A gig is a gig is a gig.

May 30, 2023 5:06 PM

" 'I made twenty-five million dollars playing ten birthday parties.' That used to be seen as 'You **** sellout.' Now it’s 'How do I get me some of those?' " How to Hire a Pop Star for Your Private Party
posted by meowzilla (70 comments total)

‘I can blow a hundred and fifty grand on a Thursday.’
Your taxes are way too low.
posted by theora55 at 5:30 PM on May 30, 2023 [78 favorites]

My friend Jeff once saved Brook Shields from drowning and blew the reward money hiring Van Halen to play at his birthday party.
posted by bondcliff at 6:09 PM on May 30, 2023 [67 favorites]

I looked up the author because this article is like mainlining the "I'm 24 years old, I have 6 months total job experience, here are some deep 'truths' I have discovered..." shit that shows up on somebody's hip culture website.

But no, this is dude is 46 and has been at the New Yorker since 2008.

But, gotta love an article that starts with the conceit "This is a new phenomenon!" and then gives 25 years worth of examples of this "new" thing happening over and over.
posted by Back At It Again At Krispy Kreme at 6:11 PM on May 30, 2023 [18 favorites]

> My friend Jeff once saved Brook Shields from drowning and blew the reward money hiring Van Halen to play at his birthday party.

Look, some days you just realize you're living in an 80s movie and you've got to just go with it.
posted by nickzoic at 6:21 PM on May 30, 2023 [48 favorites]

Frazier seems surprised and alarmed to find Flo Rida performing at his party, and his date would clearly rather be anywhere else.
posted by Naberius at 6:21 PM on May 30, 2023

I cannot believe that Int’l Nephew is not from a new Achewood arc.

All a sick, sad business, but honestly, the aberration was that there was a popular stance against it for a time. Which coincided with a lower cost of living and a smaller wealth disparity.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:31 PM on May 30, 2023 [9 favorites]

Wow, what a story! I guess my feelings about it are neutral in that the article itself was interesting and a good reflection of the times we're living in where the rich can afford everything and the poor can't afford groceries. I had just read a WaPo article on what local grocery stores are doing about shrinkage, which is annoying and sad, so the juxtaposition is glaring. While I'm not a fan of the musicians performing for despots, I know things keep getting harder for professional musicians of all backgrounds and people have to survive. I'm not opposed to people paying big bucks for performers; Flo Rida sounds like a very real, chill, and hardworking performer. It's just that everything in 2023 feels kinda wild and dystopian but also normal in a mundane way, and this phenomenon is no exception.
posted by smorgasbord at 6:31 PM on May 30, 2023 [10 favorites]

From the article: A random selection of other acts who do privates ... far exceeds the list of those who are known for saying no (Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift, and, for reasons that nobody can quite clarify, AC/DC).

I'll have to be sure to buy a few physical discs this weekend of Springsteen, Swift and AC/DC for saying no to the 1% and their ilk.

My experience with private concerts is limited to my workplace.

I've supported small corporate events in the company's S.F. Bay Area headquarters for a "doobie" of a classic rock band (I had to advise one of my older team members that I couldn't let him in to watch the show after his shift ended) and a "gem" of a pregnant top-tier folk-pop singer (a passing employee stopped to watch her performance on an internal monitor, but did not notice when she walked past him in the hallway minutes later).

The big one that I attended was the handoff from the old CEO to the new one. The company rented the entire football stadium, with a concert from a "dirrty" A-list pop star and an "urban" country favorite. The event included free food, beer and wine at the concession stands and tearaway Top Gun flight suits for the chief executive handover.

I'm sure that the artists were well-compensated, but the events were relatively humble compared to the examples in the article.

My disruptive billionaire idea is to hire T. Swift with a sizeable charitable donation. The private show would be at some stadium, with an audience of staff and students from local public schools, community colleges and state universities for a free secret show.
posted by JDC8 at 6:37 PM on May 30, 2023 [5 favorites]

I remember that time that Angela went to that party where Jordan's band was playing...

Oh wait, that was Claire Daines, and Jared Leto was in the band.

Wait, Jared Leto is in a band right now.

I miss My So-Called Life.
posted by hippybear at 6:38 PM on May 30, 2023 [4 favorites]

My friend Jeff once saved Brook Shields from drowning and blew the reward money hiring Van Halen to play at his birthday party.

