My friend Kate's favorite act is X.
Although Kate is partial to Joni Mitchell, it's the harder stuff that gets to
her, that has her shaking her booty, that has her losing control. On the
surface her life looks serene. She lives in Pacific Palisades, she's got a
seventeen year old daughter and she owns a bookstore. Add it up. You get wimpy
music, right? WRONG!
Bruce's acts hate it when I write about him. And I wasn't gonna. But he's
always doing and saying such FASCINATING SHIT!
Last night at dinner Felice asked Bruce how he got into it, how he got started.
And he said he was a FAN! To such a degree that a buddy of his, who he used to
listen to records with, hooked him up with a band that needed direction, that
needed a manager.
And from that one band, Bruce Allen built an empire.
He developed that act to a point where the club they worked at was always sold
out. And when Bruce moved them to a better venue, he retained the right to
book the original club. At one point Bruce controlled TWELVE CLUBS in Vancouver. All because he loved the music.
I wrote about Bruce's idea of pairing Bryan Adams and George Thorogood and the
blowback from the professional touring industry was overwhelming. You've got to
look at the facts, at the statistics. Adams appeals to ladies, FORTY YEAR OLD
LADIES! Thorogood appeals to men. Thorogood can't do much business. 1 + 1
equals LESS than two.
But those guys are thinking with their heads. This business was built on HEART!
Dirty little secret. Most pros no longer watch their acts. They've seen them
too many times. They just hope their buddies show up so they can bullshit
backstage.
But Bruce is EXCITED about this Adams/Thorogood package. He said he's gonna be
in the front of the house EVERY NIGHT!
Isn't that what it's about, the MUSIC?
Not the guarantee, not the gross, not the merch, but the MUSIC! If you deliver
a show that touches people's HEARTS, fuck, they'll come back AGAIN AND AGAIN AND
AGAIN!
I've seen Bryan Adams many times. Most fascinating was when he opened for Def
Leppard in the middle of the afternoon. Everybody wasn't his fan. He was
playing, but they weren't reacting. Bryan reached into his bag of tricks and
WON THEM OVER! By throwing out the set list, talking to the audience, inviting
a girl to duet on stage and bantering with her. It's not about the click track,
what's on hard drive, but the SHOW! Can you reach their genitalia? Or is it
all just sheen?
I've never seen George Thorogood. But I had to buy the album with "One Bourbon,
One Scotch, One Beer". There's that great line where George sings about his
landlady: "She a-howlin' about the front rent, she'll be lucky to get any back
rent." What a great concept, what great wordplay, FRONT RENT!
And he's one of Kate's favorite acts.
Funny thing about Thorogood is he's not dangerous. It's not about scaring you
into submission, but PLAYING! He's in it with you, he's gonna WIN YOU OVER!
And he shares that with Bryan Adams.
And THAT'S why this package is interesting.
Oh, Bryan could go out with Heart or some bland act from the eighties that
doesn't offend anybody, but doesn't mean anything either. I mean who can get
excited about a gig like that? It's a night out, not something you can LOOK
FORWARD TO!
Hell, think about that Def Leppard/Journey package, tour of the summer. What
kind of fucked up fortysomething goes to see an act with a fake Steve who ends
up having to be replaced with a NEW singer after it's revealed that his vocals
are on hard drive, that he can't sing anymore. I mean if you don't care that
some impostor is singing Steve Perry's parts, then you're no one I want to go to
a show with. You're the person talking during the solos, making cell phone
calls. To you, the music doesn't MATTER!
So everybody's congratulating each other. It's a giant circle jerk. As the
business goes into the dumper.
To save the business, you've got to take chances, you've got to take a risk.
But the risk has been ELIMINATED! Live Nation survives on a SLIVER of revenues. And
they have to worry about AEG. Risk? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
There's no innovation in the concert industry. It's paint by numbers. It's
safe. Oh, there's some danger in the clubs, but you might get more fucked up
playing Grand Theft Auto than going to the shed or the arena.
This Adams/Thorogood show is about music. Will it instantly sell out, will it
make money? Those are secondary issues. You see Bryan and Bruce are trying to
BUILD something. Show the public that Bryan is still vital, not a has-been.
You've got to start SOMEWHERE! You can't always be transported instantly to the
destination. Hell, you're not always sure what the destination IS!
Did Jerry Garcia envision playing stadiums to kids twenty years his junior
thirty years on? No, you've got to go on the adventure.
Corporatization of the music business HAS hurt the music business. The
renegades have been pushed aside. A spreadsheet can't replace what's in a renegade's heart, his spirit, his intuition.
Bruce thinks he's got something here.
We're gonna find out.
What do you think of the idea: Bryan Adams and George Thorogood? (Deano?)
What do you think of his remarks on Journey and a topic that is supposedly "over"?
