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Friday Afternoon Diversion
Jay-Z Announces 2010 Tour Dates. Chicago Not On List.
Around Town
I Fight Dragon$
Live Nation has put the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park up for sale after an evaluation on their real estate holdings by CB Richard Ellis. If the venue is sold, it does not mean that concerts won’t be held there anymore, but it sounds pretty likely that this single-use venue could become a warehouse. With rezoning of the 110-acre property, we can imagine condos, condos, town homes, and more condos filling up the site, too.
There are a million ways to make a buck or two off music. Ask any agent, manager, promoter, scalper or artist - they have some ideas or maybe even a business plan. We don’t think that dwindling ticket sales or lack of available artists that can sell 28,000 tickets are the main reasons for the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre’s sale by Live Nation, which stated many factors were involved. We think it’s more likely that the venue only has one use and therefore less opportunity to bring home the bacon for Live Nation. This corporation cannot live on live music alone.
Live Nation brings in 17% of their total revenue in the venues and sponsorship aspect of their business. (They have brought in $584 million in the first quarter of 2007 overall.) The FMBA nee Tweeter Center nee World Music Center can only add to that revenue by hosting more concerts. Unlike other similarly sized venues in the Chicagoland area - the United Center, Toyota Park and the Allstate Arena - the FMBA only books live music. All three of these other venues have sports teams operating out of them, which gives the venue owners more opportunity for ticket sales than the mere 13 concerts scheduled this year out in Tinley Park. Plus, these venues are indoor, unlike the outdoor FMBA, and have more than just the summer to rake in cash for their owners.
If this sale becomes the death knell for concerts at the World (we just can’t stop calling it that), how should the venue’s epitaph be written? What were some of the best concerts held there? What will we miss about going to Tinley Park for a concert? It certainly won't be the drive.
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The other reason they're selling the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre nee Tweeter Center nee World Music Center? It's in frickin' Tinley Park, and who wants to drive all the way down there and then back to the city after a couple "concert refreshments?"
I tend to stick to venues I can get to via public trans or a reasonably affordable cab fare.
I did have some good times at The World though ... Bowie, the first couple Lollas ... ah, memories.
It will most likely become a subdivision. Best concert at the world would have to be
July 3rd 1994 Metallica Justice For All Tour
The bonfire in the middle of the lawn during "jump in the fire" could only be trumped by the half stick that landed (and exploded) three feet from me during "battery"
Most remembered concert would be the Dead 1990? Nothing like filling up at the speedway gas station on harlem the day before and seeing all the hippies coming out of the "shower" in the back of the convenient mart, then making their way back to the "camp ground" on the shoulder of I-80.
Last time I was out there was for Farm Aid in 05, good show, easy to get in, easy to get out. Not the case at any other venue in the area. Haven't been to Bridgeview yet, but I doubt it can be easy to get in considering it takes half an hour on a normal day to travel from 87th to 63rd.
Best World Memories:
- My high school graduation was held there in 1996.
- Seeing traffic stopped alongside I-80 listening to the Grateful Dead.
I think Bowie/NIN was one of my favorites out there. The drive is definitely the biggest downfall of the venue for me, too.
Going to see Paul Simon and Bob Dylan with my dad.
I had my HS graduation there too. My friends and I got up on stage during rehearsal and started singing. To this day, we still claim to have performed at the World Music Theatre.
I saw some - in retrospect - really lame bands there but always had a good time even though I couldn't really see from the lawn, and the sounds was less than amazing.
Hootie and the Blowfish, Dave Matthews, the Spin Doctors, Blues Traveler. Oh the memories...it was my Vietnam. Here's a drink to the World.
I remember being dragged there to see Jimmy Buffett with my family.
The horror... the horror...
I think it's going to an auto mall.
And on the same day that Live Nation is offering face value tickets (if purchased at House of Blues box office)! I couldn't care less what they do there. The last concert I remember was I think the second Lollapalooza. I'm from the north side, have no reason to visit Tinley Park.
I should run across the street and get the $3.79 Poison tickets!
Good Riddance if true,
Ok, I KNOW you don't go to a concert for the architectural merits of the particular venue but The World, or Tweeter or whatever it's called lately was especially offensive. I couldn't help but laugh at what looked like a motel on stilts above the main pavillion seats. The whole place looked like used space station movie set. In a city full of ugly venues (Allstate, United Center, etc.) this place took the cake, and to drive all the way out there to boot. See ya!
Oh, and for the record (pun intended) I did enjoy the concert: the Q101 Jamboree 97. Awesome lineup!
Good Riddance to that poor excuse for a venue. Worst sound, sight lines, location, overpriced vending and NO TAILGATING rule!!
1994 wasn't the And Justice For All tour for Metallica, it was the Shit in the Sheds Tour.
Great show. Danzig and Suicidal Tendencies opened.
yep that was it... I smoked a lot in the 90's, now I don't care what the temperature is... (K.M.)
I remember when the world first opened, the sound was awesome, it was so loud we could hear concerts clearly at my cousins house in Orland Hills at least 5 miles away. Somewhere after the first season, things began to suck with redesign of the grass seating and limitations on how loud the band was allowed to turn up the music.
Guarantee it ends up being a housing/retail development.
This is one of many sheds LiveNation is trying to sell, including the ones in Indy and Columbus (Nashville's already sold).
Problem is, when they were built they were in rural areas, but now that the suburbs have caught up, the land is worth way more than could be made on any concerts.
Can't say I'll miss the World though.
This could also mean a severe increase in shows at Charter One. Wouldn't be surprised if they try and increase capacity next season too.
yeah - that drive sucks balls if you're coming from the city. It takes FOREVER and no one is ever quite sure where it is or when you're near, etc. too bad there isn't a train out there.
Oh hell. I'm supposed to go there to see Rush in September. I wonder what will happen to shows that are already booked there.
(I've never actually been there before. Amazing since I grew up in the South 'Burbs.)
I'm a city girl with no car, so you could only imagine the trek (literally) out there for me. Thank goodness it was only twice in one summer. I think it was 1999, the year of the STP and Red Hot Chili Peppers double feature. That was the best live performance I saw for the longest time until usurped by NIN at Rosemont in 2005. Oh well, no loss.
It's been a while since I've been out there, and I can't say I've missed it. Drove to a few shows there when I was living in far Northerburbs- now that's a drive and a half. Some memories, though, good & bad...
The middle-aged couple sitting next to me at the REM show, who asked me if the band opening was "KEE-nu Reeves' band?" It was Wilco.
Almost getting pummeled by an intoxicated guy with a buzz-cut, at Lilith Fair.
Flip-side Farm Aids:
'97: Beck w/ Willie Nelson!
'98: Hootie & the Blowfish
'97: Neil Young solo acoustic w/a half-hour rant about nuclear plants or pollution or something
'98: Neil plays about an hour of guitar skronk with Phish, disappointing both his fans and Phish's
That Paul Simon Bob Dylan show was fricking great.
Oooh! My experience at a Jimmy Buffett show- everybody was reeeeeealllyy drunk, my friend got into an argument with his fiance, who took off her ring and THREW it at him in the lawn, at which point it disappeared. He actually somehow got it back the next day, giving the story a better ending than the associated marriage.
RIP First Midwest Bank Tweeter New World Amphitheatre Center Music Center!