Now that's Rock'n'Roll!
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:42 PM on May 30, 2023 [2 favorites]

I just find it curious that Brooke was drowning long enough for there to be a reward offered for saving her. Were there posters printed? Wanted Wet And Alive?
posted by hippybear at 6:46 PM on May 30, 2023 [17 favorites]

Also, which iteration of Van Halen? This might be important.
posted by hippybear at 6:57 PM on May 30, 2023 [21 favorites]

Mr. Hand, is that you?
posted by bondcliff at 7:03 PM on May 30, 2023 [5 favorites]

Lincolnshire is also known around the North Shore as “Fake Forest” as it’s adjacent to the more old money Lake Forest.
posted by leotrotsky at 7:35 PM on May 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

I had one my daughter's favorite musicians (then solo, previously in a Billboard Top 20 band) play in our living room for her 16th birthday. It was for considerably less than seven figures, and was a delightful experience. That said, if I had the means to pay seven figures for a band, I can't imagine ever doing so. Just, like, go to a concert.
posted by jscalzi at 7:35 PM on May 30, 2023 [19 favorites]

if I had the means to pay seven figures for a band, I can't imagine ever doing so. Just, like, go to a concert.

Oh, you've scouted tickets for the Beyonce tour I see.
posted by hippybear at 7:37 PM on May 30, 2023 [8 favorites]

To be fair what's the essential difference between this and people like J.S. Bach or Haydn being family or court musicians to some aristocrat? Seems only appropriate to our age that artistic patronage is coming back...
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 7:47 PM on May 30, 2023 [9 favorites]

I'll have to be sure to buy a few physical discs this weekend of Springsteen, Swift and AC/DC for saying no to the 1% and their ilk.

Um... are they not the 1%?
posted by dobbs at 7:47 PM on May 30, 2023 [6 favorites]

Seems only appropriate to our age that artistic patronage is coming back...

Well, this is patronage as a side hustle, only vaguely related to what was going on before. I guess the similar is that you have to please your patron whether it's a single ruler of a medieval city state or is masses of the populace each and every one on a transactional basis.

I mean, at six figures for a night, I could live more than comfortably on two or three gigs a year, but that's me living my lifestyle now, not me living a star's lifestyle. I'd like to think I wouldn't change but I'd at least get some help with yardwork and housework.
posted by hippybear at 7:55 PM on May 30, 2023 [2 favorites]

The Uline packaging company, owned by ultra-right fascist political donors Liz and Dick Uilhein, hire Hall & Oates to reunite and play their company party every year.
posted by Jon_Evil at 8:07 PM on May 30, 2023 [10 favorites]

But no, this is dude is 46 and has been at the New Yorker since 2008.

But, gotta love an article that starts with the conceit "This is a new phenomenon!" and then gives 25 years worth of examples of this "new" thing happening over and over.

Point taken, but speaking as someone in their 40s I can confirm that everything after 2000 is indeed “new.”
posted by No-sword at 8:45 PM on May 30, 2023 [40 favorites]

Um... are they not the 1%?

Yes, of course. My expectations are not high for the ethics and morality of people who reach the level that Swift, Springsteen and AC/DC have. They clearly possess the resources and the luxury to say "no" to more money from their economic peers.

I don't consider their refusals a revolutionary act, just a notable decision to decline dump trucks full of money. The people paying for these concerts are not used to being told "no," as the article makes clear.
posted by JDC8 at 8:46 PM on May 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

For $4,000 Jane Wiedlin will not only sing some Go-Gos songs at your wedding reception she'll officiate the ceremony and I'm still kicking myself over passing on that one.
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:10 PM on May 30, 2023 [28 favorites]

I can't remember whose stand-up act it was, but sometime after Flavor Flav was given a comedy central roast, the comedian was telling a story about running into Flavor and asking him why he put himself through that, and Flavor's response was something like, "Cause I'm getting paaaaaaaaaaid!"

So, that.
posted by not_on_display at 12:02 AM on May 31, 2023 [5 favorites]

I had one my daughter's favorite musicians (then solo, previously in a Billboard Top 20 band) play in our living room for her 16th birthday.

