Saturday, June 18th, 2011

Venue # 1: Yonge Dundas Square

This one was a no-brainer. The first half of the Yonge Dundas Square line-up is a real stunner, Cults (meh but tons of buzz), locals DD/MM/YYYY, DEVO (YES!.. DEVO!) Dirty Beaches, Gentleman Husbands are all GREAT and ….. it’s a FREE gig!

Venue # 2: The Great Hall

Look forward to Chad VanGaalen playing tracks off his latest release Diaper Island. The album is cohesive and full of delicate folk and upbeat moments. The Calgarian hasn’t forgot the lost art of lyricism either. Stay for Jennifer Castle.We haven’t heard too much from her yet, but she excites the hell out of us and we can’t wait to hear more.

Venue # 2:  Lee’s Palace

Twin Shadow is from Brooklyn, New York. If you haven’t heard of George Lewis Jr. already, think hazy-synth melodies and chill vocals. He has been on a festival whirl-wind this year playing Coachella, Bonnaroo and a ton of others events. Twin Shadow has also the opening act for Florence + The Machine on their latest tour.

Unique Events on Saturday:
Up for something adventurous? What about Ty Segall, Young Governor, Uncle Bad Touch and Jesuslesfilles ON A BOAT! Yep! Check out the Bruise Cruise presented by M for Montreal & Brooklyn Vegan. The Boat is leaving from 207 Queens Quay West, boarding at 1:30PM and it’s flippin’ free!

At 3PM there is a Red Bull Rooftop Party with DJ Valeo and DJ M-Rock, it’s also free! Email cora@popmontreal.com to RSVP!

Sunday, June 19th, 2011.

Sunday is a pretty quiet day with only a handful of shows. Tired? Hungover? We don’t care! GET YER PUS*Y A*S UP and go to the Launch Party for Static Zine at Sky Blue Sandwiches and Christie Pits.

Support local ‘zines! Let’s face it, everything in print is dying-out. Static Zine combines new-age social media w/ DIY cut-and-paste, launching only a week or two before NXNE. The event starts at Sky Blue Sandwiches at 2PM with a march to Christie Pits park with a great line-up, who the hell would wanna miss a rock ‘n’ roll picnic with Bravestation (in our top 5 fav. bands playing NXNE) and our very own TIMA winners, The Ruby Spirit? Notttt us!

Hungover yet? Hopefully not because you have 3 more days of awesome! Once again, our theme for this year’s NXNE is hear something you’ve never heard before! Here’s our list for Friday, June 17th:

Venue Pick #1: Wrongbar

There are a lot of great bands playing tonight, but we think the Wrongbar line-up is a stunner. If you like lo-fi and surfy art rock, you’ll be in your element. Trust us! The gig opens with the amazing Julianna Barwick, a solo songstress from Brooklyn, New York. Julianna integrates herself with technology and creates beautiful noise.

Odonis Odonis from Toronto are a stand-out, yet fit right in. “Mr. Smith” is an extraordinary distorted train wreck you can’t stop listening to. Seriously, we’ve played it on repeat 15 times.

PUJOL is catchy, noisy rock ‘n’ roll from Nashville, Tennessee. He’ll make you dance like Nashville never should.

Ty Segall looks like he’s cleaning up NXNE, with a ton of gigs. WHY? Surf rock ‘n’ roll from San Francisco, California with dynamic, well-written songs. It’s wonderful stuff, AND he’s man enough to co-write a song with his mama, awww.

Venue # 2: Yonge Dundas Square / Phoenix Concert Theater (Ok! We Cheated!)

If you don’t have surf-fever to the alarming degree that we do, check out Diamond Rings John O’Regan lead vocalist of ‘Urbervilles’ (now known as MATTERS) latest outfit. Sexxyy, androgynous pop with connects from Fucked Up to Robyn. See ‘em at Yonge and Dundas Square – why not? If you miss the gig, catch Diamond Rings again on Saturday at Wrongbar, midnight!

then run over to…. The Phoenix Concert Theater for some sweet punk rock!

Anti-Flag, Bouncing Souls, Junior Battles and The Flatliners, enough of a line-up to make your 14 year-old fuck-the-establishment-self swoon.

Honorable Mentions: Lee’s Palace (Dum Dum Girls),  Rivoli, Sneaky Dees

Look out for a ton of TIMA winners playing tonight: Romney Getty, Emma-Lee, Jadea Kelly, MAGNOLIUS, Dave Borins (multi-nominee).

