to the lawsuit just confirmed it by x1000. In many countries ticket re-sale is illegal and called black market. We have to fight for the legal re-sell system to become illegal, or... go Mr. Robot, I'll be really down for some of the IT guys music fans to just spread some bots to the community, fight the bots by the bots!
When will people realized that there are simply way more people that want tickets to a certain show than there are tickets available? Re-sellers realize that and capitalize on it. With regards to TOTD Philly, there are two possible solutions to cut out the re-sale market: play a bigger venue like an arena, which will still probably sell out but drive secondary market prices down due to more availability of tickets or raise the face value price of the TOTD Tower tickets high enough until there are only roughly 3,000 people (venue capacity) willing to pay the price to get in. In the latter, the band capitalizes more on the demand for their own show but takes flak for charging a more of an actual true value for the tickets. In your calculations, it also means that a strong majority of tickets, roughly 2700 of 3100 tickets (83%), ended up in their intended hands. Even within a single show, there's differing demand. PJ and TOTD have sold their tickets at one set price across the board, no matter if they're front row or very last row up behind the stage. There's no way the experience up close in the pit or the front row is the same as behind the stage in the upper level or the last row of the balcony. Lots more people want to be closer and there's excess demand for better seats while people have a hard time getting face for seats further away. It's not a perfect system, especially when there's excess demand.
Ticketmaster and StubHub are competitors in the ticket industry. Sure, they probably talk to one another but they also have litigated against each other. StubHub is also getting into selling tickets as a primary source (like Ticketmaster), through deals as the official ticket seller for the 76ers, where they'll be able to charge a true market price for games. Some games will cost more based on certain factors (day of the week, opponent, giveaway, etc) and some will cost less due to demand. Along those lines, I've purchased tons of tickets for baseball games far below face value on StubHub when it would have cost me a lot more to buy them directly from the team's site/Ticketmaster. A big factor is that if you want to see a Phillies game, for instance, you have 81 chances every year (x35-40K tickets) vs. only two chances to see Temple of the Dog in Philly in 2016 (x3000 tickets). Big difference.
Staples Center is an AXS venue (depending on the event, they sometimes use Ticketmaster but very infrequently now), which is the ticketing company created and owned by AEG (Staples Center, LA Kings, LA Live, LA Galaxy, StubHub Center, etc). AXS does utilize dynamic pricing for single game tickets (certain opponents cost more, giveaway nights, weekend nights). The Kings also offer discounted single seat tickets day of game, 25-50% off of face at the Staples Center box office only. Yes, there is a StubHub pickup location across the street from Staples. That acts as a Last Minute Services office for people to pick up tickets that they've bought, sometimes more than face value (if demand is high), or less than face value (low demand). In 2012, I wanted to see the Kings play in the Stanley Cup Final. Having given up our family's share of season tickets years before, I now needed to hope for either a last minute ticket release or buy on the secondary market. The night before Game 6, the Kings released some tickets. They are aware of the demand for their tickets and were priced accordingly ($499 + fees for the very last row at the top). I also scoured Craiglist and StubHub throughout the day and found a season ticket holder willing to sell me a ticket for $400, which likely paid the season ticket cost of a few of his seats for that game. Was I upset paying 3-4x over face value? Absolutely not. I looked at it like I saved $100 because my only other option was direct from the team for $500+ because I didn't have access to the season ticket price for playoff tickets. That season ticket holder had probably lost money for years on his investment due to low demand, and now it was finally paying off for him so he was capitalizing on it. I saw my favorite team win the Cup for the first time in franchise history and I'd pay that price any day for that experience. It was worth it to me.
Yes, StubHub exists and Ticketmaster has it's own re-sale component right on their own website. They both exist due to demand for tickets, which is sometimes in excess of supply, and at other times lower than the supply of tickets. Just ask GNR, who have had to slash the face value of their tickets on Ticketmaster in more than a few markets due to them overpricing them from the start and overestimating demand.
Just getting tired of the conspiracy theories when a lot of it is due to simple market forces.
I was looking on stub hub for the philly 2 show. I counted up all the tix for sale at that time. It was just over 400. Which is approximately 1/6th of the seating capacity. I wanted to count up the other shows and figure out them ratios too but I was too sick to my stomach at that point. It would of just infuriated me further. Not to sound like a complete conspiracy nut but I cannot help but to think that there is something more going on with all these concert tix for sale like that. And not just TOD or PJ shows. Its rampant for most concerts. Most of the shows seemed to be sold out, well by 12 when they went on sale. Is ticketmaster in cahoots with stubhub? Is there a shady computer programmer at ticketmaster pulling a fast one? Is it simply bots? I just find it hard to believe that 400+ tix for a 3100 seat theatre are just the average joe reselling their tix.
Shady stuff. I was in LA this past spring and I wanted to see a hockey game. Right across from staples center is a stub hub box office. Staples center is a ticket master venue. They inflate prices based on what the other box office is offering. The step businesses seem a little "buddy buddy" if you ask me.
