Pearl Jam - C or D?

Fun semi-humblebrag fact: Vedder was hanging at my friend's house here last week.

nice!!

Just listening to Dark Matter now. Reaffirms my belief that the only good PJ songs since Binaural are the uptempo rockers and anything midtempo/shuffly/swingy/ballady goes in one ear and out the other.

goddamn, $175 for nosebleeds in Sacramento

I WILL NOT BE TAKING QUESTIONS
or leaving my home for a year

why are the tix so expensive? i just don't get it.

also richard ashcroft is supporting in the UK, ugh (tho they are playing the Spurs stadium which is 10 minutes' walk from me)

Tickets everywhere for everything are fucking expensive.

I got a ticket to see Pearl Jam in Dublin this summer. 127 euro, which I've been told is cheap (nowadays maybe). It's the most I've ever spent on a concert ticket

basically the only tix that are affordable anymore are for underground metal shows, and even these are at prices that woulda made people wince like 20 years ago

"$30 for a death metal show?!!!"

I considered going to a jazz show that's happening tonight (Joshua Redman came to Montana!) but tickets were $60. Also it would mean being in a crowded room full of strangers and I'm still not doing that. I haven't been to a live show since February 2020.

seems like a pretty big difference between pearl jam gouging fans and working independent bands trying to survive in an era when playing shows is literally the only way to make any money

otm, yes, ticket prices are up but let's not conflate the two.

I'm somewhat heartened to see Pearl Jam seems to be getting some pretty significant blowback from fans over these prices, if reddit and other forums are anything to go by.

Old enough to remember this lol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR8Uook5Cq0

To be clear, there are so many factors right now that I don't think the ticket prices in 2024 are 100% Pearl Jam's fault. It's just jarring to see the costs given how much work they put into fighting the good fight back when.

Even Springsteen finally and unapologetically hiked ticket prices. But don't discount (no pun intended) the impact of scalpers and bots and secondary.

I also just generally don't think these kind of ticket prices are sustainable. I kind of understand the first major tour for big artists/bands since the pandemic, but I just don't see how it's going to hold up at this level long term when every major touring act is $150+ just to get in the door.

xxxxpost was anybody actually comparing the two? nobody I saw actually suggested independent bands were guilty of anything or even that the causality was the same.

The big ticket tours are now astronomically priced to where the average fan can't attend without putting it on a credit card or making monthly payments on it, and that's if they can even get through the flawed Ticketmaster queues. that's the biggest problem and the byproduct of an essential monopoly in the industry that has been allowed to continue unchecked, combined with Ticketmaster intentionally flipping fans the bird after their huge settlement by deliberately making the fees almost half the ticket cost.

my point about underground metal shows is they're affordable in that the average person can go to them, which is awesome, but that even some of these have ballooned in recent years, to where someone who went to 3 a month might be going to 1 a month now. that isn't the band's fault, that's just garden variety inflation, and not the industry-level dickery or outright gouging that some bands are complicit in.

In 1993 Pearl Jam played the exact venue that Coachella would eventually take place (I believe it was called "The Polo Fields at Indio" at the time?) as Ticketmaster had no domain over that venue and PJ sold ~25k tickets at $18 w/o the usual 30% TM fee.

Within a year, Ticketmaster had gained domain of that venue.

We've discussed this on ilx a lot, but the fundamental truth is as far as supply and demand goes, these bands by and large could probably price their tickets at whatever they want. There is only one Pearl Jam, there is only one Taylor Swift, there is only one Beyoncé, and so on, and they can all only play one show at a time. Finding a mere 20 or 50 or 70,000 people to pay high prices for those shows, that's actually not a particularly big lift. But yeah, even small club shows, $30 a ticket, plus fees, seems pretty common these days, if not low. Shit adds up.

and for bands that are struggling I expect increases to continue because touring overseas got way more expensive after the pandemic, some bands just outright can't afford to do it at all anymore. and many instances of bands showing up and having a band member detained and having visa denied because 'reasons'.

fortunately devoted fans in any scene often go to great lengths to hear the music they love. I remember being at some show (I think Nile maybe, or Venom Inc) where the guy behind me said "shit I shouldn't be here tonight, now I don't have rent money - oh well, landlord is gonna wait, i'm not missing this band." - hifive! though when you get to three digits it's harder. I think I paid almost $150 for Iron Maiden in 2022, but...worth it. even if I had to put it on Klarna

Pearl Jam one is bizarre because I saw them just under a decade ago and the prices, even for an arena tour, were nothing like this

Pertinent question, have you checked out tickets for Iron Maiden in 2024? Have they gone up in just 2 years?

The Cure proved you can successfully push back as an artist, so I'm giving side-eye to just about everyone now.

Someone in my work Slack is helping a friend sell a pair of tix for Kylie Minogue in Las Vegas; in addition to the ticket price, the venue imposes a $500 food/beverage minimum for the table – which I thought was pretty funny. (I looked it up, and turns out that's just for a 2-person table; the minimum escalates to $1,000 for four seats, and higher for more.)

On the other end of things, I saw that Matthew Sweet was coming to town, and tickets are $35, and ... that feels about right! But I bet he could have pitched a "Plays 'Girlfriend' In Its Entirety" concert and charged more.

well, it's finally happening. i just put on Pearl Jam. loving feeling like i'm in junior high again.

I like the new album much more than I expected to. still need to get to know it for a bit longer but so far so good!

I know all the attention is over at the Swift thread, but I was hoping to see VG's preliminary thoughts on this one, I'm cautiously optimistic now!

it's pretty good

I heard the single, or what must be the single, a few days ago in the car and had no idea it was them. It sounded like some sort of other alt rock song from the late '90s.

yeah the single was like the least-best song as it turns out

it's very 90's grunge sounding, and i love it

yeah they’re not reinventing the wheel really at all, just maybe leaning harder into what they’ve always done well ie melodic rock

This interview w Jeff Ament on his favorite bass players is pretty good

https://www.guitarworld.com/features/jeff-ament-11-bassists-who-shaped-my-sound

Faves on Dark Matter so far:
React, Respond
Won’t Tell
Setting Sun

the only one i don’t love & i feel SO mean for saying this is “Something Special” which is obviously for his/their daughters & i’m happy for all you dads but it’s a bit too campfire or something likr cant you put this on another ukulele album or something I KNOW I KNOW I AM MEAN I AM SORRY