Make It Easier To Be A Fan: A Rant

So its been shaping up to be a pretty busy and expensive concert calendar this year. I don’t know about you, but I’m seeing at least five to six shows in the next two months, a couple of them power metal bands (Kamelot in May, Hammerfall in June). A few weeks ago, Iced Earth played here at the House of Blues for a weeknight show that got moved from the usual big room down to something the venue referred to as “The Bronze Peacock”, their tiny room for smaller shows (172 people max allowed). I never thought House of Blues would chance having a metal show in there, so close to all the civilized patrons dining in the next room, but apparently a dire situation of low ticket sales (rumored at a little over 100 for pre-sales) was the motivating factor. As an aside, I didn’t understand just leaving the show as is in the big room, given that the decision was made on short notice and no one else was going to be performing in there that night, but whatever. More pressing was the stark reality that Iced Earth had such shockingly low ticket sales and overall attendance, but to me it served as a microcosm for an ongoing problem in the small scale metal touring world that should concern all of us as fans.

 

I had planned to go to that show, but whereas I had bought advance tickets for all the other shows on my concert calendar, I skipped grabbing one for Iced Earth. It was to be a game time decision, based on whether or not I could get a few friends to go with to make an outing of it, and my general level of enthusiasm as well. The bill wasn’t all that exciting to be honest, with only Sanctuary on their Warrel Dane tribute tour and relative unknowns Kill Ritual as openers. The last time I saw Iced Earth in that venue was in 2012, when they pulled in a huge crowd doing a co-headlining jaunt with Symphony X and an up and coming Warbringer. It was fun, an “event” type of show that pulls in the dusty fans who rarely stray outside their own neighborhood, their concert days slowly fading into memory. Iced Earth would return again a few years later with Sabaton and Floor Jansen’s ReVamp as support, and the combination of enthusiasm for the headliners was nearly matched by the ever growing love for Sabaton in Texas (they are big down here, more on that later), it was at a smaller venue but the place was impressively packed and giddy, especially considering it was a Monday night. That was in 2014, only four years ago when Iced Earth was touring on the relatively weak Plagues of Babylon album too —- so what in the world was going on with the low attendance on the band’s tour stop here promoting a far more well received album in Incorruptible? Word on social media was that the same thing happened at a few more dates on the trek, signaling that the Houston show was far from an isolated instance.

 

 

But hey, Iced Earth is a trad/power metal band, and Houston and Texas in general is pretty solidly death metal country right? Something like this was perhaps bound to happen. In fact I remember the days when the very idea that a power metal band of any stripe would play in Houston seemed like a cruel joke —- indeed, the first major one to really entice us was Blind Guardian on their 2002 trek supporting A Night At the Opera, but sadly forces conspired to bungle that one right out of our hands on the day before Thanksgiving. Of course other bands in the genre had tested out the H-town waters before, most notably Iced Earth themselves in 1999 who cobbled together a small handful of fans at the same ill-fated club that their German brethren would have to cancel at three years later (for the record, it was the venue’s fault). But when Iced Earth finally returned to Houston in 2004 after a half decade long wait (and most of our first times regardless), they brought Children of Bodom and Hypocrisy in tow to the Engine Room, a converted warehouse downtown where damn near a thousand metalheads showed up. The venue held 800 uncomfortably, 900 if you didn’t mind not breathing, and while I was told by the door guy later that nearly a hundred walk-ups were rejected at the door for fear of violating fire code, it certainly felt like everyone who showed up was in that venue.

 

It was the tail end of the golden age of power metal, and Ripper Owens being in the band’s lineup certainly turned some heads, but Iced Earth had also released two back to back excellent records, and to add fuel to the fire, Children of Bodom were blowing up big too. I remember seeing Alexi Laiho mobbed in a circle of fans after the show when he was just trying to enjoy a smoke outside the bus, the members of Iced Earth taking the opportunity of distraction to slip into their own bus almost unnoticed. Exhausted and sweat drenched, I stood there dumbly gazing at the mob surrounding him, all eager to get their copy of Hatecrew Deathroll or Follow the Reaper signed and maybe grab a picture. They should’ve been there earlier during soundcheck around 3pm when he was stumbling around outside hungover and ran into me and two other guys who showed up obscenely early, talking to us and asking if we knew where he could buy some smokes around the area. I remember earlier in the day, before the doors opened, glancing down the line of metalheads that stretched on and on for a ridiculous number of blocks, my mind blown that this many people loved the same underground music I loved, and that Houston was apparently primed to be a hotbed for trad and power metal bands to get down here asap.