Down with electronic ticket sales!!! We shall all have to line up at box offices the day of to get tickets
At this point, I'm not even sure why it is not clear to everyone, yes Ticketmaster and Stubhub, even if not owned by the same companies, do talk to each other! Yes, there is nothing defendable in Ticketmaster, they are just shady as f. and their actions in answer to the lawsuit just confirmed it by x1000. In many countries ticket re-sale is illegal and called black market. We have to fight for the legal re-sell system to become illegal, or... go Mr. Robot, I'll be really down for some of the IT guys music fans to just spread some bots to the community, fight the bots by the bots!
When will people realized that there are simply way more people that want tickets to a certain show than there are tickets available? Re-sellers realize that and capitalize on it. With regards to TOTD Philly, there are two possible solutions to cut out the re-sale market: play a bigger venue like an arena, which will still probably sell out but drive secondary market prices down due to more availability of tickets or raise the face value price of the TOTD Tower tickets high enough until there are only roughly 3,000 people (venue capacity) willing to pay the price to get in. In the latter, the band capitalizes more on the demand for their own show but takes flak for charging a more of an actual true value for the tickets. In your calculations, it also means that a strong majority of tickets, roughly 2700 of 3100 tickets (83%), ended up in their intended hands. Even within a single show, there's differing demand. PJ and TOTD have sold their tickets at one set price across the board, no matter if they're front row or very last row up behind the stage. There's no way the experience up close in the pit or the front row is the same as behind the stage in the upper level or the last row of the balcony. Lots more people want to be closer and there's excess demand for better seats while people have a hard time getting face for seats further away. It's not a perfect system, especially when there's excess demand.
Ticketmaster and StubHub are competitors in the ticket industry. Sure, they probably talk to one another but they also have litigated against each other. StubHub is also getting into selling tickets as a primary source (like Ticketmaster), through deals as the official ticket seller for the 76ers, where they'll be able to charge a true market price for games. Some games will cost more based on certain factors (day of the week, opponent, giveaway, etc) and some will cost less due to demand. Along those lines, I've purchased tons of tickets for baseball games far below face value on StubHub when it would have cost me a lot more to buy them directly from the team's site/Ticketmaster. A big factor is that if you want to see a Phillies game, for instance, you have 81 chances every year (x35-40K tickets) vs. only two chances to see Temple of the Dog in Philly in 2016 (x3000 tickets). Big difference.
Staples Center is an AXS venue (depending on the event, they sometimes use Ticketmaster but very infrequently now), which is the ticketing company created and owned by AEG (Staples Center, LA Kings, LA Live, LA Galaxy, StubHub Center, etc). AXS does utilize dynamic pricing for single game tickets (certain opponents cost more, giveaway nights, weekend nights). The Kings also offer discounted single seat tickets day of game, 25-50% off of face at the Staples Center box office only. Yes, there is a StubHub pickup location across the street from Staples. That acts as a Last Minute Services office for people to pick up tickets that they've bought, sometimes more than face value (if demand is high), or less than face value (low demand). In 2012, I wanted to see the Kings play in the Stanley Cup Final. Having given up our family's share of season tickets years before, I now needed to hope for either a last minute ticket release or buy on the secondary market. The night before Game 6, the Kings released some tickets. They are aware of the demand for their tickets and were priced accordingly ($499 + fees for the very last row at the top). I also scoured Craiglist and StubHub throughout the day and found a season ticket holder willing to sell me a ticket for $400, which likely paid the season ticket cost of a few of his seats for that game. Was I upset paying 3-4x over face value? Absolutely not. I looked at it like I saved $100 because my only other option was direct from the team for $500+ because I didn't have access to the season ticket price for playoff tickets. That season ticket holder had probably lost money for years on his investment due to low demand, and now it was finally paying off for him so he was capitalizing on it. I saw my favorite team win the Cup for the first time in franchise history and I'd pay that price any day for that experience. It was worth it to me.
Yes, StubHub exists and Ticketmaster has it's own re-sale component right on their own website. They both exist due to demand for tickets, which is sometimes in excess of supply, and at other times lower than the supply of tickets. Just ask GNR, who have had to slash the face value of their tickets on Ticketmaster in more than a few markets due to them overpricing them from the start and overestimating demand.
Just getting tired of the conspiracy theories when a lot of it is due to simple market forces.
Sure keep on believing that big corporations want your good! Have you ever heard of the Informant, illegal price-fixings? Ring a bell? Sorry to be abrupt but when a market leaves scalpers using bot programs scoring tickets, yes there is a problem. Three years ago I bought Springsteen GA ticket in a big city, no problem. Three years from it, same city, it was impossible. What changed? The fast rise of online reselling sites and bots. You just can't justify it on demand vs number of tickets this is BS (sports tickets can't be easily compared to the music ticks issue, different equation).
Sure keep on believing that big corporations want your good! Have you ever heard of the Informant, illegal price-fixings? Ring a bell? Sorry to be abrupt but when a market leaves scalpers using bot programs scoring tickets, yes there is a problem. Three years ago I bought Springsteen GA ticket in a big city, no problem. Three years from it, same city, it was impossible. What changed? The fast rise of online reselling sites and bots. You just can't justify it on demand vs number of tickets this is BS (sports tickets can't be easily compared to the music ticks issue, different equation).
