Celebrities
Beyoncé, Drake, Adele, Harry Types, Metallica skip Denver concert events
When you’re a fan of Beyoncé, Drake, Adele, Harry Types, Janet Jackson, Metallica, The Chicks, Pearl Jam, or Billy Joel, you haven’t any selection however to go away Colorado for his or her present run of reveals.
Why is that? Particularly when Colorado is getting concert events from undisputed heavyweights reminiscent of Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Madonna, Zac Brown Band, Olivia Rodrigo, Foo Fighters and Morgan Wallen?
Followers and critics have posed the question often. U2 hasn’t performed Colorado since 2015, skipping us with its final couple of excursions regardless of beforehand enjoying right here usually. As a colleague of mine identified, they used to like us, having filmed “Below a Blood Purple Sky” (at Purple Rocks Amphitheatre in 1983) and a part of “Rattle & Hum” (at McNichols Sports activities Area in 1987) in Colorado.
How ridiculous is it that Drake and 21 Savage, three days before their Sept. 8 show at Ball Area, bailed “because of the distance the highway crew has to journey together with the magnitude of the manufacturing,” promoters wrote, making it “logistically unattainable to carry the complete expertise of the present to Denver … .” They promised a rescheduled present, however one would’ve thought they found out manufacturing particulars earlier than placing tickets on sale and prompting greater than 10,000 individuals to schedule their lives round it.
In fact, ready is a part of being a fan. In 2016 and 2018, Denver wasn’t wherever to be discovered on the cities introduced for Beyoncé’s excursions, The Denver Post’s Dylan Owens reported. And but, her blockbuster Renaissance Tour managed to skip us once more this 12 months. At this level, she hasn’t performed Denver since 2007.
As Purple Rocks and different main venues put tickets on sale for 2024 concerts this month, and calendars proceed to fill in any respect main venues, it’s price questioning what’s behind these choices.
The solutions range by artist, administration and promoter. Followers will journey to see their favourite bands — my spouse is in Las Vegas as I sort this, seeing U2’s residency on the whiz-bang Sphere — and they need to. We have fun Purple Rocks Amphitheatre as a worldwide icon, and a recent report discovered that almost half of all concert-goers there got here from out of state final 12 months, spending $305 million within the metro space earlier than and after reveals. All of us profit.
However when artists are banking on 18,000-seat amphitheaters in close by markets (we’ve got one which dimension in Fiddler’s Inexperienced), followers are justified in asking why Colorado acquired snubbed. Sure, it prices cash to drive tools to, or fly out and in of Colorado’s remoted Entrance Vary, the largest inhabitants heart for a 560-mile radius. The subsequent, closest massive metropolis is Phoenix.
The upside of those enterprise choices is that Denver extra steadily secures artists who may appear outsized for our sparsely populated Rocky Mountain area. That’s thanks largely to tour routing, which is a bottom-line monetary concern that forces most massive artists to play Denver in an effort to pay for his or her gas-guzzling Western treks. One has to surprise if carbon-footprint issues are the explanation Radiohead hasn’t played Red Rocks since its 2003 “Hail to the Thief” present there, as singer Thom Yorke has hinted. (The band hasn’t performed Denver basically since its 2012 present on the now-defunct FirstBank Heart.)
However tour routing can be bringing biggies like SZA (Oct. 18), Doja Cat (Nov. 19) and Mariah Carey (Nov. 21) to Ball Area. We’ve hardly been skipped on “last-ever” reveals and reunion excursions. Heritage acts, as they’re known as within the business, get pleasure from built-in recognition and audiences all over the place they go — see farewell concert events from Elton John, the Eagles, 50 Cent, Aerosmith, KISS, Lifeless and Firm, Ozzy Osbourne, and so on. (all at Ball Area).
We even acquired two nights of Taylor Swift in July, whereas some markets solely noticed one. And for those who miss sure rising musicians, you’ll probably see them once more, offered fortune smiles upon your VIP part.
Denver is likely one of the greatest and finest live performance markets within the U.S. on the subject of ticket gross sales, attendance and the variety of venues, promoters reminiscent of Stay Nation and AEG Presents have mentioned over time. We’re a global epicenter for EDM and bass music. Platinum-selling acts which have come up right here and name Colorado residence, reminiscent of Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats and The Lumineers, are continuously doing their hometown proud with sold-out stints around the globe.
We even acquired to see the last-ever Colorado present from The Rolling Stones to characteristic founding drummer Charlie Watts earlier than his 2021 loss of life, which packed Empower Area in August 2019. The band has been playing Colorado since 1965, Mick Jagger mentioned from the stage, however hadn’t graced us since a 2005 go to to the Pepsi Heart.
Our musical cornucopia overflows partly as a consequence of mega-promoter AEG Presents Rocky Mountains, based and owned by Colorado billionaire Philip Anschutz. The corporate’s aggressive enterprise practices (some native artists have called it a monopoly) and festival experiments have been general good for music followers, even when ever-inflating ticket prices proceed to maintain many people from attending any artist’s or promoter’s concert events, wherever.
We could also be oversimplifying for the sake of the larger image, however the disappointment is actual, particularly when a bottom-line choice forces us to decide on between a mortgage cost and touring out of state to see what could possibly be, for instance, Beyoncé’s final massive tour.
There’s nonetheless lots to see right here, and we’re fortunate in most methods. However it’s onerous to contemplate Denver top-of-the-line stay music cities within the U.S. when a few of the greatest artists on this planet have been snubbing us for a decade or extra.
Observe The Denver Submit’s music protection at denverpost.com/things-to-do/music for the newest live performance bulletins, information and interviews.