 

 

It didn’t exactly work out that way. Oh we had some big shows through the years —- Dragonforce in 2006 at the Meridian drew almost as many as Iced Earth (pre – “Through the Fire and Flames” blowing up even), where somehow my friends and I wound up in the lounge backstage watching ZP Theart and Herman Li trying to lure all too witting women back to their tour bus (it was more amusing than impressive, like Motley Crue without the roadies to do their corralling for them). They had a nascent but buzz worthy Between the Buried and Me with them, who won over the crowd easily. Kamelot with Roy Khan would storm that same venue one year later with Leaves Eyes in tow (hot off the success of the Vinland Saga) and drew an eye raising amount of people for an unforgettable show, the band at the peak of their powers and riding high off the momentum of The Black Halo and Ghost Opera. Nightwish post-Tarja also landed a month later with Paradise Lost and sold the place out with a ton of fans arriving from Mexico for a chance to see the band in a small club setting. But largely speaking, power metal avoided Houston like the plague for most of that decade, the European bands often skipping North America altogether or having disappointing debut tours (Therion and Edguy come to mind immediately here).

 

Around 2010, we started to notice some big power metal names popping up here a little more often —- Blind Guardian was back (they were here in 06′ playing a makeup date as well), Sonata Arctica and Epica came down, and even the odd Primal Fear and Hammerfall gig occurred. A lot of testing the waters. And in 2011 we had one of the biggest club shows in recent memory, with Sabaton supporting Accept at the Scout Bar with a crowd as dense as I can remember. I mention Sabaton first because it would be the opening salvo into six trips to H-town over the next six years, part of the band’s relentless push to break the United States. They made an impact that night with their infectious enthusiasm and humor, but when they came back to town headlining with only Alestorm and Powerglove as support months later, only about a hundred of us showed up to go nuts. I drove out to see them a year or so later in San Antonio for the opening show of their Carolus Rex world tour, the first with their new line-up, and once again it was about a hundred fans in attendance. Sabaton are great sports though, they play every show as if there’s thousands in the crowd, and that translated to an excellent reception, but they learned an important lesson. Even the best received live bands need to be a part of a killer package to sell tickets.

 

 

Sabaton ceased touring the States by themselves or with under powered touring partners, and in following up their 2014 trek supporting Iced Earth, they paired up with Nightwish a year later with Delain as support. It was three bands that would draw a fair amount of fans on their own pulling in a huge crowd together at a spacious downtown venue. When Sabaton returned a year later as a headliner, they brought along Delain and Battle Beast as support, and according my MSRcast co-host Cary it was so packed as to be downright uncomfortable, with no space to move among the biggest crowd that could possibly fit in the Scout Bar. They repeated the formula on last year’s tour as well, this time pairing up with Kreator for a co-headlining run with newcomers Cyhra as support —- the former coming off the success of sharing a headlining slot with Obituary and the latter drawing a few fans who were interested in what Jesper Stromblad was doing these days. I’m focusing a lot on Sabaton here for what I think should be an obvious reason: They’re the most successful power metal band in the United States since Dragonforce in the mid-aughts. Their success should be the model for other bands (particularly power metal bands) to follow when touring the United States, but clearly that isn’t happening. I’m at a loss as to why.

