Morrissey To Perform Birthday Show at Valley View Casino Center

After a sold out show at the Escondido Center for the Performing Arts in November, six months later (to the day) on May 22, Morrissey will return to San Diego to play at the Valley View Casino Center. Tickets for the show go on sale Friday, April 6 at 10 am via Ticketmaster, but you can use the same link for presale tickets available on Thursday from 10am-10pm with the promo code: AEG2012

Ryan Adams Setlist

I just thought you might like to know Ryan Adams' setlist in San Diego.

Oh My Sweet Carolina
Ashes & Fire
If I Am A Stranger
Dirty Rain
Everybody Knows
Invisible Riverside
Rescue Blues
My Winding Wheel
Why Do They Leave?
Lucky Now
Please Do Not Let Me Go
Firecracker
New York, New York
Let It Ride
Blue Hotel
Carolina Rain
Two
I See Monsters
Jacksonville Skyline
Houses On The Hill
This House Is Not For Sale
Come Pick Me Up

related: Have you been to my YouTube channel lately? I have over 2000 videos. I think you might like my recent uploads.

Morrissey Ticket Presale This Thursday

Last week Morrissey announced tourdates, including November 22 at California Center For the Arts, Escondido. Tickets go onsale this Friday at 10am, but you can catch the presale here starting on Thursday at 10am. Password is AEG2011. Tickets are $55 + $11.85 in fees.

Nov. 10 Chicago, IL - Congress Theater
Nov. 14 San Antonio, TX - Majestic Theatre
Nov. 15 Austin, TX - Bass Hall
Nov. 17 Dallas, TX - McFarlin Memorial Auditorium
Nov. 19 Santa Fe, NM - Santa Fe Center
Nov. 20 Phoenix, AZ - Orpheum Theatre
Nov. 22 Escondido, CA - Center for the Arts
Nov. 25 Las Vegas, NV - The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
Nov. 26 Los Angeles, CA - Shrine Auditorium
Nov. 28 Pomona, CA - Fox Theater
Dec. 1 Oakland, CA - Fox Theater

George Michael Tickets Only $25

Oh, Los Angeles. I love how people from the big city to the north approach San Diego like we're LA. Booking shows that sell out in LA in giant venues down here with the assumption that tickets will get chomped up just as speedily.

Well, we're not LA, never will be. George Michael at Sports Arena? Cool. Tickets for crazy ticket prices? Not so much. So it appears they didn't quite get the response they were looking for, even though his tour is to start here on June 17.

This actually works out great for you. The tour is called 25 Live and for 25 hours, starting on May 25 (This Sunday), you can buy tickets at all Ticketmaster outlets for as low as $25. Don't go expecting floor seats or anything like that, but you might score something decent. Get em while you can.

Duran Du..not really. Valley View Casino, 5.8.08

Last week I did a ticket giveaway for Duran Duran at Valley View Casino and also scored a pair for myself. Daye had entered my contest and didn't win, but I asked if he was interested in being my plus one and he agreed. Both of us work until 5:30, so we weren't on the road until 6:15 or so, but surprisingly we made pretty good time to Escondido. We'd both skipped lunch, so I thought we'd arrive with time to spare to grab a bite before the show. Coming from a gambling family, I know all about the trickery of casinos, so the plan was to have Daye sign up for the Players Club to get a free buffet.



Unfortunately, while I knew the casino would require some driving east on swervy country roads, we didn't predict that most of the 15 miles would be under construction with posted speed limits of 15, 25 or 35 mph. I am highly prone to motion sickness, and for most of our ride, we were behind a giant white diesel truck, which wasn't helping my nausea.



Eventually we got to the casino, where we were directed into an overflow lot, parked, and then waited for a shuttle to drive us up the hill to the casino.



The venue looked pretty cool as we passed it coming into the casino, but we were on a mission, so while the openers, Your Vegas, played, we waited in line to get players club cards. I had been to the casino years ago with my parents, but the chick was cool and gave me a buffet voucher, too. We went to the buffet line and it was really long and not moving. You have to sign in with a hostess, they give you a time when you're allowed to lineup, but then you wait as table by table becomes available. We didn't want to miss the show, asked if there was any way to get in sooner, and they told us Duran Duran would be starting any minute and we'd be better off coming to eat after the show.

We took their advice and made our way to the venue and found our seats. And frankly, they were terrible. The cheapest seats for the show were $65 and I'll tell you, had I spent $65, regardless of the band...even supposing I was seeing my most favorite band on the planet, and we ended up in those seats, I would've made a stink, and we weren't even as far back as we could be. Row 45 doesn't sound that bad, but in a parking lot, with two seating sections split down the middle, we couldn't see jack shit. I'm not a fan of big venues anyway, and maybe I'm just spoiled, but I don't go to a concert just to hear music. If I'm not up in it, I might as well be at home listening to a CD. I was also surprised because most large venues like this at least offer projection screens on both sides of the stage so people in the back can see what's happening onstage, and there were none set up.



Like I said from the get go, we were starving, and the casino GM came out and thanked people and said they'd be a few more minutes before starting, but Daye and I conferred and decided to skip the show and get back in line for dinner. We waited quite a while, and knew there was no way we were going to see any of the show, but we were ok with that. Instead, we were seated around 9:15 and were treated to quite an amazing spread. The buffet has the standard salad bar, meat carving stations, and sides of veggies and pastas and whatnot, but it also has sushi, a ton of seafood, a cold crab and shrimp bar, lobster, NY steaks, and my favorite, oysters on the half shell. We were in hog heaven. That doesn't even mention the full dessert bar, ice cream, and chocolate fountains with fresh dipped strawberries.