"Sure keep on believing that big corporations want your good!" What does that even mean? "Want my good?"
My comparison of sports vs. concerts to show the disparity was exactly that. Concerts are a much scarcer commodity, where you have only one, maybe a couple opportunities to see a band you want to see in your city every few years when they tour. Lots of other people want to see them same band as well. With the example of TOTD Philly, there are far more people than 3100 willing to pay the current face value price to get in. That's exactly where the secondary market comes into play. It helps set the true value of what people are willing to pay. Don't like the price? Don't buy. But there are people that are willing to pay more than face, especially for better seats, due to the scarcity and demand that playing a smaller venue creates. I tried the Philly 1 on-sale for sport and was able to cart tickets. I got a Springsteen GA ticket four years ago in LA no problem. When he came back to close out the LA Sports Arena earlier this year? I got two GA tickets and I was up against all the bots you're talking about (and this was before they added two additional nights to meet demand). Want to know how I did it? Funny thing is that if you search for a single GA ticket, your odds are lot better than trying to find a pair. And if you can buy two separate GA singles in different transactions, when you could never find a pair of two together to begin with, it works out the exact same way. That strategy has worked more than a few times for me over the years. I've even had three separate occurrences where I've been able to buy two seats right next to one another as singles in separate transactions, when it wouldn't I couldn't find them together searching for a pair. That's a strategy I've developed, along with quite a few others, through lots of concert ticket on-sale attempts throughout the years. I got a great seat for TOTD Seattle in the Chris Cornell pre-sale when I didn't even receive the emails until 5-6pm later that day. How? By having a friend who go the emails early think of me and tip me off. That's an additional resource that can help. I'll be going to both Radiohead shows in LA (last night and Monday), which had absolutely insane demand, for free thanks to making the effort to call into a radio station to win tickets, and then putting forth additional effort and work to find a trade with someone who had an extra for the opposite night. Another resource. Also, the initial "sell out" that causes everyone to panic and then overpay immediately on the secondary market is rarely ever a true sold out of every last ticket in the building. More often than not, there are production/promoter holds and additional tickets that are eventually released as it gets closer to the show. People grabbed tickets online yesterday to last night's "sold out" Radiohead show. Look at all the releases that have happened for Fenway this weekend. Always a way in if you keep trying and exhaust all your resources if you really want into the show. Also, that may include paying over face value from time to time when demand exceeds supply. One of my main points is that I think people need to temper their expectations quite a bit. Concerts are an experience that more and more people seem to enjoy and are willing to pay for, but the number of people wanting to go to shows has increased dramatically over the years (more than there are seats in a venue). Look at the 10C odds for highly in demand shows, and how people rank them because sometimes people are their own worst enemies by how they set priority order and hinder their chances. Single digit percentage odds mean that there are more than 10 people that want tickets for every single pair available. That's a ton of demand. That's all from me. Good luck with all your future ticketing hopes.
oh than me and tons of other might be freakin' stupid cause we just can't seem to score like you do. So yes, please let the system continue to be like that, let people scalp tickets for 10x times their price, let scalpers use programs to fuck people chances up, let's not change a thing.
I was looking on stub hub for the philly 2 show. I counted up all the tix for sale at that time. It was just over 400. Which is approximately 1/6th of the seating capacity. I wanted to count up the other shows and figure out them ratios too but I was too sick to my stomach at that point. It would of just infuriated me further. Not to sound like a complete conspiracy nut but I cannot help but to think that there is something more going on with all these concert tix for sale like that. And not just TOD or PJ shows. Its rampant for most concerts. Most of the shows seemed to be sold out, well by 12 when they went on sale. Is ticketmaster in cahoots with stubhub? Is there a shady computer programmer at ticketmaster pulling a fast one? Is it simply bots? I just find it hard to believe that 400+ tix for a 3100 seat theatre are just the average joe reselling their tix.
Yah you really should read an article by an ex CEO of ticketmaster. It kind of supported what I felt was true, that blocks of the tickets often get sold directly to ticket resellers. The article mentioned it was promoters that did it, so I'm not sure how much blame goes to TM on that one. Basically you've got the combined problem of only a very small percentage of the overall tickets actually being on sale for the public onsale, plus all the fans that want tickets can all order simutaneously (instead of waiting in a line), plus the bots. It's a mixed bag of everything.
Personally I believe GNR found the cure with their tour. Play venues that for 80% of the time are too big. Charge the market price for the tickets. For many of the GNR shows there's so many tickets that flippers can't flip their tickets. Sure they could of sold out arenas, but with stadiums they sell more tickets than arenas (even if they don't sell out), and there's so many tickets that supply is bigger than demand, completely eroding scalpers ability to scalp.
The problem with alot of bands is they want to play a sold out venue. There's a big gap between arenas (16 to 20k capacity) and stadiums (40k to 70k capacity). You might sell out arenas, but if you play a stadium your moderately embarrassed because of all the empty seats. Scalping is generally possibilty because the demand is far higher than the supply. It creates all sorts of opportunities for a black market.
