Altanta--shafted for Heavy Metal shows?

[CrimsonEmotions]

Although Atlanta has one of the best, if not the best metal festival in North America, it seems as if far too often they get the short end of the stick when it comes to metal tours. There have been some great tours in recent years, and I have missed a few of them because Atlanta was not on their itinerary--even when the bands did tour the south. The most notable tours I would loved to have seen was Accept/Kreator in 2012, Black Sabbath last year, and the upcoming Nightwish tour.

So, for those who live in Atlanta, is the scene just not that great? Or are there other reasons why many bands skip Atlanta and go straight to Florida whenever the tour the south?

 

[dcowboys311]

Atlanta gets way more shows than any city in Florida

 

[Scott B]

Or are there other reasons why many bands skip Atlanta and go straight to Florida whenever the tour the south?

Bwahahahahahahaha. That's funny. While things have started to get better recently in the central\south Florida market ( and mostly for metal bands of a type that this board does not go for), you will find most metal fans saying "why don't we ever get any of these tours down here". Unless it's a jump-off point for a South American run, or a pre- or post- "cruise" thing, we still get passed over by a lot of great tours.

One thing I have noticed is that Texas is getting some serious inclusion in a lot of tours.

I think, though, the question should be why are no promoters\booking agents booking gigs in Atlanta, and Glenn might even have some insight into this. I don't know how much about the Atlanta market where metal type bands are concerned. It really doesn't make a lot of sense since Atlanta is pretty handy to get to from any where on the southeast coast, or pretty much anywhere on a tour that is going through the south.

I do feel your pain, but I am just happy for the gigs that do make it here. When you look at the economic realities the smaller bands face when touring, it's a wonder there are any tours at all.

 

[March Hare]

Not nearly as bad as Detroit gets shafted. We get most of the bigger shows like Sabbath and Priest but anything theater or club level usually skips us.

 

[dtfanatic]

We get shafted plenty of tours in Florida. While I wouldn't say Atlanta gets a lot more shows than any city in Florida, they are getting King Diamond and we're not.

 

[Harvester]

For the big shows...

1. Live Nation does not believe in metal the Atlanta market. It only took 50 years to get Maiden back here and that was because the band pushed for it instead of Live Nation going after them hard. Sure, there are a few exceptions here and there....but not many.

For the mid-size shows....

1. You only have The Tabernacle here that really makes sense in terms of bookings/cost. They do go after the proven bands that route through Atlanta.

For the small shows....

1. The routing is more expensive than you think, especially when you compare it to the alternatives. There are no proven metal markets in the Southeast outside of Atlanta, including Florida in my opinion . Sure some bands do great in Tampa or Ft Lauderdale, but once again, you route with the lowest risks & cheapest costs. You have to start or end in Florida to make it work most times. It's a long haul to Texas with only risky secondary markets to gamble on around the rest of the South. It's a hell of a lot cheaper to hit more shows within a smaller distance up North and along the proven connection to the West Coast.
2. The Masquerade is the main place for a lot of the same agents. Those agents have decided to try alternate markets or simply skip Atlanta for some lucrative bands rather than settle for status quo there it would appear. Draw your own conclusions.

 

[CrimsonEmotions]

All of you make excellent points. It just seemed to me that a number of bands fail to hit the Atlanta area, even though they hit a few cities in Florida, or even the Carolinas.

But then, this is coming from someone who grew up in Chicago, which is an automatic stop for almost every band there is, especially if they're hitting the midwest.

And I've lived in cities that have had almost nobody come (Knoxville, TN and Ames, IA), particularly in the metal scene, and so I should be glad that we get so many great bands as it is.

 

[Mardoch]

You're bitching in Atlanta?! Try living in Louisiana. Or a Dakota.

 

[dtfanatic]

A lot of times tours even metal tours hit Orlando that don't come anywhere else in Florida. Unfortunately most of the time they're Monday thru Thursday shows and they're just a bitch to go to if you don't live there.

 

[Smc316]

King Diamond's playing Atlanta. I see no reason to complain.

 

[Mooseknuckle]

I'll take Atlanta's scene over Charleston, South Carolina's any day. I normally have to drive 3-6 hours for anything decent...

 

[James]

One thing that probably doesn't help is the fact that, at least in Atlanta, we generally seem to prefer to buy tickets on the day of the show.

