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November 24, 2007
How a city can ruin a date
Some weeks ago, the wife and I made plans for the boy to spend the night at his Papa and Nana's house, and I ordered tickets for what was to be a great show at Rhythm & Brews by none other than Raul Malo, vocalist extraordinaire and former lead singer of that great band, The Mavericks. Another couple in our neighborhood also ordered tickets (they are how we found out about the show), and we planned a very nice evening with dinner, drinks and Raul Malo.
The week of the show, our neighbor went online to double-check the start time, and found, instead of a start time for Raul Malo, a cancellation notice. (The Heather Hayes Band was scheduled to play instead.)
Until yesterday, I did not know what had caused Malo to cancel. Not to wish his person any harm, but I had hoped it was because he was sick, or double-booked, rather than what I feared, which was that there was not enough interest. It turns out that my fears were not unfounded, and that the situation was even worse than I imagined.
According to yesterday's paper, only twenty-five tickets had been sold by the time Rhythm & Brews decided to cancel—and twenty of those were ordered from out of town. That means that, beside the four of us that I know of, only one other person here in town had ordered a ticket. This was not some bar band; it was merely one of the greatest voices in popular music, who sings in widely eclectic styles, and is a really professional act.
This is nothing but embarrassing. I readily admit that with our schedule these days, I can't often get out and support live music (local or imported), and no one should be expected to be at every show; but this is ridiculous. There are over a half-million people in the tri-state area, so there can't be as many excuses as would prevent a couple hundred, at least, from getting out on a Friday night. The phenomenon has set up a very vicious circle, wherein artists usually refuse to come here due to low turnout, and that fact further depresses the community's willingness to show up even when someone takes his or her chances.
By the way, the four of us did enjoy a nice, low-key dinner at Los Compadres on Brainerd Road; and the boy didn't actually make good on his promise to spend the night, because when we got home, we found that he was, you know, crying for his Momma. So he would have cried longer had we actually had a show to attend. But that's not the point. He would have survived, and Chattanooga really missed out.
By way of this post, I hereby apologize to Rhythm & Brews manager Mike Dougher, to Raul Malo, and to every other artist (Rev. Al Green, I'm looking at you) who has had to cancel a show here due to desperately low ticket sales, on behalf of my adopted hometown. And to the people of the Tennessee Valley: come on, y'all. Let's do better than this. It was my birthday and everything. You owe me a date.
Miscellaneous | By joe lance | 11:17 AM
Comments
I'm always a little shocked about low ticket sales for national acts. Sure, I'm use to playing to 10 people, but some of these folks are frigin' amazing and should have a good audience.
Posted by: Mike K at November 24, 2007 06:52 PM