Anyone else surprised at the demand for these shows? I understand the smaller venues but, MSG and the Forum sold out and btso is insane! Soundgarden reuniting 5 years ago wasn't even close to this demand! Strange also that Eddie really isn't going to be part of this and yet no tix to be had...shows you that besides PJ and Radiohead there's not many great rock bands out there that can create this kind of a buzz except the war horse legends of the 60' and U2!
The demand was so big for msg my little birdie couldn't get freebies from friends who work in the ticket industry.
Ron: I just don't feel like going out tonight
Sammi: Wanna just break up?
Sure keep on believing that big corporations want your good! Have you ever heard of the Informant, illegal price-fixings? Ring a bell? Sorry to be abrupt but when a market leaves scalpers using bot programs scoring tickets, yes there is a problem. Three years ago I bought Springsteen GA ticket in a big city, no problem. Three years from it, same city, it was impossible. What changed? The fast rise of online reselling sites and bots. You just can't justify it on demand vs number of tickets this is BS (sports tickets can't be easily compared to the music ticks issue, different equation).
"Sure keep on believing that big corporations want your good!" What does that even mean? "Want my good?"
My comparison of sports vs. concerts to show the disparity was exactly that. Concerts are a much scarcer commodity, where you have only one, maybe a couple opportunities to see a band you want to see in your city every few years when they tour. Lots of other people want to see them same band as well. With the example of TOTD Philly, there are far more people than 3100 willing to pay the current face value price to get in. That's exactly where the secondary market comes into play. It helps set the true value of what people are willing to pay. Don't like the price? Don't buy. But there are people that are willing to pay more than face, especially for better seats, due to the scarcity and demand that playing a smaller venue creates. I tried the Philly 1 on-sale for sport and was able to cart tickets. I got a Springsteen GA ticket four years ago in LA no problem. When he came back to close out the LA Sports Arena earlier this year? I got two GA tickets and I was up against all the bots you're talking about (and this was before they added two additional nights to meet demand). Want to know how I did it? Funny thing is that if you search for a single GA ticket, your odds are lot better than trying to find a pair. And if you can buy two separate GA singles in different transactions, when you could never find a pair of two together to begin with, it works out the exact same way. That strategy has worked more than a few times for me over the years. I've even had three separate occurrences where I've been able to buy two seats right next to one another as singles in separate transactions, when it wouldn't I couldn't find them together searching for a pair. That's a strategy I've developed, along with quite a few others, through lots of concert ticket on-sale attempts throughout the years. I got a great seat for TOTD Seattle in the Chris Cornell pre-sale when I didn't even receive the emails until 5-6pm later that day. How? By having a friend who go the emails early think of me and tip me off. That's an additional resource that can help. I'll be going to both Radiohead shows in LA (last night and Monday), which had absolutely insane demand, for free thanks to making the effort to call into a radio station to win tickets, and then putting forth additional effort and work to find a trade with someone who had an extra for the opposite night. Another resource. Also, the initial "sell out" that causes everyone to panic and then overpay immediately on the secondary market is rarely ever a true sold out of every last ticket in the building. More often than not, there are production/promoter holds and additional tickets that are eventually released as it gets closer to the show. People grabbed tickets online yesterday to last night's "sold out" Radiohead show. Look at all the releases that have happened for Fenway this weekend. Always a way in if you keep trying and exhaust all your resources if you really want into the show. Also, that may include paying over face value from time to time when demand exceeds supply. One of my main points is that I think people need to temper their expectations quite a bit. Concerts are an experience that more and more people seem to enjoy and are willing to pay for, but the number of people wanting to go to shows has increased dramatically over the years (more than there are seats in a venue). Look at the 10C odds for highly in demand shows, and how people rank them because sometimes people are their own worst enemies by how they set priority order and hinder their chances. Single digit percentage odds mean that there are more than 10 people that want tickets for every single pair available. That's a ton of demand. That's all from me. Good luck with all your future ticketing hopes.
I wanted to mean that big corporations like Livenation and Ticketmaster are not there to be fair to their customers, clearly the opposite. Believing that there is nothing wrong with them, that they are here for you own good is an illusion. These are shady companies. PJ tried to fought against them, they got dissed for it, but they were plain right and I wish people backed them up at that time. Other people are fighting against them and the current system right now, articles have been relayed here. They also just got sued and lost... You got lucky with your tickets... Don't you think we all the tricks by now? I only buy tickets for one person, I try to use the pre-sales when I'm in time, I use the phone app instead of the cpu, etc.. We all know that. You can read stories here of people at work with 5 computers on + cellphones who could not get a single ticket. You think all the TOTD tickets got sold out in half a second because of the demand? You are wrong and I don't need no other proof than Stubhub. At any high demand show, now, it's always the same story, you get all the tickets people could not buy on stubhub within hours if not minutes. You just can't argue against that. If it was because of high demand, than people would hold to their tickets. Well no, it's on Stubhub, because of bots and because of the resell market. Thousands of tickets for these high demand show that you claim sold out in seconds because there were not enough tickets for everyone, are there, what other proof do we need? Still 300 tickets for the first show of the first tour ever of TOTD in a small theater, with likelihood of getting EV, thus PJ who sells out any place they play at, and you still want to say that this is because of high demand?! Really? 300 fans that just realized they'd rather be on vacation or a bar that Friday?!!!!!! And, I just cannot take this argument of don't like the price don't buy. The price are just increased because the system is fucked up. No one should pay a ticket more than it's face value. Why? Again because the bump is not due to high demand, the bump is due because the system set up by Ticketmaster and co. allow people to make money on the tickets, creating a secondary market that should not be there. But it's worse, it's not people anymore, it's softwares. I don't like conspiracy theories either, but if an investigation was to reveal that the people using the bots are tied to the ticket companies I would not be surprised. I'm repeating myself here but ticket re-sell is called illegal in many countries. Make official re-sell illegal, you'll solve a big part of the problem, it is that simple. I just can't understand how you can try to defend that system. Hell, I'll just pay $300 and pray no one pukes on me at the show!