So friends, our theme for NXNE this year is see something you haven’t seen before! We have 2 venue picks for Thursday, June 16th for you. We were looking for SOLID line-ups (to avoid venue jumping) and we also tried to pick cool venues with bands that didn’t play CMW, or bands we haven’t seen gig around Toronto.

VENUE PICK #1: Lee’s Palace

Lee’s opens with Chris Velan a singer-songwriter with teeth from Montreal, Quebec. If you miss him, he’s playing Friday and Saturday as well. The bill just keeps getting better with Evan Dado & Juliana Hatfield, two nineties nigh-legends now sharing a stage, cult Lemonheads frontman Dando and Blake Babies and Some Girls’ Hatfield duet each others classic songs.

KEVIN SECONDS

Singer of hardcore band 7 Seconds gone acoustic singer-songwriter? Could it be? I didn’t want to like Kevin Seconds.. but it’s legit and all the way Sacramento, California. NXNE said it best, think Billy Bragg

LOWER DENS

Lower dens are from Baltimore, MD. There is lots of buzz surrounding this band. First thing I heard when I played this record was MUSTANG… and oooohhh gosh I love Mustangs. You’re hit with a beautiful wave of distinct, single coil noise accompanied by whispy specter-like vocals. Check them out!

WASHINGTON

Don’t be fooled by the name! Washington are from Melbourne, Australia. Wanna talk about guilt-free pop? THIS IS IT! Think American Apparel and a 50′s Diner. As soon as I heard this band I became an instant fan. If you didn’t catch them last night, they are playing the Verge (XM) rooftop party today at 4:30PM (private) and Lee’s at 10PM. See ‘em now because we think Washington is going to be a huge star.

Venue Pick #2: Yonge Dundas Square

DESCENDENTS! FUCKED UP!… Fucked Up en plein air at 8PM! Do I need to say more? Ok ok, I will – Mettz, OFF! and Rusty. Just go, you won’t regret it. If you miss Fucked Up at the square, they are also playing Wrongbar at 1AM.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: The Boat (Bravestation and Cavalier) and The Garrison!

I planned to see a lot of concerts this summer.  I see a lot of bands every summer, but this summer is particularly important. It’s my last summer of freedom before entering the working world F O R E V E R and having to get a real job.

NOOO!!! Why?! NOOO!!!

So, I look to see what concerts are coming up in LA. I see a few I’d like to check out and…………… BOOM. Ticketmaster SHITS on my awesome concert summer fun time.

Most major label promoters use Ticketmaster. Lets be honest, their are few Ticketmaster competitors. If you want to debate about whether Ticketmaster has a monopoly, read the antitrust suit between Pearl Jam v. Ticketmaster – I’m not going to talk about it here. Y U SO BORING?

Everyone blames Ticketmaster, but there are BIGGER culprits – like the bands, promoters and labels you know and love.

I keep reading this statistic online from the Rasmussen Report that says 70% of Americans think concert ticket prices are too high and only 35% have attended a live concert in the past year. I don’t know if the stats are accurate (because its the interwebs) but, who knows! The stats wouldn’t surprise me.

You might wonder, as I often have recently – why are ticket prices so ridiculously high? Who comes up with the ticket price? Where is all this money we pay going? What are people smoking when they decide to buy these tickets? Where can I get some?…….. I digress,

Well, look what I found for you!! (and me, probably mostly me)

For more cool stats, visit this site click.

To make it even easier, I’ve broken the anatomy of a ticket down into 3 major components (4 if you include tax):

1. TAX:
Tax approx. 5% ok – unavoidable, the government is gonna tax your life.

2. TALENT FEES:

Typically,  “talent fees” work like this: Scenario 1 - a promoter will secure an act (music, artist, whatever) and the promoter will pay the act upfront (this is called a “guarantee”). In this scenario, the act will not get a percentage of ticket sales.

Scenario 2 -  promoters will offset the upfront charge/”guarantee” to the consumer who pays a “talent fee” as part of the ticket purchase price.

That means, if you buy 4X tickets to see the Backstreet Boys and New Kids on The Block this summer, you are paying the “talent fee” FOUR TIMES, instead of just once. (That makes sense? Right? NOOO wtf!?).

3. SHOW COSTS:

Honestly, I am not sure who collects from the show costs. I think it’s based on the details of the contract between the band/promoter/venue/unions.  Often musicians put on their own production entirely and hire union workers. One thing is certain though, big concerts are EXPENSIVE. Very EXPENSIVE. Chris Brown light shows and P!nk hanging from the sky isn’t cheap.

4. SERVICE FEES:
According to the ever-accurate Wikipedia, Ticketmaster does not make any money on the advertised ticket price. They make their dough on ticketing fees. So if you believe that, Ticketmaster’s service fees are $14.

