The only thing cooler than when you find out your favorite band is coming to town on tour is when your other favorite band is opening for them. But ever since big corporations have started putting together tours, that seems to happen less and less.
When record labels started packaging opening bands on tours a long time ago, it was to warm up concertgoers for the headlining act. The labels would choose a newer band that had a similar sound and style to the headliner. The band got to play to a large crowd that was already into its genre of music, and the crowd got to see a cool band while they slowly found their way to their seats. It was a win-win situation.
Recently, it appears as if music has lost the concept of this. Tour after tour comes to town with bands that sound nothing alike playing together. It’s a nightmare. It divides the crowd, alienates the bands and hurts ticket sales. It makes no sense.
When I was given the flyer for the upcoming Taking Back Sunday and Underoath tour, I had to give it a double take. Both are bands that I enjoy, but I wouldn’t put them on the same playlist on my iPod, much less expect to see them play back-to-back on the same stage.
Taking Back Sunday is traditionally a poppy emo band that spread its roots into rock ‘n’ roll with 2006’s “Louder Now.” Underoath is a Christian hardcore band whose 2006 album “Define the Great Line” is filled with growling guitars and blood-curling screams. Both albums are good, but evoke very different moods.
What’s going to happen is this: All the hardcore kids are going to push their way to the front for Underoath. They will mosh, kick, scream and rock out while all the pop-rock kids hang out in the back messing around on their Sidekicks. As soon as Underoath finishes its set, Taking Back Sunday will take the stage and all the hardcore kids will leave. This allows the pop-rock kids to move up to the front, but Taking Back Sunday is left with half an arena to play to.
How do I know this? Because I’ve seen it happen several times in the last year. It happened on the Take Action Tour when Hot Topic teamed up Matchbook Romance and Silverstein. It happened when Relient K got teamed up with Hawthorne Heights on last year’s Nintendo Fusion Tour.
It even happened last Friday in Pomona with the Epitaph Records Tour. Even though all the bands are on the same label, the hardcore kids cleared out after Escape The Fate and I Am Ghost, leaving The Matches with an emptier house.
Even odder than Taking Back Sunday and Underoath tour is the Alternative Press Bands You Need to Know Tour featuring pop-punk poster boys Cute Is What We Aim For with the post-hardcore experiment Circa Survive as co-headliners. These bands don’t even belong in the same state as each other, but they will be playing on the same stage every night.
What are some upcoming smart tours? Take Action finally got it right this year, pairing The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Emery. The Honda Civic Tour pairs the heavily overrated Fall Out Boy with the ex-Blink 182 members in +44. Taste of Chaos is sending out rockers The Used and 30 Seconds to Mars. These will all be fun shows that will sell a lot of tickets.
Record labels just need to pay more attention to who their bands are touring with. Putting bands with a similar sound on tour leads to more records sales because concertgoers are more likely to like the opening band. It keeps the bands happy because they feel less alienated and play to bigger crowds and it makes the show more fun for the audience because they feel like they are all part of the same scene.
It is common sense and makes the show more enjoyable for everyone.
