By: Zach Brendza | Features Editor
Brand New sells out
The New Jersey four piece made waves last week when they announced four shows, two on the East Coast and two on the West Coast, in December. At each show, Brand New will play two previous albums in full, including B-sides, unreleased songs from the albums.
Tickets were sold for around $32 and sold out almost immediately, only to have listings on Craigslist and StubHub being massively scalped, with tickets for one of the shows going for $1500 on StubHub.
In some cases, fans have called out scalpers, only to have scalpers placing fake ads claiming to sell tickets with the fans’ numbers, creating a vicious cycle of a scalping war.
The increasing presence of scalpers on sites like StubHub is sickening. It’s one thing to sell tickets that you cannot use, but it a completely different to sell tickets in order to make a profit, People will pay to see their favorite bands play and that’s where the problem lies. There’s a demand for these tickets and scalpers pounce on them when they go on sale.
It’s supply and demand and the worst example of it.
The concert world is going to hell and StubHub is our one-way ticket supplier.
Stevie Nicks, Witch
“Landslide” is the greatest sad song ever created. That just goes without saying.
But Fleetwood Mac frontwoman Stevie Nicks continues to build her empire today. After the 1975 hit, they released a new DVD, In Your Dreams, on Dec. 3, a documentary detailing the creation of Nicks’s 2011 album of the same name.
Exciting in its own right, even more exciting for fans is that Nicks will guest star on the enchantingly popular show American Horror Story: Coven, announced last week by creator Ryan Murphy.
Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon” and “Edge of Seventeen” have been featured on the FX show and character Misty Day, a lone wolf sort of witch, has an obsession with Nicks and her music in the show.
No date has been given yet for Nicks’s guest appearance, so keep an eye out. Here’s to hoping for a duet with Fiona Goode (Jessica Lange) and Nicks.
If both survive the episode.
Famous stuff
Whether it’s a guitar pick thrown into a concert crowd or a personally used item by a musician, fans go wild for possessions of their musical idols.
Most recently, former Joy Division singer Ian Curtis’s kitchen table was sold on eBay in the UK for £8,400 (around $13,000 in the U.S.). The table, which was in the kitchen where Curtis hanged himself in May 1980, has been sold previously. This time, Curtis’s wife, Deborah and daughter, Natalie are getting tied up in the situation, with the seller citing authenticity claimed via e-mail from the widower.
Curtis’s family wants nothing to do with the table, and they along with former Joy Division band members have released a statement voicing this.
While this situation is more of an odd case, it brings up a point of why an item is more valuable due to its owner (i.e. musicians of celebrities).
I understand that many idolize their favorite performers, but a line needs to be drawn between collecting and obsession. Owning a guitar played by a member of your favorite band is one thing. But owning a table which resided in the same room where your idol killed themself is quite another.
Fans, don’t go overboard with owning memorabilia. Although they are great at what they do, musicians are not deities.
As much as you may think. Or they lead on.
What’s Out This Week:
Chris Brown – X
Polar Bear Club – Death Chorus
Reggie and The Full Effect – No Country For Old Musicians
-All albums released Nov. 19
On the horizon:
11/25 – Lamb of God & Killswitch Engage w/ Testament and Huntress @ Stage AE
11/29 – Vanessa Carlton @ Club Cafe
12/1 – twenty one pilots w/ Smallpools and Sirah @ Stage AE
12/2 – MGMT w/ Kuroma @ Stage AE
12/6 – Anthony Green w/ Dave Davison (Maps & Atlases) and Psychic Babble @ Mr. Small’s
12/6 – Norma Jean w/ Vanna, Kenmode, The Greenery, Shes In Pain and Correlations @ Altar Bar
12/7 – Max Bemis w/ Matt Pryor, Sherri Dupree-Bemis, Perma and Merriment @ Stage AE
Just announced:
1/30 – Yellowcard ‘Ocean Avenue Acoustic’ w/ What’s Eating Gilbert @ Altar Bar
2/21 – Rick Springfield @ Carnegie Library Music Hall (Homestead)
3/12 – Arcade Fire @ Consol Energy Center