Hi! I dont post very often, hello to everyone that I've been reading for years:)
Quick question… for the first time as a fan club member I applied for tickets to this here show. Scored myself two tickets for MSG!!! Im beyond stoked. Never expected I would get them. Now, down deep I don't really care where these seats are, and I wouldn't mind at all if their not that great. I mean being in there alone makes any seat great! But what are fan club tickets for MSG shows usually like? I have no clue where fan seats are. Ive seen PJ about 8 times, but Ive always just got tickets through TM.
Usually for PJ the fan club at MSG is the whole floor and a good chunk of the lower bowl of seats. And they're awarded by fan club seniority. It's hard to say if that will be the same for TOTD though because we don't know if they got the same number of seats and how they divided it up with the Soundgarden and Chris Cornell fans
Usually for PJ the fan club at MSG is the whole floor and a good chunk of the lower bowl of seats. And they're awarded by fan club seniority. It's hard to say if that will be the same for TOTD though because we don't know if they got the same number of seats and how they divided it up with the Soundgarden and Chris Cornell fans
awesome! thanks Banjo. I was trying to understand just how many seats are set aside for the fan club. Sounds like more than I expected. Lets see just how good this number of mine is;)
When Temple of the Dog - the early 1990s grunge supergroup featuring Chris Cornell and Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, Mike McCready and Matt Cameron - first began contemplating a tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their sole album, they weren't sure how it would be received. "We were a little anxious about what size venues we could play," Ament tells Rolling Stone. "We've never toured and are essentially a baby band."
They decided to hit just five cities, playing a mixture of big theaters and arenas. Much to their shock, nearly every ticket disappeared within minutes, with scalpers charging upwards of $1,399 for primo seats at the Madison Square Garden stop. "We're super excited," says Ament. "We can finally road test these songs and see what they become."
The songs - born out of the extreme grief Cornell felt after Mother Love Bone singer Andy Wood died of a heroin overdose in March 1990 - will be re-released on September 30th in four different configurations. The biggest one will contain two CDs, 1 DVD and 1 Blu-ray Audio disc. It contains seven unheard demos, five studio outtakes and live footage of Temple of the Dog shot between 1990 and 2011. Longtime Pearl Jam producer Brendan O'Brien remixed the album.
"The quarter-inch tapes got lost," says Ament. "The only way we could've used the original mixes would have been pulling it off a CD, which would have been inferior. Brendan really didn't mess with the levels, but he just pulled back a bit on the effects and reverb. The new mix is just a bit crisper. The way we listen to music is so different than 25 years ago. People have gotten used to so much clarity on the top end, and I think he really brought a lot of that out."
Pearl Jam have been on the road for the past few months, meaning that Temple of the Dog have yet to begin rehearsals for the tour kicking off November 4th in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania and wrapping up November 21st after a two-night stand at Seattle's Paramount Theater. "We've discussed what other songs we might play in addition to the 10 songs from the album," says Cornell. "But it was mostly left on the table to be discussed as a later date. It's still a mystery to me." Playing the album in sequence is a possibility. "Playing albums in sequence can be awesome or it can be very limiting," says McCready. "I hope we mix it up a little bit."
Pearl Jam have made the Mother Love Bone song "Crown of Thorns" a regular part of their live show, and it seems likely that Temple of the Dog will dip further into Mother Love Bone's catalog. "I think that makes a lot of sense," says Cornell. "There are also some songs that Andy wrote outside of Mother Love Bone that may or may not be something we can do. There's some other songs from that period we discussed, but there's been no decision made about anything other than what's on the album."
Cornell has performed the Pearl Jam songs "Better Man" and "Footsteps" (the latter having many similar musical elements as Temple of the Dog's "Times of Trouble") at his solo shows, but he doubts fans at these Temple of the Dog shows will hear any Pearl Jam or even Soundgarden tunes.
"I feel like that doesn't feel right in my gut," he says. "That's nothing that I talked about with anybody. It's just you asking and me reacting. It doesn't feel like the right thing, but I might change my mind." McCready feels the same way. "I'd love for this to be its own thing," he says. "We can maybe do some [Mother] Love Bone songs and some cool covers. But if Chris wants to do 'Better Man,' please. That's fine with me."
