OT: Taylor Swift Era’s Tour Today/Tomorrow
- Thread starter hail2cin24
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I went to a number of high profile concerts in my younger days (Stones, etc). They were fun in their way, partly if not mostly to brag about it before and after (which let’s face it, what the appeal of this concert is for a great number of the attendees as well, as were those who got Tickle Me Elmo’s and similar hyped things). I say that because if one really cares about the quality of the music, most of the time the concerts in those huge venues don’t deliver.
The best concert I ever saw to this day in terms of the quality of the musicianship and the sound was the Brian Setzer (the Stray Cat guy) Orchestra (during the brief rockabilly swing fad of the late 90s). Not my favorite music ever, tbh. But given the combination of the show being outdoors (an acoustic challenge anytime ) with a sizable orchestra having to play in tandem with a rock outfit, so many musicians needing to be in sync, so many instruments to capture and mix, etc the sound was excellent.
These 13 years olds tonight and tomorrow won’t care anything about that of course (the music will be mostly from a recording anyway). Most of them will only be really seeing Swift on the scoreboard anyway (much like most watching games there I realize). But that doesn’t matter. It’s why we folks go to these games in person in bad weather while the viewing is superior on our 70 inch TVs at home. It is the EVENT. We get to wear goofy player uni shirts, wave towels, tailgate, etc. The girls got the chance to dress up, buy merch, and post pics and videos to make their acquaintances jealous. And their moms can lord it over the loser rival moms. Makes the world go round I guess.
The best concert I ever saw to this day in terms of the quality of the musicianship and the sound was the Brian Setzer (the Stray Cat guy) Orchestra (during the brief rockabilly swing fad of the late 90s). Not my favorite music ever, tbh. But given the combination of the show being outdoors (an acoustic challenge anytime ) with a sizable orchestra having to play in tandem with a rock outfit, so many musicians needing to be in sync, so many instruments to capture and mix, etc the sound was excellent.
These 13 years olds tonight and tomorrow won’t care anything about that of course (the music will be mostly from a recording anyway). Most of them will only be really seeing Swift on the scoreboard anyway (much like most watching games there I realize). But that doesn’t matter. It’s why we folks go to these games in person in bad weather while the viewing is superior on our 70 inch TVs at home. It is the EVENT. We get to wear goofy player uni shirts, wave towels, tailgate, etc. The girls got the chance to dress up, buy merch, and post pics and videos to make their acquaintances jealous. And their moms can lord it over the loser rival moms. Makes the world go round I guess.
My 17 year old's favorite group is Love Joy, out of the UK. Been waiting 2 years to see them.
Turned out they were making about 6 stops in the US this year, one at the Philly Theatre of the Arts two weekend's ago.
So, I bought 2 tix at $160 a pop when they become available last February. Part of the thinking was as a reward for doing well this school year, she held up her end pulling a 3.75 GPA.
There were only two or three outlets selling them so I had went w stubhub because it was the biggest one. However, once I bought them it told me that the "seller" would get them to me sometime up to the night before the concert.
I checked up on it a few timesvtimes and it changed to saying the seller would not get them to me until the night before, there Is no reason to contact them.
So, we went w it, got a room, the plan was we would drive down that Saturday, eat at Reading Terminal, I'd go to the concert w Z, mom and A would hang out, then we'd spend the night.
We woke and got ready to go, but no tix. I call and they tell me dodon't worry, the seller will send them soon. So, we headed out.
Go to Philly and still no tix. This time they said the seller didn't give them the tix, but they would find replacements and get them to me w/in an hour.
2 hours later, no tix. This time they told me they couldn’t get them and they were going to reimburse me, mom losing it and Z sobbing in the back of the vehicle.
We went to ouour hotel, mom calling the Theatre, me and Z looking for tix on resell market, which were going upwards of $1,400 a piece.
We decided to head to the Theatre to see what we could try to pull out, got there and a line of teenage girls were wrapped around the building, a dad here, a mom there.
We bumped into a mom standing at the ticket box waiting for their daughters to get there, said she paid $600 each for 2 tix from stubhub April and got them in May.
So, the scumbags sold out tix out from under us when they saw they could get 4-5 times the $.
Line was finishing up, the warm up act was about to end and they were closing the doors when this girl came up to us and says she has a ticket. Her parents bought 2 from another vendor, one ended up being a counterfeit. She wasn't going to go in w/o her friend.
I asked her how much they paid for it, she said $330, the fam scrapped the cash together and Z got in.
A couple other stubhub victims and other kids who got scammed left out ...
Bad enough doing this $hit to adults, but frigging kids getting ripped off ...
As for TS, not sure why people gotta get weird about celebrities over politics. Kid Rock is a political dip$hit, I still have some of his tunes on my workout play list.
