[HandBanana]

Hahahahhah. What a colossally lame headliner.
If that wasnt just a desperate cop-out then these promoters have their heads far far up their asses.
And saying 311 is relevant in 2011 because they went Gold in 2001 (not a hard thing in those days) is equivalent to having Pablo Cruise headline a festival in 1990 on the same merits.



* - full disclosure: I actually love Pablo Cruise, but still.

[McBain II]

Originally Posted by HandBanana

And saying 311 is relevant in 2011 because they went Gold in 2001

Way to ignore the rest of my post and zero in on one little line. Anyways, they actually went gold in as well 2004 with their Greatest Hits album and went platinum later that year with the 311 day DVD. If you really want Uplifter debuted at #2 on the Billboard charts and the lead single "Hey You" hit #3 on the alternative charts and that was less than 2 years ago.

No matter what your opinion of them may be, they are still a very popular act with a huge draw.

It's also much harder to get those RIAA certifications these days as well with the continuing rise of peer to peer networking. Case in point, prior to 1999 or so, the top selling album of any given year was selling about 7 to 9 million albums a year, yet these days they only sell about 2.7 to 3.5 million. That's a 50-60% dropoff in just a few short years. That obviously has to be taken into consideration.

[HandBanana]

Cake just debuted at number one with less than 100k in first week sales tho.
Plus:
The Gold and Platinum threshold for DVDs is way lower than for records.
The Alternative charts are pretty easy to get a hit on as well as its not based on mainstream sales/airplay.

Now Im not saying they dont have a fanbase, and playing their hometown will surely help their draw although they JUST played a free outdoor show there like 2 years ago, so...

It's just a wildly unimaginative booking and in the long shadow of what Kanrocksas put together its really pathetic.

Who will the rest of the lineup be? Big Head Todd? The Nixons? The long-awaited Blue Moon Ghetto reunion that absolutely no one is clamoring for?

It's 2011. The music "world" has changed like 4 or 5 times since 311 forced chuckles with their vanilla milquetoast white rasta rap schtick. "Relevance" as it is commonly used means more than "can you find some people that give a ****?"

In the world of 2011, 311 may as well be Ugly Kidd Joe.

[McBain II]

Originally Posted by HandBanana

Now Im not saying they dont have a fanbase, and playing their hometown will surely help their draw although they JUST played a free outdoor show there like 2 years ago, so...

That free concert was either 2004 or 2005. It was part of Omaha's 100th birthday celebration.

The Gold and Platinum threshold for DVDs is way lower than for records.

Uhh, no, it's exactly the same as it is for singles and standard albums. 500k units for Gold, 1 million for Platinum and 2 million for multi-platinum.

RIAA - Recording Industry Association of America

And saying 311 has a fanbase is putting it mildly. In the last 4 years I've seen them pack full the Ford Amphitheater twice and Ruth Eckerd Hall once. They have a very large following and are still a prime headlining act.

The Alternative charts are pretty easy to get a hit on as well as its not based on mainstream sales/airplay.

It's a genre specific chart, one in which the acts that populate it tend to get very little crossover appeal. Case in point, 311 only cracked the top 50 on the U.S Hot 100 twice, "Down" and "All Mixed Up" being those singles. None of Transistor's singles charted the Hot 100 but they all charted on the Alternative charts at the album went platinum.

It's just a wildly unimaginative booking and in the long shadow of what Kanrocksas put together its really pathetic.

I have no idea what the motivation was, and I don't disagree that MECA has probably botched this event a fair degree, but 311 was a very solid booking.

It's 2011. The music "world" has changed like 4 or 5 times since 311 forced chuckles with their vanilla milquetoast white rasta rap schtick. "Relevance" as it is commonly used means more than "can you find some people that give a ****?"

In the world of 2011, 311 may as well be Ugly Kidd Joe.

Ok, so it's about you not liking their music. I can understand that, but your opinion isn't what decides whether this was a good move or not. MECA is more concerned with the fact that they just signed up an extremely well known band with the ability to pack any major venue that just happens to have local roots and has promoted the city long before it was cool to do so.

Oh and one last thing, 311 ditched the rap/rock thing quite sometime ago. Their style has evolved significantly from those days.

[HandBanana]

Word is that the last time they played Omaha on their own was at the 9k seat Mid America and they pulled around 2k.

If that's true then it sorta puts holes in that theory.

[McBain II]

Originally Posted by HandBanana

Word is that the last time they played Omaha on their own was at the 9k seat Mid America and they pulled around 2k.