 

Look I get logistics. Every band has a different schedule, perhaps the availability of band members is limited due to day jobs or other musical activities. It could be an album release date affecting the timing of when a band will tour, or even more obscure details like radius or recency clauses. But in this over saturated touring market, metal bands need to be doing everything in their power to team up with other bands to create can’t miss live packages. The upcoming Hammerfall date in Houston with only Flotsam and Jetsam as support won’t draw as many fans as their co-headlining stop here a year ago with Delain, that’s nearly guaranteed. Half the crowd at last year’s show was wearing Delain t-shirts, and while I’d love to be proven wrong, I just don’t see it happening. It begs the question of why we couldn’t see an Iced Earth/Hammerfall co-headlining run (and sure, bring Flotsam along as support, that’d be a great bill)! I would’ve suggested a Kamelot/Iced Earth pairing, but Kamelot’s already been one step ahead, making their upcoming US run with who else but Delain and Battle Beast as direct support. They paired up with Dragonforce the last time I saw them, they’ve been all over this stacked bill approach for years now. The Kamelot/Delain show will be at the House of Blues, the very same venue Iced Earth got demoted at, and I’ll eat my words if this show gets the same treatment.

 

 

Booking agencies are failing their clients, and bands need to start taking matters into their own hands via direct communication with their peers to make sure their tours are attractive enough to get fans out of their houses on a weeknight. I knew a few people who went to the Iced Earth show (MSRcast Cary was one of them), but I know a handful of friends who decided to pass on it, and when asked why they replied with a litany of reasons —- they’d already seen the band before, the lineup wasn’t exciting, and there were too many other shows coming up to pay for. When I asked them if they’d have showed up to an Iced Earth / Hammerfall billing, the answer was a definitive yes. What more market research do you need? I myself passed on the Iced Earth show, and I’ll be honest, I felt a little guilty about it at first. I consider myself a champion of power metal in the States, particularly in a place like Texas where its not exactly beloved, but its increasingly harder to do everything a good fan does. You want to support bands by buying the albums, buying tickets to shows and even buying a t-shirt or a hoodie, sometimes you can’t do all three so you pick one and try to make good. But there’s only so much of a paycheck that can’t be diverted from bills and groceries, and bands need to realize that and begin attempting to make it easier on their fan bases.

 

I focused on power metal in my little rant here, but I’m seeing the same problem with various national death metal tours coming through town… its stupid that some of these bands aren’t pairing up together to share costs and pull in more people. Are they worried that pairing up will limit their merch sales per night? If I were a band, I’d rather gamble on selling more merch to a bigger audience pool in a stacked bill than gambling on a fewer number of my die-hards ponying up as a solo headliner. More bands on a bill might mean a smaller guarantee per band, we can acknowledge that. But that guarantee will get slashed if the show undersells on tickets anyway, particularly if the bar sales crash that night —- why chance that? Put together bills and touring packages that are must attend events, the kinds that people will remember for years to come. My most memorable shows were always stacked bills, whether it was Judas Priest/Heaven and Hell/Motorhead/Testament, or In Flames/Nevermore/Shadows Fall, or Maiden/Dio/Motorhead. There are loads more. I have memories from those shows that are seared forever, but I’ve forgotten tons more that weren’t as glorious. My advice to bands works on both fronts, to make it easier for your fans to be fans, and to combat over saturation in the same go. I’d hate to see bands write off certain markets just due to low ticket sales from an underwhelming bill or over loaded concert calendar. We want you all to keep coming back.

 

8 Comments

  1. iWerewolf
    March 27, 2018

    I went to the Iced Earth/Sabaton/Revamp tour when it stopped in Orlando – there weren’t a whole hell of a lot of people at that one either. Not entirely sure why, especially since Iced Earth at the very least started out in Florida. You’d think they’d attract more people in their home state. Was a great show, mind you, but I feel like about the same amount of people showed up to that one as the Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody/Primal Fear show I went to at a bar. I wonder if Iced Earth’s just had trouble getting big crowds lately, which would be a shame since “Incorruptible” is their best since at least “The Horror Show”.

    It probably is a good idea for these bands to do big package tours, especially since they tend to have trouble touring in the states since this kind of music isn’t exactly huge here. It’s not like in Europe at least, where there are huge metal festivals all the time. I now live in Oregon, two hours from Portland – I need a lot more motivation to get my ass to a show now since good shows don’t happen nearly as often in Eugene. Last big show I went to in Eugene was Primus back in August.

