If I came here and posted a tour featuring Jay Z, Beyonce, & Eminem and people flamed my audacity to call it "so and so" great tour of the year, would you still complain about elitism? Talent may be talent but musical preference rules over all and to be basically saying you're the end all in determining the best tours is BS. Instead of going on about great tours, just make the thread about the tour. You'll get fewer sarcastic replies. I've already had a local Dragonforce show with a bunch of emo"metal" bands. I'll skip this round.
My first show of the new year will likely be Switchfoot in March. They've been great the last two times I saw them before they got pretty popular. And z0mg, they're not metal! They're actually a rock band with a lot of christian themes!!!!!
May think about seeing Overkill, Metal Church, Meliah Rage, Roadhorse, Humanity Abandoned but I don't know if I would travel to another state for that show as I don't think it's coming to my area.