Then there's the issue of Eddie Vedder. He's not billed at any of the shows, even though he sings half of Temple of the Dog's most famous song, "Hunger Strike," and contributed backing vocals to three others. Might he drop by a show or two? "I can't say anything about that," says McCready. "I don't know if he is, and that's kind of up to him. I would love it if he did." Adds Cornell: "I don't think that's even been discussed, but we certainly haven't planned on it."
There are no Temple of the Dog plans beyond this November, but the group doesn't rule out booking more shows. "I hope if these go well, there will be more in the future," says McCready. "That's kind of why we didn't want to do an extensive tour. We just wanted to feel out the landscape. I hope we can go to Europe. It depends on how much fun we have with it, and how much people get out of it."
But the group stresses that a second Temple of the Dog record is less likely. "We'd have to feel really great about the songs," says Cornell. "It's a scary thing. I don't want to say they'd have to live up to the [first] album, but I wouldn't want it to take away from it either. It was the same issue with reforming Soundgarden. I'm super excited about writing new songs as long as we don't detract from what came before, and ultimately we did that. I think the same thing would apply to Temple."
There are no Temple of the Dog plans beyond this November, but the group doesn't rule out booking more shows. "I hope if these go well, there will be more in the future," says McCready. "That's kind of why we didn't want to do an extensive tour. We just wanted to feel out the landscape. I hope we can go to Europe. It depends on how much fun we have with it, and how much people get out of it."
Athens 2006 / Milton Keynes 2014 / London 1&2 2022 / Seattle 1&2 2024 / Dublin 2024 / Manchester 2024
There are no Temple of the Dog plans beyond this November, but the group doesn't rule out booking more shows. "I hope if these go well, there will be more in the future," says McCready. "That's kind of why we didn't want to do an extensive tour. We just wanted to feel out the landscape. I hope we can go to Europe. It depends on how much fun we have with it, and how much people get out of it."
Yeah!!!
ATHENS / 30-9-2006, MANCHESTER / 20-6-2012, MANCHESTER / 21-6-2012, AMSTERDAM / 16-6-2014, AMSTERDAM / 17-6-2014, AMSTERDAM / 12-6-2018, AMSTERDAM / 13-6-2018, PRAGUE / 1-7-2018, KRAKOW / 3-7-2018, BERLIN / 5-7-2018
Was just listening to this. While it won't ever become my favorite TotD song, I love hearing demos like this. Very cool. Hopefully they'll clean it up a bit and play it on tour!
"I'll use the magic word - let's just shut the fuck up, please." EV, 04/13/08
Comments
Oh Dude!
Down with electronic ticket sales!!! We shall all have to line up at box offices the day of to get tickets
In many countries ticket re-sale is illegal and called black market. We have to fight for the legal re-sell system to become illegal, or... go Mr. Robot, I'll be really down for some of the IT guys music fans to just spread some bots to the community, fight the bots by the bots!
Ticketmaster and StubHub are competitors in the ticket industry. Sure, they probably talk to one another but they also have litigated against each other. StubHub is also getting into selling tickets as a primary source (like Ticketmaster), through deals as the official ticket seller for the 76ers, where they'll be able to charge a true market price for games. Some games will cost more based on certain factors (day of the week, opponent, giveaway, etc) and some will cost less due to demand. Along those lines, I've purchased tons of tickets for baseball games far below face value on StubHub when it would have cost me a lot more to buy them directly from the team's site/Ticketmaster. A big factor is that if you want to see a Phillies game, for instance, you have 81 chances every year (x35-40K tickets) vs. only two chances to see Temple of the Dog in Philly in 2016 (x3000 tickets). Big difference.
Staples Center is an AXS venue (depending on the event, they sometimes use Ticketmaster but very infrequently now), which is the ticketing company created and owned by AEG (Staples Center, LA Kings, LA Live, LA Galaxy, StubHub Center, etc). AXS does utilize dynamic pricing for single game tickets (certain opponents cost more, giveaway nights, weekend nights). The Kings also offer discounted single seat tickets day of game, 25-50% off of face at the Staples Center box office only. Yes, there is a StubHub pickup location across the street from Staples. That acts as a Last Minute Services office for people to pick up tickets that they've bought, sometimes more than face value (if demand is high), or less than face value (low demand). In 2012, I wanted to see the Kings play in the Stanley Cup Final. Having given up our family's share of season tickets years before, I now needed to hope for either a last minute ticket release or buy on the secondary market. The night before Game 6, the Kings released some tickets. They are aware of the demand for their tickets and were priced accordingly ($499 + fees for the very last row at the top). I also scoured Craiglist and StubHub throughout the day and found a season ticket holder willing to sell me a ticket for $400, which likely paid the season ticket cost of a few of his seats for that game. Was I upset paying 3-4x over face value? Absolutely not. I looked at it like I saved $100 because my only other option was direct from the team for $500+ because I didn't have access to the season ticket price for playoff tickets. That season ticket holder had probably lost money for years on his investment due to low demand, and now it was finally paying off for him so he was capitalizing on it. I saw my favorite team win the Cup for the first time in franchise history and I'd pay that price any day for that experience. It was worth it to me.
Yes, StubHub exists and Ticketmaster has it's own re-sale component right on their own website. They both exist due to demand for tickets, which is sometimes in excess of supply, and at other times lower than the supply of tickets. Just ask GNR, who have had to slash the face value of their tickets on Ticketmaster in more than a few markets due to them overpricing them from the start and overestimating demand.