I remember one year when Children of Bodom played Masquerade, one of the guys at the venue told me they only did like 300 advance tickets...but they had over 850 at the show. So, basically, they were shitting their pants thinking they were going to lose their ass, then they did 550 tickets at the door Maybe other cities do this, as well, but let's face it...if it had rained in Atlanta the night of Children of Bodom, MAYBE 50 would have paid at the door, and they would have wound up with 350 paid instead of 850 paid. To paraphrase Bill Parcells: 'we are what our record says we are.' If they knew we liked to pay at the door, but they also knew we would absolutely pay at the door come hell or high water, there probably wouldn't be any issue...however, since they know we like to pay at the door, and paying at the door means they might get 350 or they might get 850 (depending upon which way the wind blows), then I guess we get what we get.

As referenced earlier in the thread, the Accept/Kreator tour TOTALLY pissed me off; almost everybody got both bands, but in Atlanta they booked Kreator without Accept. I would have gone if they booked both bands, but I stayed home because Accept was not on the bill. As much as it pisses me off sometimes, hearing the other side of the story helps give everything a little perspective. Also (alluding to one of Glenn's points), I hunted down (cyberstalked) Iron Maiden's tour manager online several years ago and asked him point blank why they never played Atlanta anymore; as belligerent as I was in my correspondence, he was nice enough to reply to me and tell me that if the band didn't plan to play Florida, then it's not worth coming to Atlanta, because the next closest place they would play is the Washington, DC area. (Of course, if I said I was from Tampa or Miami, he probably would have said it's because the band didn't plan to play Atlanta, but I digress.)

Back in the day, you obviously didn't have to worry about that kind of shit because bands (including Iron Maiden) were going to play Charlotte, Birmingham, Nashville, etc. Bands simply don't tour like that anymore, so the "R" word (Routing) comes in to play now more than ever.

Anyway, having ProgPower here makes up for all that shit, and then some...I saw motherfucking CONCEPTION 5.02 miles from my house, so all these other bands can suck it.

 

[OrionSon]

I live around New Orleans. What's a metal show?

 

[Harvester]

Anyway, having ProgPower here makes up for all that shit, and then some...I saw motherfucking CONCEPTION 5.02 miles from my house, so all these other bands can suck it.

 

[dcowboys311]

One thing I have noticed is that Texas is getting some serious inclusion in a lot of tours.

Yeah the TX metal scene rules, Austin and Houston in particular, second only to Chicago as far as the US is concerned. Just an insane amount of fests and one-offs and some really killer bands.

 

[Keir]

1. The routing is more expensive than you think, especially when you compare it to the alternatives. There are no proven metal markets in the Southeast outside of Atlanta, including Florida in my opinion . Sure some bands do great in Tampa or Ft Lauderdale, but once again, you route with the lowest risks & cheapest costs. You have to start or end in Florida to make it work most times. It's a long haul to Texas with only risky secondary markets to gamble on around the rest of the South. It's a hell of a lot cheaper to hit more shows within a smaller distance up North and along the proven connection to the West Coast.

We have that same problem in Massachusetts. We got Satan earlier this year because Boston was their first stop in the US. We're getting Within Temptation next month because Worcester is their last stop in the US. Sometimes we get lucky and bands stop here on their way from NYC to Canada (e.g. King Diamond's current tour) but not always.

Realistically, listening to the kind of music that we do, unless you are in one of a few select places such as California, Texas, Chicago or NYC, we can all complain about not getting good shows.

 

[Justin G]

Maybe the scene has changed in the past five years, but when I lived in Atlanta there were plenty of great metal shows to go to. Just about any tour I wanted to see booked a Masquerade stop.

 

[Mardoch]

Yeah the TX metal scene rules, Austin and Houston in particular, second only to Chicago as far as the US is concerned. Just an insane amount of fests and one-offs and some really killer bands.

At the same time it's hard to just say "the Texas scene is good" because TX is massive. If you don't live near the epicenters you're still not getting any action, and with the size of that state it's easy to be 300+ miles from where the shows are.

 

[dcowboys311]

At the same time it's hard to just say "the Texas scene is good" because TX is massive. If you don't live near the epicenters you're still not getting any action, and with the size of that state it's easy to be 300+ miles from where the shows are.

It's pretty easy to say it...Austin, Houston, DFW, San Antonio, even El Paso all have a lot going for them as for as metal's concerned. Nobody's mind is gonna immediately jump to Lubbock when thinking of Metal in Texas, the same way nobody's gonna start thinking about Macon when you're talking about Metal in Atlanta, and the number of people living in the middle of nowhere interested in going to see a tiny metal band is inconsequential.

 

[TheLongshot]

All I can add is that when I lived in Atlanta 25 years ago, many of the big tours would skip Atlanta and that would frustrate the crap out of me. The problem is that there really aren't any big population centers between DC and Atlanta, which makes stretching any tour down there difficult. With that being a full day's drive, I can understand it not being worth it for a lot of bands.