10.15.10 = Too Many Options

10.15.10 = Too Many Options
Are Promoters & Talent Buyers Nervous?

Although 10.15 doesn't fall within the boundaries of this week's Concert Blast, I feel it necessary to draw attention to the overwhelming amount of hipster indie-electro and electronic music in town next Friday. Specifically, I'm talking about the following shows:

LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip & Sleigh Bells at The Hollywood Bowl

Miike Snow and Mark Ronson's Business International at The Wiltern

Fourtet and Jon Hopkins at The Music Box

Kruder & Dorfmeister, Jason Bentley, J-Boogie at Club Nokia

Grum and Acid Girls at Avalon

Jamaica, Nightwaves, French Horn Rebellion, Parallels @ Echoplex (Tilt 3 Year Anniversary)

LTJ Bukem and Deco at House of Blues

Paul Oakenfold, Chuckie @ The Music Box

I even heard a rumor that the members of LCD Soundsystem will be spinning an after party somewhere too.

Much of the talent performing that night is making the almost mandatory stop in Los Angeles prior to heading North for the Treasure Island Music Festival, although not all of the talent is (Grum, Acid Girls, Nightwaves, French Horn Rebellion, Parallels are not on TI).

Now, you can't fault any of the acts for routing themselves through Los Angeles. Of course they WANT to play here. Of course their agents, management, publicists and fans want them to play here. We are the most important city for music in America these days so it behooves these artists to play here. AND there certainly is an audience to support any one of these acts individually on any given Friday night BUT FOR the immense amount of competition.

There are six different shows that all have some indie electro flavor. Sure some are bands and some are DJs/beatmakers - some more rocker and some more electronicized, some foreign and some domestic. I will accept that there are niche markets each artist attracts. However, I just think the presence of so much market competition will draw away from the crowd at some of these amazing shows and at the very least cause hard decisions. I myself want to go to every show, and yet, I can only physically be at Hollywood Bowl and then maybe Avalon or Echoplex (because those shows will probably go later).

Had the promoters or talent buyers strategically planned for the competition, they may have captured a repeat offender like myself. Friday clearly was not the only night available night. Die Antwoord is coming from Treasure Island Festival to LA for a performance on Sunday. Miike Snow is playing at Club Nokia Thursday too. I'm hitting up Miike Snow at Club Nokia on Thursday night, but that show was announced after their Friday show at The Wiltern. (How those two shows are working from a contractual stand point is absolutely beyond this lawyer (me). At least one of those venues (Wiltern in particular - who announced it first) should have some Radius clause that would, at the very least, prohibit a show within one day within a ten mile radius at a COMPETITOR's venue no less! (If either venue does not have that clause - feel free to contact me about revising your contracts, I have experience in that department).

In addition to the tough decisions next Friday, for any potential attendee that might go to the above shows, if they had already elected to make the jaunt to San Francisco for Treasure Island and are on an indie hipster's budget, there is probably no reason they would go to Hollywood Bowl, The Wiltern, Club Nokia or The Music Box if they had to pay for it. Ticket fees alone might be prohibitively high. Even if they are not on a budget, some fans aren't necessarily down to see the same act twice in back to back days, especially when they are liable to play close to the exact same set (did someone just cough LCD Soundsystem?).

What bothers me the most about 10.15.10 is that, as a former talent buyer myself I feel like some of these venues and/or their talent buyers should have seen the potential conflict and pushed for the shows to be a day or two earlier or Sunday or Monday or Tuesday.

For all I know, maybe these venues got exceptional discounts on the talent on the basis of the market competition. Maybe the buyers got a deal on some of them - like LCD and Miike Snow - because of the fact that they both played the market multiple times in June. However, I'm going to go ahead and assume that didn't happen.

Rather than have the venues suffer at the door, the bar staff suffer from less patrons, and each act and venue overall make less money - it looks like a little more strategic planning may have helped everyone's bottom line.

All that said Tickets are still available for the Hollywood Bowl, The Wiltern, The Music Box, Avalon, Club Nokia and Echoplex.