Lol, at the time he was almost single handily (along with Jake Owen and Jack Conte) keeping the online concert startup I was doing engineering work for afloat. It was surreal seeing him then start showing up in your social media.
posted by Back At It Again At Krispy Kreme at 12:05 AM on May 31, 2023

I'll have to be sure to buy a few physical discs this weekend of Springsteen, Swift and AC/DC for saying no to the 1% and their ilk

You are going to want to sit down before looking into how much the “demand based pricing” inflated the ticket prices for tours that are happening right now for at least the first two artists on your list. It’s a decent possibility (if not likely) they are passing on these private shows because there isn’t enough money in them.
posted by Back At It Again At Krispy Kreme at 12:11 AM on May 31, 2023 [5 favorites]

gotta love an article that starts with the conceit "This is a new phenomenon!" and then gives 25 years worth of examples of this "new" thing happening over and over.

The recent shift, as noted in the article, is that big names are far more willing to do them now. I ran sound for a bunch of privates in the late 90s and early 00s, and, again as the article points out, the majority of the acts at the time were basically oldies groups. Very often it would be a famous band from the 60s that had at most one original member and a bunch of hired talent. I did a bunch of them with "The Drifters" for example. From what I recall, they were entirely hired guns that someone who'd purchased the rights to the name sent out to do gigs.

And I do think it's correct that the shift correlates both with the collapse of music sales and the dramatic swing in wealth distribution in the past 15 years, starting with the recovery from the 2008 crash, which was very kind to almost everyone with money. I did photography at a rave camp at Burning Man ~2012 that was clearly being funded as a very wealthy someone's 50th birthday party for themselves or whatever. The level of lighting and stage infrastructure was an order of magnitude from what the camps that fund themselves through member donations have. The equivalent of the stage/lighting/sound rig that a Nine Inch Nails level band might have set up for ~40 people to dance to.

The private that sticks out in my mind as an attendee was The Wallflowers (or rather, Jacob Dylan with one other musician) performing in an upper floor suite of Mandalay Bay to an audience of ~2-3 dozen mid 50s tech executives. During One Headlight, he made the halfhearted attempt at audience participation by saying something like, "come on, all you hackers...."
posted by Candleman at 12:22 AM on May 31, 2023 [16 favorites]

While I'm not a fan of the musicians performing for despots, I know things keep getting harder for professional musicians of all backgrounds and people have to survive.

The musicians performing for despots are generally not at risk of not surviving. It's not your struggling artists on the breadline getting these gigs.


I mean, at six figures for a night, I could live more than comfortably on two or three gigs a year

I could live comfortably for a decade on a single gig at the lower end of numbers quoted in the article.
posted by Dysk at 1:53 AM on May 31, 2023 [1 favorite]

I looked up the author because this article is like mainlining the "I'm 24 years old, I have 6 months total job experience, here are some deep 'truths' I have discovered..." shit that shows up on somebody's hip culture website. ... But, gotta love an article that starts with the conceit "This is a new phenomenon!" and then gives 25 years worth of examples of this "new" thing happening over and over.

This is such an unnecessarily mean thing to say, not to mention inaccurate. The piece doesn't say it's a new phenomenon, not a single time, unless you think that describing a Flo Rida private gig at bar mitzvah equals "no-one has done this before". As soon as the piece widens to talk about private gigs as a whole, it immediately says they always used to happen and now "misgivings have receded dramatically", going on to explain why that's happened.

I enjoyed the piece. It was fun to read and had a ton of details, including actual dollar amounts, that are often missing from similar articles. Thanks for posting it, meowzilla!
posted by adrianhon at 2:43 AM on May 31, 2023 [23 favorites]

Wait, why was Scaramucci in this article? What the hell

What ths article demonstrates s that musicians are great, and can be great people, but rich people shouldn't exist. And maybe not the New Yorker, which can be embarrassing to read
posted by eustatic at 4:57 AM on May 31, 2023 [1 favorite]

This was sourced and researched really well, in a way that old-guard magazines (see also The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, etc.) seem to still be able to do from time to time, even at a time when the biggest newspapers don't always manage it.

Blaming the rise of unabashed get-rich rock and pop stars on hip-hop music is not my favorite, but I can see how that could be part of it.

Over time, the preferences showed a pattern: whoever was popular with young men about twenty-five years earlier was in renewed demand, as a rising cohort achieved private-gig-level wealth. (Current favorites include the Counting Crows and Sir Mix-a-Lot.)