Just getting tired of the conspiracy theories when a lot of it is due to simple market forces.
My comparison of sports vs. concerts to show the disparity was exactly that. Concerts are a much scarcer commodity, where you have only one, maybe a couple opportunities to see a band you want to see in your city every few years when they tour. Lots of other people want to see them same band as well. With the example of TOTD Philly, there are far more people than 3100 willing to pay the current face value price to get in. That's exactly where the secondary market comes into play. It helps set the true value of what people are willing to pay. Don't like the price? Don't buy. But there are people that are willing to pay more than face, especially for better seats, due to the scarcity and demand that playing a smaller venue creates. I tried the Philly 1 on-sale for sport and was able to cart tickets.
I got a Springsteen GA ticket four years ago in LA no problem. When he came back to close out the LA Sports Arena earlier this year? I got two GA tickets and I was up against all the bots you're talking about (and this was before they added two additional nights to meet demand). Want to know how I did it? Funny thing is that if you search for a single GA ticket, your odds are lot better than trying to find a pair. And if you can buy two separate GA singles in different transactions, when you could never find a pair of two together to begin with, it works out the exact same way. That strategy has worked more than a few times for me over the years. I've even had three separate occurrences where I've been able to buy two seats right next to one another as singles in separate transactions, when it wouldn't I couldn't find them together searching for a pair. That's a strategy I've developed, along with quite a few others, through lots of concert ticket on-sale attempts throughout the years.
I got a great seat for TOTD Seattle in the Chris Cornell pre-sale when I didn't even receive the emails until 5-6pm later that day. How? By having a friend who go the emails early think of me and tip me off. That's an additional resource that can help.
I'll be going to both Radiohead shows in LA (last night and Monday), which had absolutely insane demand, for free thanks to making the effort to call into a radio station to win tickets, and then putting forth additional effort and work to find a trade with someone who had an extra for the opposite night. Another resource.
Also, the initial "sell out" that causes everyone to panic and then overpay immediately on the secondary market is rarely ever a true sold out of every last ticket in the building. More often than not, there are production/promoter holds and additional tickets that are eventually released as it gets closer to the show. People grabbed tickets online yesterday to last night's "sold out" Radiohead show. Look at all the releases that have happened for Fenway this weekend. Always a way in if you keep trying and exhaust all your resources if you really want into the show. Also, that may include paying over face value from time to time when demand exceeds supply.
One of my main points is that I think people need to temper their expectations quite a bit. Concerts are an experience that more and more people seem to enjoy and are willing to pay for, but the number of people wanting to go to shows has increased dramatically over the years (more than there are seats in a venue). Look at the 10C odds for highly in demand shows, and how people rank them because sometimes people are their own worst enemies by how they set priority order and hinder their chances. Single digit percentage odds mean that there are more than 10 people that want tickets for every single pair available. That's a ton of demand.
That's all from me. Good luck with all your future ticketing hopes.
Personally I believe GNR found the cure with their tour. Play venues that for 80% of the time are too big. Charge the market price for the tickets. For many of the GNR shows there's so many tickets that flippers can't flip their tickets. Sure they could of sold out arenas, but with stadiums they sell more tickets than arenas (even if they don't sell out), and there's so many tickets that supply is bigger than demand, completely eroding scalpers ability to scalp.
The problem with alot of bands is they want to play a sold out venue. There's a big gap between arenas (16 to 20k capacity) and stadiums (40k to 70k capacity). You might sell out arenas, but if you play a stadium your moderately embarrassed because of all the empty seats. Scalping is generally possibilty because the demand is far higher than the supply. It creates all sorts of opportunities for a black market.
Sammi: Wanna just break up?
You got lucky with your tickets... Don't you think we all the tricks by now? I only buy tickets for one person, I try to use the pre-sales when I'm in time, I use the phone app instead of the cpu, etc.. We all know that.
You can read stories here of people at work with 5 computers on + cellphones who could not get a single ticket. You think all the TOTD tickets got sold out in half a second because of the demand? You are wrong and I don't need no other proof than Stubhub. At any high demand show, now, it's always the same story, you get all the tickets people could not buy on stubhub within hours if not minutes. You just can't argue against that. If it was because of high demand, than people would hold to their tickets. Well no, it's on Stubhub, because of bots and because of the resell market. Thousands of tickets for these high demand show that you claim sold out in seconds because there were not enough tickets for everyone, are there, what other proof do we need? Still 300 tickets for the first show of the first tour ever of TOTD in a small theater, with likelihood of getting EV, thus PJ who sells out any place they play at, and you still want to say that this is because of high demand?! Really? 300 fans that just realized they'd rather be on vacation or a bar that Friday?!!!!!!
And, I just cannot take this argument of don't like the price don't buy. The price are just increased because the system is fucked up. No one should pay a ticket more than it's face value. Why? Again because the bump is not due to high demand, the bump is due because the system set up by Ticketmaster and co. allow people to make money on the tickets, creating a secondary market that should not be there. But it's worse, it's not people anymore, it's softwares. I don't like conspiracy theories either, but if an investigation was to reveal that the people using the bots are tied to the ticket companies I would not be surprised.
