Muse Headed to Salt Lake City, April 5, 2010–Inching Closer to Coachella Festival Appearance?
By Losanjealous - Tuesday December 08th 2009 |
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Consequence of Sound had their Coachella 2010 appearance “confirmed” almost a month ago, but breaking news of a date in Salt Lake City on April 5, 2010 just about makes it inevitable. Can’t see the guys packing up and going home without a quick stop in the desert ten days after that SLC date.
The question is can Muse realistically headline a night themselves, or will they just play a late slot on the main stage before some other headliner?
Don’t kid yourself. I see them headlining Saturday much like the Killers did this year. Stack Fri/Sun with the heavyweight oldies and force the 3-day sale.
After all, they played Verizon 2+ years ago and that holds north of 16k – nearly the size of the bowl. Pics courtesy Audree:
http://www.losanjealous.com/2007/09/25/muse-the-verizon-wireless-ampitheatre-92107/
Muse is a curious case. Their cult fan base fills huge big city gigs but they have low U.S. record sales (Killers kill their retail numbers comparatively) and zero real mainstream awareness Stateside. Then in 2009 someone flips the switch on them and decides they’d be big right… NOW– tour with U2, do the VMAs, headline KROQ’s Xmas show, play SNL next week. Even if they finally move some records, they established a winning model for bands–it’s all about the live show, the store product is secondary.
Victor Jerry Garcia is laughing at you, high as a kite in heaven, for alleging Muse “established” the retail-be-damned model. And so is Muse; back-to-back 2010 Wembley dates. Add both those nights together and they’ll blow U2 out of the water, attendance-wise.
I guess I should have elaborated “established A winning model for TODAY’S bands that works in the CURRENT cultural/business climate and ultimately wins over mainstream media inclusion.” Safe to say The Dead never received–nor pursued, probably–the kind of mainstream injection Muse is getting today. But it’s hard to invoke them or Phish for that matter in any rational discussion of ANYTHING today besides, maybe, ice cream flavors.
Muse actually has the huge sales numbers abroad to correlate with their megasized Euro shows, so it’s just their unique U.S. career arc we’re talking about.
I’m sure Sung knows better than I do about this stuff anyhow.
Jerry is still laughing at you, high as a kite in heaven, only now it’s because you reminded him of Chery Garcia and he’s off to find a pint. God blessed Jerry
Ha, you give me too much credit, Victor, but I’ll try to add to the discussion anyway. In the past you would hear and read comments about Muse’s sound being too difficult to categorize/market for mainstream US radio – not hard enough for metal, too esoteric for pop, yadda yadda. I don’t, and probably all of their fans as well, care about that stuff. If it means having the opportunity to see them in smaller venues here while they’re selling out arenas and headlining festivals elsewhere, then great. I’ll take it as long as I can get it. To further your argument I think it’s all about their live sound. Until recently they didn’t have elaborate stage setups and let’s face it, besides Matt, they’re stage presence isn’t extraordinary. They’ve slowly increased their fan base in the US mostly through the power of their live sound. Which is pretty amazing. I remember getting to Coachella ’04 early and enduring the heat to catch their early set. At the front there were a handful of Muse fans and a sea of Cure fans (mostly seated and all dressed in black) who were there to stake out their spots. But how great would it have been to see them circa Showbiz in ’99 at the Viper Room or The Roxy.
Has anybody floated u2 coachella 2010 yet? Makes total sense as a fest warmup to glasto; then Anaheim in June w the same stage already over here. Just throwing it out there.
I hate to be the one to pull the curtain back and reveal the ugly inner workings of the biz, but I would guess that U2′s deal with the fine folks at Live Nation prevents it from playing any festivals put on by the fine folks at AEG/Goldenvoice.
Phew. By inner workings I thought you were referring to the secret proprietary technology behind the Losanjealous Reader’s Poll.
One will buy the other by then. Whether they go Livenvoice or GoldNation is still up in the air.
I went to their show in Vegas a month ago, and it was the best concert I’d been to. Plus it was absolutely packed, they’ll be fine. I personally know a ton of people who already have tickets, I’ve managed to get 4.