Maybe devoting oneself to getting rich is like a lot of hardcore addictions, in that it tends to strand people's emotional maturity at whatever age they were when they started doing it.
posted by box at 5:11 AM on May 31, 2023 [9 favorites]

well.

if any of these rich people want an unknown garage rock band to play their birthday party for $100 and a van ride,
DM me
posted by entropone at 5:43 AM on May 31, 2023 [14 favorites]

Lincolnshire is also known around the North Shore as “Fake Forest” as it’s adjacent to the more old money Lake Forest.

I'm from this area and now I'm kind of curious where this Mitzvah warehouse is.

If I had unlimited funds and a famous recording artist on my speed dial I'd be having my bash at Par-King Skill Golf, the best miniature golf course in the nation hands down. See you on the back 9, Mr Rida.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:17 AM on May 31, 2023 [5 favorites]

I'm from this area and now I'm kind of curious where this Mitzvah warehouse is.

I'm not from this area, but maybe Loft 21?
posted by box at 6:53 AM on May 31, 2023 [1 favorite]

Have the Rolling Stones killed.
posted by sy at 7:07 AM on May 31, 2023 [5 favorites]

I cannot believe that Int’l Nephew is not from a new Achewood arc.

Give it a second - because Achewood is back bay-behhhh (via patreon-released new strips)

I've never wanted a big pop act in my immediate vicinity, but I have absolutely spent some time trying to noodle out how much it would cost to fund a Grails concert in my local area for a birthday or other basic time of friends.
posted by FatherDagon at 7:11 AM on May 31, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'm not from this area, but maybe Loft 21?

Nailed it!. You rock. (But not as hard as Andrew, apparently)
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:16 AM on May 31, 2023 [2 favorites]

(PS that link has pictures of the actual Flo Rida Bar Mitzvah if you're curious)
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:30 AM on May 31, 2023 [3 favorites]

Wow, those pictures. Proof that money can buy you a lot of things, but it can't buy you taste.
posted by Dysk at 7:39 AM on May 31, 2023 [1 favorite]

It can buy you a fully-stocked hot dog bar, though.
posted by box at 7:43 AM on May 31, 2023 [6 favorites]

It's like a wedding reception but the creative choices are driven by a 13 year-old with an open checkbook. And they tend to get repetitive, kids steal the good ideas from other parties they have attended.

My cousin claims to have been to over a hundred of these and says they get very similar after the first dozen or so. Anything that makes yours memorable from the others is a worthy goal.
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:43 AM on May 31, 2023 [6 favorites]

creative choices are driven by a 13 year-old with an open checkbook

Ah yeah, this is probably what I'm overlooking, due to my family background. Nobody would trust a thirteen year old to make decor decisions, because well...
posted by Dysk at 7:59 AM on May 31, 2023

I do know that some of the higher-end party planning companies that do this are pretty much turnkey. I mean it's literally:

"Andrew, what do you like?"

"I like roller coasters, hot dogs, and hip hop music"

And then everything kind of springs from that. Parents get options (do you want us to draw roller coasters on the set, or build an actual one in the parking lot?), and choose depending on budget.
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:38 AM on May 31, 2023 [4 favorites]

Nailed it!. You rock. (But not as hard as Andrew, apparently)

(PS that link has pictures of the actual Flo Rida Bar Mitzvah if you're curious)

I hate everything.

If I weren't already Jewish, this would make me anti-semitic.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 8:43 AM on May 31, 2023 [2 favorites]

in that it tends to strand people's emotional maturity at whatever age they were when they started doing it

Most people tend to listen to mostly the same music that they listened to from around 15 to 25 for the rest of their life. Just in this case, a very small percentage of them have stumbled into the means to have them play their backyard. There's tons of bands from my past that if I could afford to drop $300K on a whim the way I do getting a nice $100 camping chair that I'd love to get personal performances from, though I like to think I'd at least have the grace to do them as free concerts open to the community.
posted by Candleman at 8:47 AM on May 31, 2023 [3 favorites]

Great article.

I once saw Lenny Kravitz like 15 years ago or so at an Oracle conference in SF in a tent on one of the piers. I was like 5 feet from the stage it was pretty great.
posted by mmascolino at 9:11 AM on May 31, 2023 [3 favorites]

I know someone who has had local musicians play in his yard for friends and family (and presumably neighbors). He foots the bill, and puts out a hat for anyone else to bump up the artist's take home.

