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Rising Fuel Prices Make the Road Even Rockier for Bands


Jahfin

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Traveling from town to town and playing for an audience is the lifeblood of any musician. It’s a calling that has transcended centuries, generations and styles. But it’s imperiled by the rising price of gasoline.

“We drove from Omaha to Madison to play a show and it cost us $240,” said Matt Maginn, bassist for the Omaha indie-rock band Cursive. “My jaw just about hit the floor. That’s double what it cost us before. If you’re a new band driving cross-country in a van pulling a trailer of equipment that’s getting six miles a gallon, and you’re getting paid 50 or 75 bucks to play a gig, I don’t know how you survive.”

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It's a great time to be an established band, cutting out the record companies and reinvesting what they need into promotion, but who is going to develop acts? Bands will find it difficult to DIY if fuel costs keep rising.

We've entered an interesting era in music.

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We've entered an interesting era in music.

The future is in immersive 3D cinema broadcasting of live concerts. Anyone that's seen U2:3D (the U2 concert film) will know what I'm talking about.

Of course, someone would have to set up a performing/broadcasting studio in every major town/city, and receiving venues would have to kit themselves out with giant IMAX screens. But other than that, it's definitely the way forward.

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There's also the possibility of "holographic" touring, which you can read more about here.

I saw U23D but don't really think it was an effort to replace a live appearance. Even it were to catch on, neither that (3-D/IMAX) or holographics would ever come close to replacing the real thing. Maybe to a generation raised on video games but not to those of us accustomed to the magic of an actual live performance.

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There's also the possibility of "holographic" touring, which you can read more about here.

I saw U23D but don't really think it was an effort to replace a live appearance. Even it were to catch on, neither that (3-D/IMAX) or holographics would ever come close to replacing the real thing. Maybe to a generation raised on video games but not to those of us accustomed to the magic of an actual live performance.

I'm part of the video game generation, and I see where you're going. 3D would be great for things like TSRTS, because that can't be recreated. However, I'd much rather go to a real show. I've only been to one concert, but it was so much fun, I don't think that can be recreated in a cinema.

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Even it were to catch on, neither that (3-D/IMAX) or holographics would ever come close to replacing the real thing. Maybe to a generation raised on video games but not to those of us accustomed to the magic of an actual live performance.

That's for damn sure! Nothing wrong with enjoying a live transmission or recorded show, but that's not an event to cherish.

I have no worries, though. The Hot Tuna boys have their own concert hall at the Fur Peace Ranch guitar camp in Ohio, where they have increasingly done shows with the other instructors there. I just received a couple CD'S from one of their students, with the likes of G.E. Smith and Pete Sears jamming with them there. I can always go to them if they stop touring.

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I admit to ducking a few times during U23D but that's about as "real" as it got. To paraphrase Bono, it was definitely nothing like the real thing.

Speaking of video games, I guess I'm part of that generation as well since I had an early version of Pong back in the 70s (I think it was called Odyssey made by Sears) but I never became a video game enthusiast (except for a very brief time when I became addicted to the Mario Brothers game in the early 90s).

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Traveling from town to town and playing for an audience is the lifeblood of any musician. It’s a calling that has transcended centuries, generations and styles. But it’s imperiled by the rising price of gasoline.

It's a great time to be an established band, cutting out the record companies and reinvesting what they need into promotion, but who is going to develop acts? Bands will find it difficult to DIY if fuel costs keep rising.

We've entered an interesting era in music.

It sounds as if it is almost the (sad) end to an era that lasted, as you note, for centuries. For all of the established bands like LZ, the Stones, and the Who that my husband and I saw in our youth, we also saw dozens of other new bands - some of whom made it and some of whom didn't, in small and remote venues. We've always encouraged our children (when they were old enough) to discover new bands and new music and to visit music clubs (and not just huge venues). If gas prices stay high (and climb higher still), I wonder what the impact will be, not only on new and unestablished bands, but also on the more geographically remote towns and small cities where bands may be reluctant to travel because of the increased cost to travel there.

Little Big Town's I 'm with the Band

Last night in Memphis

Tonight in New Orleans

Tomorrow I’ll be miles from here

Ain’t nothing to me, nothing me

Sweet gypsy highway

Won’t you let me chase my dream

Cause I got a song to take me there

And it’s something to see, something to see

Lord I was born with a suitcase in my hand

Living in a life that few could understand

Sometimes it gets so confusing that I don’t know where I am

But I always know who I’m with

I’m with the band

Cheap whiskey midnight

Another round with my friends

Watching the world through the windshield

And we’re rolling again, rolling again

Lord I was born with a suitcase in my hand

Living in a life that few could understand

Sometimes it gets so confusing that I don’t know where I am

But I always know who I’m with

I’m with the band

Oh Lord I was born with a suitcase in my hand

Living in a life that few could understand

Sometimes it gets so confusing that I don’t know where I am

But I always know who I’m with

I’m with the band

Last night in Memphis

Tonight in New Orleans

Tomorrow I’ll be miles from here

Ain’t nothing to me, nothing me

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  • 3 weeks later...

High gas prices force slow touring bands to get creative

Members of Portland's Blind Pilot will ride bikes on their an upcoming tour; national touring act Apollo Sunshine will convert its van to run on vegetable oil

LUCIANA LOPEZ

The Oregonian Staff

Tune up the bikes and scrape up the french fry grease: It's summer touring season for bands. As gas prices climb ever upward, musicians have had to get creative at something more than their music.

Portland band Blind Pilot, for example, is traveling under pedal power, and nationally touring psych-rockers Apollo Sunshine are converting their van to run on vegetable oil.

There's an easier way to save gas money, though: Portland rocker Michael Dean Damron is just flat-out canceling dates.

Click here to read the remainder of the article.

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Gas Prices, Economy Shake Sales for Summer Tours

Festivals, top acts feel the heat as many fans stay home this summer

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George Michael's first North American Tour in 17 years is struggling with weak ticket sales, while tickets for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' summer dates have been selling out since February.

Photo: Getty

STEVE KNOPPER

Four-dollar-a-gallon gas prices are eating away at the summer-concert business, with top festivals and tours taking unexpected box-office hits over the past few months. Bonnaroo and Coachella fell short of sellouts for the first time in years, tours such as Stevie Wonder, Janet Jackson, Maroon 5 and George Michael are struggling, and even perennial sure things like Bruce Springsteen and Nine Inch Nails are soft in some cities. "It has an effect when people are filling up their cars for $80," says Alex Hodges, chief operating officer for Nederlander Concerts in Los Angeles. "How many concerts are they going to go to with all the other costs?"

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