Ouch

[Pretty Funky]

From below


Beach Boys concert in Dewey Beach canceled
By Roger Hillis
Staff Writer


The Beach Boys will not be surfing into Dewey Beach on July 1 as originally planned.

The band was booked to perform at the 1,000-capacity Baycenter at Ruddertowne, but the show has been canceled, booking agent Vikki Walls said today.


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"The advance ticket sales weren't going as well as we'd hoped," Walls said. "We suggested it might be a good idea to cancel the show and they agreed."

Due to the relatively small size of the Baycenter, tickets were priced at $70 with the hopes of breaking even. The band will play the Borgata in Atlantic City on June 30, where tickets are priced at about $50. "I don't know if it's because our show was general admission and we don't have seats at the Baycenter or what," Walls said. "It's hard to tell."

Perhaps the Beach Boys have simply oversaturated the market; recent years have seen them play shows in Ocean City, Salisbury, Dover and even the former Punkin Chunkin' site off Route 1 between Lewes and Milton.

The group only includes two original members, Mike Love and Bruce Johnston; songwriting wiz Brian Wilson is sticking with his solo career (and much larger venues).
Walls said tickets to several concerts at the Baycenter's sister club, the Bottle & Cork, are selling much more briskly.

The 2006 "American Idol" champion, Taylor Hicks, will perform July 3. "He sold 210 tickets within the first 48 hours," Walls said.

Meanwhile, Celtic-punk band the Dropkick Murphys has also sold a ton of tickets to its Aug. 8 concert this week, Walls said Tuesday. "They sold 70 tickets yesterday and then we had another 50 calls today," she said.


E-mail Roger Hillis at rhillis@gannett.com 
 

[HeyJude]

I have no interest in seeing Mike and Bruce, and I wouldn't be surprised if market oversaturation could be one of a number of reasons for lagging ticket sales under certain circumstances. But my guess would be that the Mike and Bruce tour doesn't play particularly smaller venues than Brian's tours. I've seen a number of cases where both tours have played the same venue in the same year or within a few years of each other. I just saw Brian at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga on June 11th, and the Mike and Bruce band are scheduled there for some time in July if I'm not mistaken.

I think the majority of Brian's tours have covered indoor theaters that seat a few thousand, and sometimes he's hit outdoor amphitheaters that can seat up to 15,000 or so including large general admission grass areas and the like.

Looking at the Brian shows I've been to, it looks something like the following based on my guesses as to capacity:

1999 - Warfield Theatre - San Francisco, CA - an indoor theatre that might seat a thousand or two.

2000 - Mountain Winery - Saratoga, CA - outdoor venue seats around 1800

2001 - Shoreline Amphitheater - Mountain View, CA - seats around 15,000, but I think something like 10,000 of that consists of the general admission grass area. Plus, this was a venue booked on the Paul Simon tour, and the only other times Brian has played this venue are the Bridge Benefit shows

2004 - Davies Symphony Hall - San Francisco, CA - indoor theatre, again probably seats a few thousand

2005 - Greek Theatre - Berkeley, CA - outdoor amphitheatre type venue, not sure about capacity, but it appeared to be even less than Shoreline

2007 - Paramount Theatre - Oakland, CA - indoor venue, the largest of the indoor theatres I've seen him at, but I would guess it might seat 5,000 or so

2007 - Mountain Winery - Saratoga, CA - see above

[Fun Is In]

Bruce and Mike are coming to a local Indian casino and I considerd going.
Haven't seen the show since I attended an embarassingly bad performance (that even garnered a bad review in the local paper) in the 80s.

Then I checked out the prices.

I didn't go and do the inflation adjustment, but Beach Boys shows were both a LOT better and a LOT cheaper in the 70s.

None for me, thank you very much.

[PMcC]

...But I'm understanding Brian is getting a few thousand people to buy tix to watch his show. Mike and Bruce seem to have trouble selling a couple hundred.