I'm repeating myself here but ticket re-sell is called illegal in many countries. Make official re-sell illegal, you'll solve a big part of the problem, it is that simple. I just can't understand how you can try to defend that system.
Hell, I'll just pay $300 and pray no one pukes on me at the show!
Quick question… for the first time as a fan club member I applied for tickets to this here show. Scored myself two tickets for MSG!!! Im beyond stoked. Never expected I would get them. Now, down deep I don't really care where these seats are, and I wouldn't mind at all if their not that great. I mean being in there alone makes any seat great! But what are fan club tickets for MSG shows usually like? I have no clue where fan seats are. Ive seen PJ about 8 times, but Ive always just got tickets through TM.
Thanks!
DW
D
When Temple of the Dog - the early 1990s grunge supergroup featuring Chris Cornell and Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, Mike McCready and Matt Cameron - first began contemplating a tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their sole album, they weren't sure how it would be received. "We were a little anxious about what size venues we could play," Ament tells Rolling Stone. "We've never toured and are essentially a baby band."
They decided to hit just five cities, playing a mixture of big theaters and arenas. Much to their shock, nearly every ticket disappeared within minutes, with scalpers charging upwards of $1,399 for primo seats at the Madison Square Garden stop. "We're super excited," says Ament. "We can finally road test these songs and see what they become."
The songs - born out of the extreme grief Cornell felt after Mother Love Bone singer Andy Wood died of a heroin overdose in March 1990 - will be re-released on September 30th in four different configurations. The biggest one will contain two CDs, 1 DVD and 1 Blu-ray Audio disc. It contains seven unheard demos, five studio outtakes and live footage of Temple of the Dog shot between 1990 and 2011. Longtime Pearl Jam producer Brendan O'Brien remixed the album.
"The quarter-inch tapes got lost," says Ament. "The only way we could've used the original mixes would have been pulling it off a CD, which would have been inferior. Brendan really didn't mess with the levels, but he just pulled back a bit on the effects and reverb. The new mix is just a bit crisper. The way we listen to music is so different than 25 years ago. People have gotten used to so much clarity on the top end, and I think he really brought a lot of that out."
Pearl Jam have been on the road for the past few months, meaning that Temple of the Dog have yet to begin rehearsals for the tour kicking off November 4th in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania and wrapping up November 21st after a two-night stand at Seattle's Paramount Theater. "We've discussed what other songs we might play in addition to the 10 songs from the album," says Cornell. "But it was mostly left on the table to be discussed as a later date. It's still a mystery to me." Playing the album in sequence is a possibility. "Playing albums in sequence can be awesome or it can be very limiting," says McCready. "I hope we mix it up a little bit."
Pearl Jam have made the Mother Love Bone song "Crown of Thorns" a regular part of their live show, and it seems likely that Temple of the Dog will dip further into Mother Love Bone's catalog. "I think that makes a lot of sense," says Cornell. "There are also some songs that Andy wrote outside of Mother Love Bone that may or may not be something we can do. There's some other songs from that period we discussed, but there's been no decision made about anything other than what's on the album."
Cornell has performed the Pearl Jam songs "Better Man" and "Footsteps" (the latter having many similar musical elements as Temple of the Dog's "Times of Trouble") at his solo shows, but he doubts fans at these Temple of the Dog shows will hear any Pearl Jam or even Soundgarden tunes.
"I feel like that doesn't feel right in my gut," he says. "That's nothing that I talked about with anybody. It's just you asking and me reacting. It doesn't feel like the right thing, but I might change my mind." McCready feels the same way. "I'd love for this to be its own thing," he says. "We can maybe do some [Mother] Love Bone songs and some cool covers. But if Chris wants to do 'Better Man,' please. That's fine with me."
Then there's the issue of Eddie Vedder. He's not billed at any of the shows, even though he sings half of Temple of the Dog's most famous song, "Hunger Strike," and contributed backing vocals to three others. Might he drop by a show or two? "I can't say anything about that," says McCready. "I don't know if he is, and that's kind of up to him. I would love it if he did." Adds Cornell: "I don't think that's even been discussed, but we certainly haven't planned on it."
There are no Temple of the Dog plans beyond this November, but the group doesn't rule out booking more shows. "I hope if these go well, there will be more in the future," says McCready. "That's kind of why we didn't want to do an extensive tour. We just wanted to feel out the landscape. I hope we can go to Europe. It depends on how much fun we have with it, and how much people get out of it."
But the group stresses that a second Temple of the Dog record is less likely. "We'd have to feel really great about the songs," says Cornell. "It's a scary thing. I don't want to say they'd have to live up to the [first] album, but I wouldn't want it to take away from it either. It was the same issue with reforming Soundgarden. I'm super excited about writing new songs as long as we don't detract from what came before, and ultimately we did that. I think the same thing would apply to Temple."
We used to race.
MSG 11/07/2016 (TOTD)
Rio 11/22/2015
Rio 11/06/2011
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/premieres/hear-lost-temple-of-the-dog-song-black-cat-w434818
www.headstonesband.com