Summer is almost over, and it probably can’t end soon enough for concert promoters doing business in Idaho.
After an encouraging start, ticket sales have hit the skids.
Last month’s Mötley Crüe/Poison show at the Idaho Center underperformed big time — particularly for a Saturday night.
The same goes for the Def Leppard show this Saturday. Organizers appear to be somewhere between “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak” and flat-out “Hysteria.”
First, ticket prices were discounted to $27 for Def Leppard. Then came an almost pleading $10 offer. It almost makes you want to go even if you didn’t graduate from high school in 1987.
“I gotta tell you, tickets are just not moving right now,” says Craig Baltzer, general manager of the Idaho Center.
He’s not just talking about Def Leppard or the Idaho Center, either: “I mean the whole market.”
Even comedian Bill Cosby’s early show Oct. 8 at the Morrison Center has been canceled (although no reason had been given at press time.)
Creston Thornton, owner of Land of Rock/CTTouring — which produces Eagle River Pavilion’s concert series — says a noticeable slowdown began in late July or early August. That’s right around the time Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S. credit rating, causing the stock market to go haywire.
When that happens, “a lot of people feel like they don’t have a lot of money to spend,” Thornton says. “They just get worried again. I think everyone’s concerned we’re heading into a second recession.”
Misery loves company, so naturally the pain isn’t limited to Boise. Lots of secondary markets — especially in the Northwest — are feeling the concert-ticket pinch, he says.
The bad news: Booking agents may get scared away from Boise, meaning fewer acts come here.
The good news: Ticket-buying seems to be cyclical. After a bad year, or even an ugly several months, things tend to pick up.
“2010 ended up not being a bad year for us,” Baltzer remembers, “which was shocking after 2009.”
With fall around the corner, prime concert season is ending, anyway.
Eagle River Pavilion does have two potentially excellent shows for fans to cap its season: Michael McDonald/Boz Scaggs on Sunday and the Flaming Lips — which could be the live experience of the summer — on Monday.
Indoor arenas are gearing up for alternative programming. Highlights coming at the Idaho Center include the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus (story, 24), EnduroCross on Oct. 22 and a supposed Boise State vs. University of Idaho basketball game New Year’s Eve. (Neutral site? Not exactly.)
Just don’t keep your eyes peeled for many major concerts. (Although Trans-Siberian Orchestra will stare down the slowdown by offering two shows Nov. 23 at Taco Bell Arena.
“Personally — and I have to think this way — I think this is a temporary wall,” Baltzer says. “It will pick up and move again.”
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
• “Tour’s been great! Just really busy,” admits Trevor Powers, the mastermind behind Boise indie-pop act Youth Lagoon.
With Youth Lagoon’s debut album slated to hit stores Sept. 27, Powers is on the road visiting ... well, let’s see: Between now and Tuesday, he hits Columbia, Mo., then west to Denver, then east to Ames, Iowa?
Amid the crazy tour routing, Youth Lagoon recently managed to premiere a video for the song “Montana” on Pitchfork.com.
Youth Lagoon doesn’t appear in the video. But the music serves as a haunting soundtrack to a moving mini-movie directed by local filmmaker Tyler T Williams and starring Vallivue drama teacher Tim Pakutka. Watch it on my “Words & Deeds” blog.
• Also on the blog, I’m tossing out a few pairs of free tickets to the Michael McDonald/Boz Scaggs and Flaming Lips concerts.
An email trivia contest has been going on most of this week and ends at 10 a.m. Sept. 16. I’ll also hand out tickets to Twitter followers between noon and 5 p.m. that same day. Somebody has to win — might as well be you.
Michael Deeds co-hosts “The Other Studio” at 9 p.m. Sundays on 94.9 FM The River. He appears Thursdays on Channel 6 News. Follow him on Twitter: @IDS_Deeds