It seems a very genteel way to support live music and to hear tunes without going out.
posted by wenestvedt at 9:15 AM on May 31, 2023 [14 favorites]

Sometimes these shows make it onto YouTube and they’re usually just sad. Nothing like seeing one of your favorite bands from the 90s, 30 years after their last hit, playing to a roomful of corporate-looking types just standing there, recording on their phones.
posted by gottabefunky at 9:20 AM on May 31, 2023 [2 favorites]

Wow, twenty-one years after choosing your metafilter name you have not lowered your standards one bit when it comes to band and audience energy at live music performances, gottabefunky.
posted by sy at 11:46 AM on May 31, 2023 [4 favorites]

Point taken, but speaking as someone in their 40s I can confirm that everything after 2000 is indeed “new.”

Here's a Metafilter post from 2014 about how much it costs to get Justin Bieber, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, James Taylor, Justin Timberlake, Madonna, or Taylor Swift to do your birthday party. I guess Swift and Springsteen weren't too proud to take a million dollars for a birthday gig ten years ago (unfortunately the link is dead so I can't verify that).
posted by straight at 12:45 PM on May 31, 2023 [2 favorites]

Internet Archive has it covered.

Back in 2014, you could book Flo Rida for $100-$150k, while per TFA he's getting $150-300k now.
posted by box at 1:02 PM on May 31, 2023 [3 favorites]

One of my favorite bands is not hugely famous but famous enough to do a national tour every year with a few dozen club dates. They have a thing where you can hire them for a gig -- I think it's $5K plus travel/lodging for an acoustic show and $15K plus travel/lodging for an electric show. I've long thought it would be fun to get into their tour schedule for a private party gig to minimize the travel costs.
posted by hippybear at 1:40 PM on May 31, 2023 [1 favorite]

A friend of mine has musicians come play his house every now and then. At least once, it was a crowdfunding reward for a CD release. (Pay this much, and I'll play your home.) It's nobody famous, but it's still cool to have dinner with a musician and then watch them perform.
posted by Spike Glee at 1:55 PM on May 31, 2023 [1 favorite]

it's still cool to have dinner with a musician and then watch them perform.

You are paying me, right?
posted by JoeZydeco at 4:23 PM on May 31, 2023 [1 favorite]

The documentary about Trevor Noah trying to put together his first comedy hour and break out with his act shows him doing a lot of "corporates" and complaining that him doing these private paid gigs are good for his pocketbook but not good for his career because it never leaves the room.

That's sort of a reverse-end look at this kind of private pay gig that performers do, I think.
posted by hippybear at 4:32 PM on May 31, 2023

And, another side note, back in the many-decades-ago day, you could write Arlo Guthrie and tell him about a party you were having that had a decent crowd showing up and there was a non-zero chance of him just showing up to perform and lead a sing-a-long. I remember more than one account of people having done this.

The random appearances of Bill Murray seem to be truly random, though.
posted by hippybear at 4:36 PM on May 31, 2023 [3 favorites]

I would play a gig at a corporate event if you had maybe ten, fifteen...

dollars
posted by not_on_display at 4:45 PM on May 31, 2023 [1 favorite]

FWIW regarding artists performing for despots, it is always the most famous and accomplished who are in demand for these, and the agents for pop stars who get offers from tyrants really should give their stars a bit of a primer on the post-1945 careers of Furtwängler and von Karajan. Maybe you can pass it off as ignorance. Maybe not.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:26 PM on May 31, 2023

I actually saw von Karajan conduct the Berlin Philharmonic in Berlin in I think 1987. I just found the ticket stub about a week ago! They did The Firebird Suite, and that weird and brilliant Berlin concert hall has seating in the round, and I was sitting right behind the percussion section so I got to watch all the tympanic fireworks during the finale right in front of me. It was amazing.
posted by hippybear at 6:54 PM on May 31, 2023 [2 favorites]

I remember seeing a price list for various musicians to play your private event back in the 70s; it included The Rolling Stones, Dr. Hook, John Denver, Grand Funk; basically everyone except the Beatles (who wanted at least $3000.00 if i remember correctly). So this is nothing new. But the idea that “a gig is a gig is a gig…” was pretty well refuted by Steve Van Zandt.
posted by TedW at 7:47 PM on May 31, 2023

I remember seeing a price list for various musicians to play your private event back in the 70s; it included The Rolling Stones, Dr. Hook, John Denver, Grand Funk

Yeah, back in the 80's there was a whole "University Concert Board" thing which used student association fees to bring in The Ramones and shit. Their agents were all in and sent around lists.
posted by mikelieman at 12:33 AM on June 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

For $4,000 Jane Wiedlin will not only sing some Go-Gos songs at your wedding reception she'll officiate the ceremony and I'm still kicking myself over passing on that one.

