Thread: Is The Stadium Show Dead ?

I was watching some Journey videos just a few minutes ago. One of the vids showed them performing in front of a standing room concert at a stadium. There were easily 50,000 people there, if not more. Back in the halcyon days of the 1980's, Journey, Styx, Reo Speedwagon, and the Rolling Stones filled stadiums. With the 1990's, the stadium show seemed to go away. In Houston, I worked a show in 1992 at the Astrodome in 1992. Faith No More opened the show, Guns n Roses performed, and Metallica was the big name act.

Now, it's devolved to the point where Styx is playing large clubs and a lot of acts are just plain MIA. It's kind of sad. Kids are sold on rap as soon as they learn to work a keyboard and rap shows play to just small clubs.

What's your feelings on the matter ?

Originally Posted by Dudester

I was watching some Journey videos just a few minutes ago. One of the vids showed them performing in front of a standing room concert at a stadium. There were easily 50,000 people there, if not more. Back in the halcyon days of the 1980's, Journey, Styx, Reo Speedwagon, and the Rolling Stones filled stadiums. With the 1990's, the stadium show seemed to go away. In Houston, I worked a show in 1992 at the Astrodome in 1992. Faith No More opened the show, Guns n Roses performed, and Metallica was the big name act.

Now, it's devolved to the point where Styx is playing large clubs and a lot of acts are just plain MIA. It's kind of sad. Kids are sold on rap as soon as they learn to work a keyboard and rap shows play to just small clubs.

What's your feelings on the matter ?

First off, that Faith No More/GnR/Metallica show must have been a beast! Secondly, you are mistaken in laying the blame on hip-hop. The real suspect in the death of the stadium show, imo, should be the alternative/indie rock movement from the early 90's onward. It became fashionable to deride the plastic pomp and ostentation of the stadium shows favored by huge acts like the Stones and the old prog-rock giants, who were regarded by many as fossils from a different, more commercially and artistically bloated, musical era. The stadium shows and the groups who typically played them, were largely discarded by fans who voted with their wallets in favor of more intimate and "authentic" venues, corresponding to the back-to-basics sentiments held by many alternative artists at the end of the 80's. One might view that reaction as an extension or revival of the punk rock movement of the late 70's, to which 80's and 90's alternative music owed almost everything.

I personally have no problem with the stadium as a venue. Motorhead does not belong in a club .

I think you'll find the solo act filling a stadium is a little less than before, but the "big show" is still alive via festivals like Coachella and its contemporaries. Music has certainly become a "bang for your buck" situation these days regarding big names, so if you want 50k - 100k people crammed together, paying decent $$$, you're going to need LOTS of headliners.

A few years ago (2008 ?) Rush played on the beach in Rio De Janeiro. There were 100k people there, I am told. A stadium show is one thing, but a massive event like that ? I can't begin to imagine.

Houston has many pluses, but of the cities I've lived in, this one is the most concert unfriendly. In other cities, it's easy to get tickets and venue access is relativle easy. In houston, the ticket and venue thing is a byzantine maze. Tickets are immediately scarfed up by ticket brokers and resold at 100% or more markup. Venues have extremely difficult parking. You are going to have to walk a mile or more, either through the woods or through a crime infested neighborhood. Most of the Houston venues are outdoors. In summer, it's 95 degrees with 85% humidity. Who wants to sit through that ?

This is not a subject I know enough on to comment intelligently.

For good or ill the only thing I can offer or recall is this: Summerfest - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Summerfest (also known as "The Big Gig") is a yearly music festival held at the 75-acre (300,000 m2) Henry Maier Festival Park along the lakefront in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. The festival lasts for 11 days, is made up of 11 stages with performances from over 700 bands, and since the mid-1970s has run from late June through early July, always including the 4th of July holiday.[1] Summerfest attracts between 800,000 and 1,000,000 people each year, promoting itself as "The World's Largest Music Festival," a title certified by the Guinness World Records in 1999.[2][3]

Live musical acts are offered on 11 stages throughout the grounds from noon to midnight, including the 23,000-capacity Marcus Amphitheater. All shows are free with an admission ticket, with the exception of headlining acts at the Marcus Amphitheater. Admission is between $8.00 and $15.00, depending on the time of day. There are numerous promotions for discounted or free tickets.[4]

Summerfest - The World's Largest Music Festival

An amazing find. Thank you very much for sharing. I had no idea.

C'mon, Olly, give us some stats on Glastonbury.