“In your opinion, was it easier or more difficult for bands to successfully tour when WSP was just coming along?” Alden P.

Well it was hard for us for any number of reasons [laughs]. I think it might have been financially easier, though. I think there was more attention paid to club bands. I think all this consolidation in the bigger markets with Live Nation, AEG and all this stuff, with ticket prices going through the roof and people charging 250 bucks to see a dinosaur act, wasn’t such a big deal back then. Ticket prices were lower for the arena shows and consequently the club shows were full. The drinking age wasn’t necessarily 21 across the aboard either, so if it was a college town it was generally packed. I think that was easier.

One thing that I don’t think has changed, is why bands do it. Why they get into a van or a station wagon and jam all their crappy gear in there and hope to get enough money from a gig to put in the gas tank and get to the next one where they’ll be sleeping on people’s floors. Whatever motivates people to do that I don’t think has changed. I think their enthusiasm is not even tempered by how hard it is to pull that off now, when it’s even more of a challenge. And I’m certainly glad they’re doing it because if all that stopped and if their enthusiasm began to wane and youngsters who were playing rock and roll or playing music for the adventure and the fun of it, if they felt like they couldn’t pull it off, it would be a mighty sad place for us to be, for those of us who love new music.

Along these lines, how conscious are you of ticket price and how vigilantly does the band try to regulate it?

We’re always really conscious of it. We work really hard to keep overhead down so we can keep the ticket prices down but at the same time you don’t want to rob showgoers of their experience. So we’ve always put more into the sound than we have into the lights because we felt like that was more of an important part of what we do. We also know our fans like to see more than one show, so what’s the point of charging 60 dollars? Then they’re not going to come and see the 2nd or 3rd show. But if you keep the ticket prices affordable they come to all three and we’re going to do something different.

I understand a band like Pink Floyd with all their stuff doing the whole world for a year and half in support of a record that took them seven years to make. That’s your one shot. If you live in the Ukraine there’s your one show. You’re going to spend six months worth of your music budget to see a band that you’re not going to get another chance to see for ten years. But as far as bands that you can count on to tour every couple of years charging 250 or 300 bucks for a stadium show, no thank you. I don’t get it and I think it’s biting everyone on the ass right now. I think it’s really important and I think bands need to keep an eye on these things because if they don’t keep their manager and promoters and so forth in check, they’ll walk into a half empty house and be like, “What was the ticket price?” Well it was 110 dollars and it’s no wonder it’s only half sold.

I tell you what else drives me crazy is the scalping. When the show is sold out and we walk onstage and discover that people have decided to boycott the 350 dollar front row seats that the scalpers are offering. So we walk out into a sold out show and there’s no one in the front row because the security hasn’t been told to chill and even if you tell security to chill and let people into the empty seats, that pisses off the guy in the second row who paid face value. Why shouldn’t he have the front row? It irks me greatly as a fan of music and someone who used to love to be in the front row and would be there at a ticket outlet at 8 in the morning. That would piss me off.

These are these factors that are killing live music right and making it unaffordable for people it could mean the most to. I went to see The Who back in 2000 at Phillips Arena. It was billed a a greatest hits tour. It was before Entwistle died and the show was fucking great, Dean. Zak Starkey has everything Keith Moon had without the drugging and drinking. His energetic playing rejuvenated Pete Townshend to where he was leaping around on stage and the show was great. We had these side seats so we were at eye level on the side with the band but we could look down and see the floor and the expensive front row first section was 50 year old guys who could afford to pay $200 per ticket and they’re not going to stand the whole night. And even back up in the nosebleed seats where it was 50 or 60 bucks were the kids who want to be in the faces of those guys and pick up on that energy where it hits them from the amps coming off the stage, not from the video screen the line array speakers. To me it just seemed backwards and weird and I understand it’s a business and there’s a lot of big things involved that I might not want to admit exist but godmman it, rock and roll is for the people who want to jump and shout and get into it.

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