It was delicious, though something that no person should do more than once a year, if not a lifetime. We finished up and headed to our shuttle and the concert venue had cleared out. We enjoyed What Made Milwaukee Famous on our long ride home and it ended up being a good night with a great friend. I don't really see myself going back to the casino for any reason, but if slots are your thing, it's a nice, albeit small, casino. And of course the buffet was awesome and at $26 regularly, it's probably well worth it, but I'm not so into being corralled into a dining establishment or waiting in line for close to an hour just to eat. As far as concert venues go, I wouldn't recommend this one, unless of course you're going to see Trace Adkins sing "Honky Tonk Bedonkadonk", then this really just my be your calling.

Best News Ever? "4th & B To Revert Back To Leaseholder"

If you haven't read this week's Blurt items over at the Reader, you are missing out!

First this:

Live Nation's major competitor, AEG, has consummated an agreement that will
allow the concert company to open a 12,500-capacity outdoor venue on the grounds of the Chargers summer training facility at 4020 Murphy Canyon Road.

"We are off 35 to 40 percent," says a person involved with promoting live music. "I think there are too many shows booked into a small, picky market."

Well shit, freakin, duh! I'm guessing the "insider" represents LiveNation in some way, since as an avid music viewer, I haven't noticed any decline at Belly Up or Casbah or any other venue that hosts good music. Maybe LiveNation, being the GIANT CORPORATE ENTITY that they are should start their own ticketing service so people don't have to pay an additional 30% of a ticket price (and sometimes more) to Ticketmaster for service charges, then maybe the venue would be full every night of the week, as it should be, because of what that venue can offer to artists and fans alike in terms of sound, accomodations, and atmosphere. House of Blues/LiveNation, if you leave San Diego, you won't be missed. Oh, and hear that tap, tap, tapping? Yeah, that's AEG and Hard Rock Hotel knocking at your door.

Then there's this separate but related piece:

A month of moved or canceled shows at 4th&B...has culminated in some type of resolution.

Insiders say Live Nation/House of Blues has decided to stop booking at the downtown club. Live Nation will allegedly allow the 1200-capacity venue to
revert back to the leaseholder, Ali Nilforshan.

Is this the demise of LiveNation? Is this San Diego standing up with our middle fingers raised saying "we're not suckas" or is this really a "small, picky market"? Because personally, I've all but cut off the House of Blues entirely as a venue. Do I want to see Stars? Yes. Do I want to see Travis? Yes. Will I go to House of Blues to see them? How about not unless someone gives me tickets and preferably a photo pass. (Some drink tickets would be great, too.) I will gladly get back on the 4th & B train and attend shows there if I know that they've been booked independently and don't have to get the full House of Blues cavity search every time I go there. Also, does this mean shows too big for the Casbah can once again be booked at 4th & B or do we still have to put up with the psycho security at Cane's? Also, as an aside...were the security always like that or was it only after my Band Of Horses incident that they cracked down? Sorry if I was the spoiler on that one, but when my friend Geoff was a manager over there it was never as bad as it is nowadays.

OK, end rant. For once I can say "great scoops, Ken!" And oh yeah, Ali- gimme a holler! Let's talk, man. I hear Jamal from House of Blues is available. Hire that boy already! And my ad rates are cheap, cheap, cheap if you need to spread the word.

Newsy Bits: AEG Expands San Diego Presence

According to George Varga in today's U-T, AEG is stepping up it's game in San Diego by getting most of the team from Viejas Entertainment, including the former president, Steve Redfearn.

Since it's already old blog news, here's the main quote that you should care about because it could mean a big bump if LiveNation is able to kidnap the bands and bring them in to the Street Scene lineup:

Meanwhile, four upcoming Viejas-booked concerts at Embarcadero Marina Park South – shows by Smashing Pumpkins, Hilary Duff, White Stripes and Diana Krall – may now be moved to yet-to-be-determined local venues operated by Live Nation.

Smashing Pumpkins has a day off the weekend of Street Scene, but since they're playing in Seattle that Saturday then Vancouver on Monday, I'm guessing they're not gonna wanna jump on it. White Stripes does seem more plausible as they have the whole weekend off, playing Berkeley on the Friday before Street Scene and Anchorage the Monday after. As I mentioned before, Cold War Kids are on tour with them and had sent out an e-mail with Street Scene on their itinerary though it has since been removed.

I think more competition to beheamoth LiveNation is good, but what I think is getting nutty is the struggle over the large venues. What improvements could they possibly make to Sports Arena to make it a not miserable concert venue? People don't wanna hear a shitty concert. Kelly Clarkson canceled remember? Coors Amphitheatre has been underselling just about every show this summer (Fall Out Boy, anyone?) I can think of maybe a handful of bands that still draw huge on tours. It would be nice if AEG focused more on creating a mid size venue to counter House of Blues and Fourth and B but that doesn't cost $75 a ticket like Humphrey's does for so many shows. We shall see how it all plays out.

Speaking of Street Scene, I missed my chance to meet Rob Hagey last night at the House of Blues. He was there for the Rusted Root show chatting with Jamal while I was trying to get to the bottom of the Di Nigunim situation.