Is Aerosmith ‘09 Tour Becoming Van Halen ‘08 Tour?
— July 3, 2009 1 88Having just begun their much-anticipated summer tour with ZZ Top, Boston rockers Aerosmith have postponed two shows due to an “artist injury.” The show at Cincinnati’s Riverbend Music Center was called off Wednesday night and the group issued a statement yesterday announcing that Sunday’s show in Virginia Beach has been postponed as well.
One cannot help but think of similar events a little over a year ago when Van Halen abruptly started postponing shows and eventually began offering similar explanations regarding the health of one of the band members.
Virginia-area fans seem to be having a run of bad luck where big classic rock acts are concerned since the Charlottesville show was the first one that was postponed by Van Halen last year and Virginia Beach was the second show to be axed by Aerosmith this time.
Photo Credit: Chris Gampat
Although the explanation provided by Aerosmith for the postponements is a bit vague and no doubt has fans wondering what’s ailing who, at least they announced a reason in pretty short order, unlike Van Halen, who were suspiciously mum about why they were suddenly calling off shows. That led to speculation that included rumors of a barroom brawl, as well as a lot of talk about the state of Eddie Van Halen’s sobriety.
Eventually, Van Halen released information that revealed it was indeed Eddie Van Halen’s health that was behind the tour’s abrupt halt, but insiders (including Eddie Van Halen’s ex-wife Valerie Bertinelli) were adamant in their statements that claimed his problems had nothing to do with drug or alcohol abuse. As far as I know, the details of his medical problems at that time were never made public.
As we all know, Van Halen did indeed return to the road and finish up what turned out to be a very successful tour – something we can probably expect from Aerosmith once the medical issues are resolved.
It’s understandable that fans would be upset about cancellations after spending their time and money, and in some cases, even showing up at the event only to discover that it had been postponed. I suppose this is the kind of thing that fans may have to anticipate when the acts they are going to see are comprised of people that have been performing since Nixon was President – and maybe even longer than that!
Even though Aerosmith has publicly announced that the postponements are due to an injury, there are rumors circulating that suggest poor ticket sales may be the real culprit. The reason for the speculation about poor ticket sales? According to AntiMusic, high ticket prices for Aerosmith’s home-town show in Boston kept fans away and resulted in about 3,000 empty seats in the 10,000-seat venue.
That turn of events reportedly led Live Nation to send reps out onto the lawn and start offering inside seating to fans for an additional $20. With tickets for the good seats demanding a cool $233 a pop at that show, I can easily understand why there might be a noticeable number of them empty when the Bad Boys From Boston were about to take to the stage.
I admit I’m not a huge Aerosmith fan, but when I ask myself if I would be willing to part with $233 to see one of my favorite classic rock acts, I’m still coming up with the same answer. No way.
Even if money was no object, I think I would still ‘object’ to those prices (the English language is sometimes an amusing plaything). Asking for that kind of money to see these guys – especially in this economy – is just crazy, and frankly, comes across as a bit arrogant.
While money is likely not a problem for anyone within the ranks of Aerosmith, that’s certainly not the case for the vast majority of their fans. Maybe the time they have on their hands during this break in their tour would be best spent thinking a little more about their fans and less about that next new Harley or vacation home.
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Virginia Beach was not the 2nd Aerosmith show to be postponed during the 09′ tour, but rather it was the 3rd after Cincinnati (1st) and Hershey, PA (2nd).