I assume the fee is higher if you'd like her to dress as Jeanne d'Arc and make you promise to be excellon to each ozair.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 2:54 AM on June 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

Nah, it's all-inclusive (second link NSFW).
posted by box at 5:48 AM on June 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

Yeah, back in the 80's there was a whole "University Concert Board" thing which used student association fees to bring in The Ramones and shit. Their agents were all in and sent around lists.

This is still very much a thing today - a lot of my work with "famous people" (for varying values of "famous") over the last 20 years has been at colleges and universities. Heck, there are entire professional organizations (NACA - National Association for Campus Activities just as one example) that run workshops and conventions and talent showcases to connect agents and entertainers with college activities groups. And yeah, college gigs often pay really well for the musicians, especially because often you don't have the expenses of being on tour. Almost all of the sound, lighting, video and instrument equipment is provided by a local/regional A/V company, the school pays for all of it, you just fly in with like your guitars and your favorite cymbals and snare drum and have at it.
posted by soundguy99 at 7:42 AM on June 1, 2023 [2 favorites]

When I turned 50 my friends tried to get my favourite musician - who, as far as I remember, has only played a single corporate gig, a Jean Paul Gaultier party, in his life - to play at my birthday dinner. Didn't happen because reasons, but he came to the dinner and organised the cake. More recently, he showed up for my 60th with presents.
posted by prolific at 7:59 AM on June 1, 2023

MetaFilter: The random appearances of Bill Murray seem to be truly random, though.
posted by May Kasahara at 8:09 AM on June 1, 2023

Yeah, back in the 80's there was a whole "University Concert Board" thing which used student association fees to bring in The Ramones and shit. Their agents were all in and sent around lists.

I don't think that's quite the same thing. Potentially reaching thousands of college students is a way to find new fans vs corporate gigs who are just background entertainment.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:25 AM on June 1, 2023 [3 favorites]

Yeah, there's another circuit I know, I guess it's sort of the regional fair/community event circuit. A friend of mine now departed was friends with someone who made decisions about the community event calendar for the smallish city in which he lived, and he was asked several years in a row to give picks from a list of bands that were available and were within the city budget for such things. I think there were usually 20-30 bands in the list and he could vote on 5, and often his choices were amongst those chosen for the season. That's how I got to see Ziggy Marley doing this really bizarre psychedelic-reggae live set that completely blew my mind, and when I bought the album it was nothing like that at all and I was very much disappoint.

Anyway, there are all kinds of levels of things bands are willing to do. I think half the reason the B-52s "stopped touring" to do a Vegas Residency and appear at festivals is they got shunted onto the Casino Band circuit, and if you're stuck there you end up playing to crowds that are largely comped tickets to casino winners with a small group of paying fans and the room is dead and depressing. If you're on the fair/community event circuit, at least people are generally paying to see you and not being handed tickets as a perk on their points card.
posted by hippybear at 3:59 PM on June 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

crowds that are largely comped tickets to casino winners with a small group of paying fans and the room is dead and depressing.

Neil Peart wrote in one of his books about how dispiriting it was to play at a venue attached to a casino (he mentioned the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and another venue in Atlantic City) because the front three rows would be populated by dead-eyed people who got their tickets because they lost a ton of money gambling, instead of the maniacal air-drumming fanatics that usually populated a Rush concert. I don't know if Rush ever did private events (Neil certainly never wrote about any, and he documented his life pretty exhaustively through the 2000s and 2010s, but they could have done them under an NDA, I suppose) but it's pretty surreal to imagine them being background music at some corporate shindig or billionaire's birthday.
posted by Daily Alice at 5:38 PM on June 3, 2023

Well, that explains why I saw Flo Rida play Thursday night under the 25th reunion tent at my undergrad's annual reunions in 2014. It was entertaining but surreal, and I wondered how many of the people who had graduated in 1989 actually wanted to listen to him (Young MC, another year, somehow made more sense).

I can say that I've stood 10 feet from Flo Rida as he sang "Don't Stop Believin'," though, without paying a cent for it, which certainly was an experience...
posted by ilana at 10:22 AM on June 4, 2023 [1 favorite]