Plus: Rahm’s Walk-Off Music vs. Chuy’s
“Rosemont paid country superstar Garth Brooks more than $1 million to launch his comeback tour last year at Allstate Arena, records show, but officials say the village made twice that much,” the Tribune reports.
“According to an agreement between the municipality and the singer’s longtime promoter, Brooks received $1,050,000 as a ‘rebate’ for holding 11 kickoff shows at the arena. The disclosure ended the village’s five-month legal battle to keep secret the financial details surrounding Brooks’ record-breaking concert stand, which sold more than 183,500 tickets.
“Under the deal, Rosemont agreed to pay Brooks $100,000 per sold-out show and a prorated sum for shows that didn’t sell out. The village also slashed the arena’s rental fee in an effort to lure Brooks’ September 2014 performances, records show.”
Sure, but what about the rider?
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“Town spokesman Gary Mack defended the deal, saying the village still made more than $2 million from the concert stand after the rebate. The village, however, did not provide documentation to support that figure.”
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“The Tribune and the village have been at odds over the contract since September, when the newspaper submitted an open records request for documents related to Brooks’ concert run. The village initially offered the Tribune a chance to review the contract and other financial documents if a reporter signed a confidentiality agreement and agreed not to write about them. The Tribune declined.”
If Rosemont made out so well in the deal, why were they so afraid to release the paperwork?
Click through and read the whole thing.
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Fare Thee Well
“After receiving a deluge of more than 60,000 envelopes seeking tickets for three nights at Soldier Field on the Fourth of July weekend, the band’s ticketing office announced Tuesday that Deadheads have only a 1 in 10 chance that their requests will be honored,” the Seattle Times reports.
“About 90 percent of the Grateful Dead fans hoping for mail-order tickets to the band’s 50th anniversary reunion shows in Chicago are in for a bummer.”
Yeah, you could spare me the bummer language – it’s not clever. Ultimately, it’s a bit of a surprise that tickets aren’t even harder to come by. See, it’s all how you frame the story.
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Announcement: Bloodshot Yard Dog SXSW
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Speaking of Bobby Bare, Jr., sit through this gem to get to Bobby’s pa at the end.
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Joe McPhee
“It’s hard to believe Joe McPhee is 75 – and not just because he keeps turning out several albums a year, with no falloff in quality. The multi-instrumental improviser has the energy and unpredictable, erudite-to-juvenile sense of humor he had when he made his international rep in the 1970s,” Kevin Whitehead writes for Wondering Sound.
“McPhee’s second American home turned out to be Chicago. Tenor from ’76 had turned saxophonist Ken Vandermark on to creative music, and in the ’90s he started pulling McPhee in for various projects, ultimately including Brotzmann’s Chicago Tentet. Suddenly McPhee found himself with a whole new set of North European contacts, to go with old French allies like Django-meets-Jimi guitarist Raymond Boni.
“In 2013 Vandermark released Impressions of Po Music, disarmingly lovely settings of (and fantasias on) McPhee compositions, played by an animated octet including the composer. It’s a reminder of what lovely tunes he’s written; about the only thing to grumble about is the lack of rhapsodic McPhee solos on same. He defers to his younger Chicago colleagues, lets them run with the material.”
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About Last Night
Emanuel’s speech was followed by “Sweet Home Chicago.” Garcia’s was followed by James Brown’s “I Got You (I Feel Good).”
— Robert Loerzel (@robertloerzel) February 25, 2015
Posted on February 25, 2015