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GINA VIVINETTOThe new Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa is helping to lure cool concerts by top-notch performers. The older the act, the higher the ticket price.
The concert season is kicking off, ladies and gentlemen, and all the biggest musical acts are making their way to the Tampa Bay area.
Well, not all the biggest musical acts. But a bunch of them.
Most of the monster tours - Britney Spears! Dave Matthews Band! - are hitting our neck of the woods, thanks in part to the mack daddy new Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa, a 20,000-capacity outdoor venue on the Florida State Fairgrounds, which begins hosting shows in July.
The St. Pete Times Forum, too, will get back in the concert act once we get this Stanley Cup thing done. Plenty of top-notch acts that play to intimate venues such as the Tampa's Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Clearwater's Ruth Eckerd Hall, and St. Petersburg's Jannus Landing and State Theatre will be trekking through, too.
Summer's here, and the time is right for dancing in your seats. And you'll pay through the nose to do it. The average price for seats at top shows has increased more than 23 percent in the past four years, from $40.75 a ticket in 2000 to $50.35, minus all the ridiculous "handling charges," according to Pollstar, the music industry's big concert tracker.
As we've seen in recent years, the trend continues to be that the older the act, the higher the ticket price.
Get a load of how much stars are charging for tickets to their shows:
Simon & Garfunkel, yes, S&G, those balding vintage folkies who don't have so much as a light show, are charging up to $354 a ticket on the second leg of their reunion tour (the first leg included a stop in Tampa in December).
Baby boomers long ago showed they would pay outrageous amounts to see Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles. Now, we're finding that fans in their 30s and 40s will pay similarly exorbitant rates to see Madonna, whose tickets in some cities are as much as $367. Prince's tickets cost between $55 and $85 (but at least Prince includes a "complimentary" Musicology CD with his price.)
We won't have Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band or the Rolling Stones touring this summer, generating the kind of dough that those dinosaurs of rock did last year. Oh, and don't forget Paul McCartney; all three of those acts helped the touring industry earn more than $2.5-billion in 2003.
But we'll still be seeing some well-lined faces, including that of Eric Clapton, who's keeping his top ticket to a relatively reasonable $85, and Crosby, Stills & Nash (sorry, no Young).
A lot of shows, however, are going to feel like 1984 all over again.
Tampa got its visit from Prince in May, but plenty of other stars from the Me decade are returning to remind us of the days when we sported those embarrassing New Wave or Big Hair heavy metal styles.
Sting and Annie Lennox, in one of the hottest tours of the season, come together to the Ford Amphitheatre on Sept. 9. Of course, some of us old-timers still think of those two as the former lead singers of the Police and the Eurythmics, respectively.
On that same night, Van Halen, huge stars in the '80s, play the Forum. Pity the fool who can't decide which show to attend. Were any of us die-hard fans of all three acts? Hmmm. (Van Halen's lead singer this go-round will be - spin the wheel - Sammy Hagar.)
Phil Collins, yes, the fella who sang and played drums for Genesis and had scores of solo hits in the 1980s, performs at the Forum on Sept. 29.
If one artist owned the 1980s, it was Madonna. To catch the former Material Girl's "Re-Invention" tour, however, you'll have to trek to Sunrise or Miami. Madonna can't find time in her Kabbalah-studying, yoga-stretching, green-tea-drinking schedule to squeeze the Tampa Bay area into her tour.
Let's not be bitter, though. It's not good for our karma.
Madonna isn't the only singer with blond ambition who's dissing us.
Gwen Stefani and her gang won't be granting us a visit. Or so it seems. No dates here have been announced for another of the summer's hottest tours, the No Doubt/Blink-182 double bill. The tour isn't even inching near the Southeast - yet.
If you notice a lot of the buddy system in action - two big, big acts touring together - you've got a keen eye. That's another hot idea that began last year with the Justin Timberlake/Christina Aguilera tour, when the industry discovered that putting two high-profile names together meant guaranteed sales.
The trend is leading to some odd pairings, though - such as Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire (really!)
Festivals are proven ways to get lots of concert bang for the buck, and possibly heatstroke if you aren't careful (see related story). Projekt Revolution with Linkin Park, Korn, Snoop Dogg and more will spend a hot August day and night at the Amphitheatre, followed a couple of weeks later by Ozzfest 2004.
- Gina Vivinetto can be reached at 727 893-8565 or gina@sptimes.com Times staffers Cathy Wos and Wilma Norton contributed to this report.