yulog wrote:livin2do wrote:I'm in Phoenix, too. They were just here last year, and it rained like crazy! Concerts in AZ in the middle of the summer months are always a dicey proposition for me - you've got the monsoon season, the blazing temperatures to deal with - I don't know that I would pay to see them in those conditions every year. Wish they could wise up and do an indoor date mid-summer in AZ like Rush did last year. That was an awesome show that was even better with the air conditioning!
How about just playing there in the winter, Phoenix is perfect for winter concerts (outdoor)
but they hardly ever have concerts during that time of the year. 
Not true. there are plenty of concerts here in the winter but for some reason, Journey chooses to play here at the hottest time of the year - outdoors! There are two contributing factors to this and I'm not sure which weighs heavier in their decision to do so.
1. The stops on the tour path are follow a course across the country (for the most part) which avoids doubling back to play any particular city only to then have to double back again to get to where they were and continue on across the US.
2. The outdoor venues are dirt cheap here in the hottest months - with good reason.
There aren't very many bands who can fill an outdoor venue here in mid July or August. Journey is one of those bands. Oh sure, we'll bitch and moan about the choice of venue at that time of the year, but statistically, Phoenix AND Tucson have shown their appreciation and love for them by nearly always selling out. Earlier in this thread, I cited the venue here in PHX as holding nearly 16,000 people. After finding my review of last year's show here, I realized I was mistaken and the actual capacity at that venue is just under 20,000 - and the show was indeed sold out! Another example of PHX's appreciation for them is the Revelation tour. When they got to PHX, Heart had finished their portion of the tour and the show featured only Cheap Trick and Journey. They still sold out the venue. Those two examples speak volumes about the loyalty and love for the band's music that exists here. That's why I have such a hard time understanding why they seemingly are purposely not stopping here.
1. The venue is available at the time they will be in this region.
2. Using previous stops here as a reference, they can count on a full venue - or damned close to it which = $$
Don't get me wrong, I'm not whining about this - I've been to more than my share of Journey concerts. I'm just looking at it from a business standpoint. I don't get it.
Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2012 4:46 pm
One of the things I've been most proud of about this majorly fucked up state is the fact that when Journey comes to Phoenix or Tucson, they always sell out or come damn close to it.
It IS hitting "secondary markets" this year, so that is why there is no Phoenix. There's no Chicago, either (Moline instead), St. Louis or New Orleans (Lafayette instead), to name a few. Same model as the difference between the 2008 and 2009 tours.
) looming as the sun started to set. But that didn't faze the crowd - especially those of us on the lawn. As soon as that storm hit - which, if you remember, was during Wheel in the Sky - it absolutely unloaded on us - torrentially! 