Screw The Birchmere. Long Live The Fillmore.
As reported just about everywhere, The Birchmere appears to have inked a deal with College Park, and Live Nation is putting in a Fillmore in DTSS. How long have The Birchmere folks been talking to College Park? To Doug Duncan? Since before they and their supporters became incredulous at the breakdown in negotiations?
The bigger question is: Who cares? I don’t. If the Fillmore gets built, I will have gotten my wish. And the details of the Fillmore deal indicate a 500-person seating capacity, with 2,000 fitting in sans furniture. I think that can satisfy multiple groups.
I also saw some banter about the fact that Clear Channel owns The Fillmore. Yes, they are evil. No, I don’t listen to traditional radio (other than NPR) because of companies like them. (Long live Radio Paradise!) Yes, I think the payola people should be jailed and beaten. But you you know what? As long as they bring good acts on a regular schedule and make ticket prices somewhat accessible (as much as, say, 9:30), I don’t care if Clear Channel owns the venue. Quit bitching and either listen to the music or don’t. Buy a ticket or don’t. Or drive your happy ass to College Park and take in some sensitive-acoustic-folk-rock.
I also agree with Silver Spring, Singular that we should sell Prince George’s County our Birchmere banners and recoup some out-of-pocket costs.
Now for Something Completely Different
I left work after a morning meeting and spent most of my day yesterday playing Halo 3. Add me to what the Washington Post is calling “a Toll on the Worforce.”
8 Comments so far
Dude, we missed Michael “NTAC” Bolton at the Birchmere last week.
I heard they celebrated the Birchmere announcement in College Park by burning a dulcimer on Route 1.
Yeah, but he’s just a no-talent ass clown.
Yes, but the tears of the Bolton clown are being shed all the way to the bank. True, he’s ‘no talent’, but he’s sold 50 million records (according to a blistering review in the Post the other day).
I doubt Michael Bolton really gives a rats ass about his critics…and neither would I if I had his money.
He’s sold 50 million albums? I thought the Birchmere didn’t book “commercial” acts.
Damn, if I didn’t have meetings all this week, I’d be doing the same thing (Halo)…
Michael Bolton and His Echo at the Birchmere
By Dave McKenna
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, September 22, 2007; Page C05
Michael Bolton wouldn’t leave his house if he cared about critics. And he certainly wouldn’t ever put on a show like the one at the Birchmere on Thursday, in which he threw his arsenal of “divo” stage antics and cliched song selections at a half-empty club.
But Bolton is a club-half-full sort of performer, and he has more than 50 million reasons — one for each album he’s sold over the years — not to care about critics, who risk committing malpractice by doing anything but pummel the guy. He also has his incredibly devoted fans, though apparently not as many as he once had: The concert was billed as “An Intimate Evening With Michael Bolton,” and, with tickets running $100 apiece, the setting was a lot more intimate than the singer or club management would have hoped.
Read the rest on Washingtonpost.com…just enter Michael Bolton in the search box
I would think he could get a much bigger crowd that included “nothing else to do” people if the tickets were less than $100. But he’s got the money – he must know something. And maybe he likes hearing the echo of his own voice.
Nice comment on the “non-commercial” acts, btw.
People can cry and moan about the evils of Clear Channel all they want, but I guarantee you as soon as their favorite band plays here, they’ll be first in line.
Maybe we should all be more sensitive to the angst Michael Bolton must feel sometimes: http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/no_one_sets_out_to_be_a_smooth