SPECULATION *skip if you want:
There is some speculation* (and I say speculation because I’m really not sure how true any of this information is) that Ticketmaster pays a fee to venues or promoters for every ticket sold. This is called “promoter profit.” Why would they do this? Some people say they do this to secure long-term relationships with promoters and venues. However, in today’s market, paying third-party promoters doesn’t really make sense, especially considering that Live Nation (big promoter for many acts) merged with Ticketmaster in 2010. (Legally, mind you). Live Nation also owns House of Blues (big concert venues all over North America). If Live Nation is the venue, promoter and ticket seller why would they pay out to a third-party promoter?  It doesn’t make sense!

Also, there is some speculation that a certain percentage of tickets are set aside for a third party to sell once the concert “sells-out.” The third party could be the promoter or even the artist themselves! Once tickets sell-out online, the third party goes out and sells/scalps their own tickets by them to the public at an inflated cost. This is still speculation in my opinion because I haven’t heard of anyone getting caught for doing it. BUT if this is indeed occurring, it is the acts fault and the promoters fault. That’s what contracts are for!

ANYWAY, speculation aside – we have two things outside ticket service fees that make up a huge chunk of ticket prices: Talent Fees and Show Costs.

Back to a few of my points: I think that a lot of people don’t realize how ridiculously expensive it is for P!nk to hang from the rafters, for Madonna to have those ridic. screens that pop up Justin Timberlake during her shows and so on… Expect to pay more if you want to see that kind of show.

Ask yourself, do we really need that kind of spectacle?

I’ve seen P!nk live so close I could touch her with no frills and just a backing band. Trust me, she doesn’t need the circus act to blow you away. Dave Matthews band sells-out tours all over and keeps ticket prices relatively low compared to other top-selling concerts. Don’t believe me? Read this. How does Dave Matthews afford to do this? No-frills shows.

What can bands do to minimize ticket prices?
To minimize ticket prices, bands can play less expensive venues or smaller stadiums. Bands can play more shows in one area and peripheral cities along with main cities!

Bands can lower their “talent fees” and can ask for less of a guarantee. They can demand that their promoter or venue put a max on service fees that are allocated to the promoter or venue! (This can be done via contract).

Why aren’t bands doing these things right now? Because WE are VOLUNTARILY PAYING a ridiculous amount for tickets!

Supply / Demand, Supply / Demand.. Supply (Greed) / Demand!

CASE-IN-POINT: COACHELLA
This brings me to Coachella. If you haven’t heard, Coachella has added another weekend to their event (**cough** GREED **cough**). I recently read (from people like Bob Lefsetz) that music critics DON’T think Coachella is even about the bands anymore. Some music critics are saying that people pay ridiculous amounts for passes because of the “EXPERIENCE” of Coachella, click here for an example.

NO! No one wants to be in the dry desert-like heat (so hot you can’t get drunk because you sweat out all the beer you drink), camping with little access to necessity, in the DIRT/dust to try to see bands over a sea of fans and SOME TALL DUDE who.just.won’t.move.

Coachella 2011

Coachella 2011 VACAY!

Music fans go to Coachella because instead of paying $50-100+ bucks per ticket to see bands like Foster The People once, they can pay a couple hundred bucks to go to Coachella and see ALL THE BANDS THEY WANT IN ONE PLACE.  Us music fans think we are SAVING MONEY!

Our problem, as consumers, is thinking that $100 bucks to see a band like Foster The People is normal. It’s NOT normal. Remember when shows were like $15 bucks!? I do, and it was happy summer fun concert time. Instead, we have bands with one EP release selling tix for $50-100 bucks and Coachella profiting off our hard earned money for TWO weekends!

In sum,  maybe we can blame Ticketmaster when Live Nation, which now has a record label (with Lady Gaga, Madonna, Jay-Z and our very own Canadian embarrassment, Nickleback) signs all of the great bands and each band has a ridiculous “talent fee.” Ticketmaster competitors are even popping up, the man who built Ticketmaster is now set to create a competing company… but until then we can only point the finger at ourselves if we do nothing.

So tell the majors you will NOT pay $100+ bucks per ticket to see them! Write letters, e-mail your favorite bands. Hassle their label and booking agents. Tell them they need to make ticket prices more affordable and find other ways to make up the profit margin lost from CD sales.

Raise your fist and ***Shakkkkeeee*** it and DONT buy $100+ dollar tickets to see Ke$ha, just DON’T do It!

Cheers,

Daniela Oliva, Executive Producer