    Now, if that Kamelot/Battle Beast/Delain show were going to Portland, I’d already have tickets, buuut…

    Reply
    1. The Metal Pigeon
      March 28, 2018

      I guess it really is a crap shoot sometimes. But all the more reason for bands to package up together in order to do everything in their power to draw as many fans as possible. I personally know six metal fans who like Iced Earth (not including myself) who skipped out on that show a few weeks ago. They have to address that for the future.

      Reply
  2. Morroweird (@michrzesz)
    March 28, 2018

    Well, it’s good to have a star-packed lineup, but on the other hand more than two headliner-level acts and the sets start to feel abbreviated. With Iced Earth I’d rather have an ‘evening with’ type of deal.

    Reply
    1. The Metal Pigeon
      March 29, 2018

      Yeah I think its another thing entirely if the one and only big band on the bill (or the only band period) plays a longer, 2 hour plus set. Most headliners do an hour and a half tops, some less than that. I guess it depends on how you value one band over the other…. maybe I’ve seen Iced Earth too many times for an evening with scenario to be worth it (also to point out, they didn’t do that on this tour). My preference is co-headlining tours with a solid support act, the Sabaton/Kreator/Cyhra bill being a recent model. Bang for your buck type thing.

      Reply
      1. rpeters95
        March 30, 2018

        I can agree with that. I don’t like it when headliner sets are condensed too much, but I still would love to get a good bang for my buck. I don’t even mind buying too much merch at shows like that because I know I’d buy merch at individual shows. I plan for stuff like this in advance anyhow – last August I saw Gaga and didn’t buy merch because I wasn’t crazy about any of it and I knew I’d get some Epica and Lacuna Coil stuff in a few weeks. I just hate having too many supporting acts to sit through. But, this is because my musical tastes are very eclectic and I often only care about one or two bands present at a given show. My least favorite kind of surprise happened when I saw Epica and Lacuna Coil. The full set was supposed to consist of Elantris (up-and-coming, initially promising but I wasn’t impressed by their live set whatsoever), Insomnium, Lacuna Coil, and Epica, but of course an extra local band was thrown in at the beginning. I have to sit through it all because I’m short and don’t want to lose a good spot at GA venues.

        Reply
  3. Melodies of Metal
    April 14, 2018

    So much goes into setting up a tour… Bands need to have the same agency to tour together, they need to get along fairly well (I highly doubt we will ever see The Agonist opening for Arch Enemy), and you also have to keep in mind opening acts sometimes have to pay to be part of the tour (on top of all the touring expenses). The market is becoming very difficult and indeed something needs to be done before the live music market shoots itself in the foot.

    Reply
    1. The Metal Pigeon
      April 14, 2018

      Absolutely, and I didn’t want to dismiss those logistical details out of hand, because yeah sometimes bands just have a certain amount of buy on money to decide what to do with. But I think my message is more directed at everyone, headliners and openers included —- if adding a band to a bill could make it a more attractive ticket and get more fans through the door, then maybe accomplishing that should be a bigger priority than anything else. Whether that means the bands sharing a bus, sharing a trailer, reducing the buy on cost for a tour or simply aiming for smaller venues if like the Iced Earth situation, the proposed tour has a small chance of filling up those larger venues. Its a complex issue, no doubt, and there’s no one size fits all answer, but when bands are wondering why fans are passing on seeing them live, they need to consider all the reasons.

      Reply
      1. Melodies of Metal
        May 6, 2018

        I completely agree, bands are struggling to fill venues, and the industry of music needs to do something about it. I feel like bands are often left to manage a lot but don’t have the right tools so they loose opportunities : not everyone is a community manager, so often musicians are good at music but not at dealing with the music business. I’ve just discovered a french prog metal band that has been active since… 1992, and had only starting hearing from them a few months ago ! I think the industry needs to do their job and let the musicians be musicians. And indeed, they need to listen to the fans and set up shows that make sense !

        Reply

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