Monthly Archives: June 2008

I didn’t make it to Rock The Garden last weekend – I was rocking the ballroom of the downtown Marriott wedding-style instead – but I’m obviously jealous of all y’all who managed to get in. Mostly mostly mostly for the Cloud Cult set, duh, but Bird would have been nice to see, too. (I can live without the NewPo stuff (sorry, Ginny!), and I’m already ticketed-up for the Bon Iver show at First Ave, so yeah, less jealousy there.)
For the most part the reviews were fair to middlin’. Music wise people seemed to like it, but operationally not so much. Need examples? Check out the extra cranky comments over on The Current’s Blog Summary of the day. Yikes! Long lines for corporate burritos? Crappy sound? What is this, Bonnaroo 2002? Wah wah wah. Breaking news: these one-off type of events rarely go smoothly and anyone who assumes otherwise is just silly. Now here’s the part where we share a laugh over the people saying 4 artists for $35 is crazy expensive and that a ticket price like that should mean everything goes perfectly. They’ve clearly never waited 5 hours to get out of the parking lot at Alpine Valley after spending $60 to hear Mickey sing ‘Fire on the Mountain’. Holla!
Anyway, I waded through the various noise for awhile hoping to find the one thing that had been bugging me about the whole event, but [oddly] nobody mentioned it. Are you ready? Good. How about how it’s sponsored by a [local] [public] radio station and it’s all about the music and it’s a super hot ticket and wtf, why didn’t they just simulcast it on the radio? This isn’t Star Party, it’s a Real Show. Cloud Cult could use the exposure, right? Would they really be against something like this? Bon Iver? Bird? Really? And what about MPR? Something like that gets torrented and instantly you’ve broadened your audience and your brand and your fanbase. With all due respect, Mr. Kling, this was a no brainer. And it’s not like this is some crazy new idea, either. In fact, The Current has done it once before (that I know of), for an Arcade Fire show at First Avenue a few years back. It’s great, I listen to it all the time. But honestly, that’s the only time I know that they’ve done it. And it’s a shame. Because doesn’t this seem like it was a perfect opportunity? Yes it does. Though there are plenty of other shows they should do it for, too. So let’s not lose faith. Because we gotta have faith-a-faith-a-faith-AH*.
* – this should not be seen as a request to simulcast the George Michael show at the X. At least I’m pretty sure it shouldn’t be.