If that's true then it sorta puts holes in that theory.

Yeah, I'm gonna call bull**** on that one. Let's see a source.

[HandBanana]

Like I said "word is"

It was posted on the Red Sky FB page.

Plus if 311 were the relevant festival draw you are suggesting they are, why arent they playing Coachella, Lollapalooza, Sasquatch, etc?

Again (and hopefully for the last time) RELEVANCE isnt a matter of "do you have fans or not?" as much as its a matter of "what position do you hold in the culture?" Nickelback regularly sell millions too. Doesnt make them relevant either.

No one here is saying 311 cannot get people to show up at their concerts, though I am interested in finding out if that Mid America attendance number is true. But to the state of current and popular music in the year 2011 they are clearly irrelevant regardless of having a hanging-on following.

[McBain II]

Originally Posted by HandBanana

Like I said "word is"

It was posted on the Red Sky FB page.

Great, so you have the unsubstantiated words of some dumbass on Facebook. That's a great source there!

On the flip side, I've personally been there when they easily sold out a 2200 seat venue on a spring tour with some no name opening act and twice when they nearly sold out a 20,000 seat amphitheater two years in a row and several years removed from an album release. They currently have a summer tour in the works (of which Red Sky will be a part of) where they will once again be the headline act at major venues all across the country.

Plus if 311 were the relevant festival draw you are suggesting they are, why arent they playing Coachella, Lollapalooza, Sasquatch, etc?

I never claimed they were a big "festival draw" specifically, although there isn't a whole lot of difference there. I wouldn't use Lollapalooza as an example though as that one was on the defibrillator until just this year when they pulled a major rabbit out of their hat.

Again (and hopefully for the last time) RELEVANCE isnt a matter of "do you have fans or not?" as much as its a matter of "what position do you hold in the culture?" Nickelback regularly sell millions too. Doesnt make them relevant either.

Dude, do you even have a point here? I can't fathom how you can harp on a band not being "culturally significant" and then use Nickelback as an example when they've sold about 35 million albums worldwide (about 21 mil in America alone) and have a whole slew of hits on both the alternative and top 100 charts. You don't get much more culturally significant than that.

No one here is saying 311 cannot get people to show up at their concerts, though I am interested in finding out if that Mid America attendance number is true. But to the state of current and popular music in the year 2011 they are clearly irrelevant regardless of having a hanging-on following.

Their last album debuted at #2 on the Billboard charts and it's lead single hit #2 on the charts and they continue to headline major concert venues.

Yes, they're still relevant in current and popular music.

[Spraynard Kruger]

Originally Posted by HandBanana

Like I said "word is"

It was posted on the Red Sky FB page.

Plus if 311 were the relevant festival draw you are suggesting they are, why arent they playing Coachella, Lollapalooza, Sasquatch, etc?

I agree with you.

Those festivals are geared towards emerging/indie artists with strong support from formerly emerging artists, such as Arcade Fire, that have broken through to mainstream success. And, of course, they usually are anchored by one or two mainstream acts...but the focus is primarily independent acts which is what gives those festivals a great vibe.

I imagine that throwing a (profitable) festival in middle America would be difficult if using the same rulebook. Those festivals garner a rather small turnout when one considers the population of the metropolitan areas they draw from. The festival circuit is pretty crowded these days, but I would imagine that a festival in Omaha has to try and please everybody...so you are going to see a larger ratio of also-rans to hipster or established acts.

Also....bravo on your description/commentary on 311. Nail meet hammer!

[bighusker]

Originally Posted by Bosco55David

I never claimed they were a big "festival draw" specifically, although there isn't a whole lot of difference there. I wouldn't use Lollapalooza as an example though as that one was on the defibrillator until just this year when they pulled a major rabbit out of their hat.

That's a pretty ridiculous assertion. They set an attendance record of 240,000 in 2010 after setting an attendance record around 225,000 in 2008 and 2009 (source - Turn It Up: Lollapalooza 2010). And oh yea, all of that happened during a pretty severe recession where people were making significant cutbacks to their spending.

Here are a few of the major acts from the past few years:

2010 - Soundgarden (right after they reunited), Green Day, Lady Gaga, The Strokes

2009 - Depeche Mode, Tool, Rise Against, The Killers, Kings of Leon,The Killers, Snoop Dog

2008 - Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine (again, right after they reunited), Kanye West, Nine Inch Nails

It's pretty hypocritical to admonish someone else for pulling assertions out of their butt when you pretty much did the exact same thing, don't ya think?