She's a massive talent, no denying it, and is at worst a bit of a lost soul. Never did anything to hurt anyone.
These people tend to be different. Elvis mostly lost it over time. Michael Jackson ... well.
She's a massive talent, no denying it, and is at worst a bit of a lost soul. Never did anything to hurt anyone.
These people tend to be different. Elvis mostly lost it over time. Michael Jackson ... well.
Saw them on their last stop of their 2004 tour, 6 curtain calls and the best version of Crazy Mary ever.
Kiss way better at making music than anyone wants to give credit. No not rush or zep. But solid hits.
Objectively paul stanley top 5 rock vocalist ever in prime.
Knowing that the Replacements were HUGE Kiss fans as kids should make your point.
yeah I never understood leaving early to beat traffic, but people do it. And FYI, the crowd was way different than a typical Steeler game. Nothing even close to it. Unbelievably packed. Even an AFC championship game, or the Backyard Brawl last year don't approach what last night was like.
They actually had very catchy pop riffs and I always cracked up when "serious" music fans didn't take them seriously. Gene & Paul are kind of jerks though, or actually typical CEO businessmen, depending how you look at it. Their treatment of Ace & Peter wasn't good.
Taylor Swift makes ‘generous’ donation to Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank
CEO Lisa Scales described the donation as “generous.” A news release said it would provide thousands of meals to neighbors across the region.
“We’re so grateful to Taylor Swift for partnering with us to support people in our region who struggle with food insecurity. Her donation will ensure thousands of our neighbors have the food they need to thrive,” said Scales.
Agree to all of this. And that musicians are no more altruistic that the average person. Most will forget how the Beatles d1cked over Pete Best right before they hit it huge. Then ganged up on Paul during the Alan Klein fiasco (though he was clearly right and was warned of such by Mick Jagger). Bruce screwed over many of his band members as well, etc . Many of those stories are at least as interesting as the music of the acts itself…
Kiss always ripped it on the guitar riffs. Seriously.
Since there are two mega-tours going on almost simultaneously, her and Springsteen, I wonder which will end up drawing the most fans and being the most successful financially. Both are getting mostly terrific reviews.
Just looking at the clips, she obviously has a lot more special effects in her show. I don’t recall any special effects in either of Bruce’s Barcelona shows. She also is spending a lot more on costuming. His only costume change is putting on a fresh black t-shirt if his first one gets too sweaty.
On the other hand, he is paying the 8 members of E-Street Band, a 4-man horn section (not including E-Street’s Jake Clemons), 3 backup singers and 2 backup singers/percussionists. I don’t know how many dancers her show uses and how many musicians are in her band, but there seem to be a lot. Very likely paid significantly less than the E-Street Band.
Just looking at the clips, she obviously has a lot more special effects in her show. I don’t recall any special effects in either of Bruce’s Barcelona shows. She also is spending a lot more on costuming. His only costume change is putting on a fresh black t-shirt if his first one gets too sweaty.
On the other hand, he is paying the 8 members of E-Street Band, a 4-man horn section (not including E-Street’s Jake Clemons), 3 backup singers and 2 backup singers/percussionists. I don’t know how many dancers her show uses and how many musicians are in her band, but there seem to be a lot. Very likely paid significantly less than the E-Street Band.
Her show has been described as mix of a concert and Broadway-level production.
The day before her concerts, apparently thousands came to Acrisure that afternoon merely to buy TS merchandise (!). Have to figure this is true in all cities? And I can’t imagine that would be occurring the day before Springsteen (or Chesney or Bryan stadium shows) ….? So, that alone one would think would be raising many additional millions for her. (But this is a new day and age and I haven’t gone to any concerts like those for a good decade, so I won’t doubt if merch sales like that is happening before all these big shows?).
Will have to tip my cap to her for at least knowing how to maximize her revenue to the hilt.
good description. I was there (don't judge, lol). Would have preferred a little less reliance on taped vocals (not much lip syncing per se, but a lot of the backing and harmony parts were recorded). She did show her chops on the acoustic set, and also the 10 minute All to Well.
But given the target demographic, you need to put the emphasis on the visual production more so than the musical performance.
Is there really any doubt which is going to be the most successful tour financially?
Swift just sold a little more than 146,000 tickets in Pittsburgh alone. Springsteen is in Pittsburgh in September, and his one show isn't even sold out yet at the much smaller venue.
I didn't pay any attention to the face value when those tickets first went on sale, but I read that the average price, face value, not on the secondary market, was $133. $133 x 146,000 is almost a $19.5 million gate. Springsteen's Pittsburgh sales won't be a quarter of that.
Swift just sold a little more than 146,000 tickets in Pittsburgh alone. Springsteen is in Pittsburgh in September, and his one show isn't even sold out yet at the much smaller venue.
I didn't pay any attention to the face value when those tickets first went on sale, but I read that the average price, face value, not on the secondary market, was $133. $133 x 146,000 is almost a $19.5 million gate. Springsteen's Pittsburgh sales won't be a quarter of that.
How is this even a question? A better comparison is 1 Taylor Swift show vs the Super Bowl. Do nosebleeds to the Super Bowl go for $1500/each? Maybe they do. But there are 40 Taylor Swift games to go to vs just 1 Super Bowl annually. This is right up there with the most popular tours in world history
Oh I have no doubt that if Taylor Swift did a one off tour date, just one show (like she plays one show in the US next year), in the same venue as the Super Bowl, the tickets for the Taylor Swift show would be more expensive and in more demand than Super Bowl tix. I don’t even think it would be close.
I have no doubt she could've played at least 2-3 more sell outs in a row just in Pittsburgh.
"If the current spending pace continues through the end of the tour, the Eras Tour will have generated an estimated $5 billion [US] in economic impact, more than the gross domestic product of 50 countries,"
She might personally reverse the dropping inflation numbers lol.
She's got 45 shows in the US on this current tour. All are at stadiums. All the ones that have happened already have sold out. All the ones remaining are sold out.
According to Billboard, the projected gross for the tour is expected to be approximately $591 million. For just 45 shows. Over $13 million gate per show on average.
For just 45 shows. That's insane.
BTW, $591 million would make it the 4th highest grossing tour in history, with 45 dates. The three higher grossing tours are the tour that Elton John is currently on, that has been running in one form or another since before the pandemic. It's played 309 dates. Second is Ed Sheeran's tour from 17 - 19. It played 255 dates. Third is U2's tour in 09 - 11. It played 110 dates. It will just beat out the Guns 'n' Roses tour that ran from 16 - 19 and played 158 dates.
The U2 tour had the highest attendance per show, 66,110. If Pittsburgh is any indication, Swift's tour is going to beat that number pretty easily.
2-3 more? She could have sold out every show in Pittsburgh playing every day for weeks/months. People would have come from all over. Its an incredible phenomenon that I cant keep wrap my head around.
I don't listen to very much modern music. I mean the "new" artists I do like are singer/songwriters who probably play for 250 people/night, on average. But my guess is she just the best of "what's out there." In the 80's, you had Prince, Madonna, Bruce, Michael Jackson, etc. at the top... the whole hair band genre was just coming into existence... the great bands of the 60's and 70's were still putting on great shows and still young... in addition to the up-and-coming pop (and other) acts that will always exist. I mean, there were so many choices. Now, I mean there's a reason why those bands from the 60's and 70's are still some of the top tickets. There just aren't many good ones out there. Seems like the big tickets are often drug-laden festival shows (which, to be fair, existed back in the day, also, albeit probably not as commonly) - not exactly family friendly or everyone's cup of tea.
I'm talking about if she stuck with her current tour schedule and played 5 shows in Pittsburgh before moving to another city.
She’s not untalented. But he singing, playing, lyrics, etc are a dime a dozen. Certainly nothing memorable or polarizing like the Beatles, Zep, MJ, Prince, Madonna, U2, etc.
Every generation or so someone emerges as The Act, particularly with the young girls, and this is the one for right now.
I think a couple things boost her massive concert appeal over similar ( or let’s face it, better) artists. The first is that this is one of the first really big mainstream tours that comes after the Pandemic officially fully was proclaimed ‘over’ (Chesney and the like that never really stopped during that time don’t count, their appeal is with Deplorables). Other big acts are out there too but they are mainly geezers who are past their prime and simply not appealing to the same (massively lucrative) demo.
The second is not her pedestrian music and awkward white-chick dancing, but her personal life niche. Mainly, she has turned the tables on ‘exploitive’ male pop stars; she sleeps around with many dudes (often minor celebrities too, so it makes news), she loves ‘em, leaves em (or makes it appear she was the one who left them) … then sings songs trashing em.
Big deal, Janis Joplin and others lived like that. BUT they were raunchy, repulsive to mainstream young girls. Madonna was closer, but a bit too nasty for comfort. However, Swift ACTS like a male rock star pig, but still LOOKS frilly, sequined and girly perpetual teenage girl ( despite now in mid 30s). So the trashy personal life appeals to 20-something sluts, yet it’s still fun for the 12 year old Suburban girls (and their mom, who may be a 30-something slut, that wants to look hot) to dress up like her.
It is perfect timing for the era where adult fans are determined to be the dirt bags now(but still HOTTIE dirt bags), for want of a more effete term. But the 12 year old girls want to be, well, 12 year old girls. That adds up to millions and millions. Ka Ching indeed.
Hey, I’m not knocking her, I tip my cap for her for capitalizing on this, and that’s a key word, a derivative of capitalism.
Plus one can actually sing, and the other doesn’t .
And it’s not Bruce
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