by Clive Young.
Ask the head of a major national sound reinforcement company what the state of the industry is, and you're liable to be greeted with a chuckle. After all, what hasn't that level of the touring audio market seen in the last few months?
There's been economic turmoil, gas shortages, new gear coming down the pike, MIA artists, continued drama on the white spaces issue, last call on a major piece of standard equipment, and more. In short, it's been a rollercoaster.
Some things have been consistent--most SR providers spoken to for this report noted that the spring season was relatively strong despite the financial woes that started hitting the country as the mortgage-lending crisis grew on Wall Street. As the touring industry hit the prime summer season, things remained solid. Announced tours cut back in a few cases--most noticeably Disney's Block Party Tour, a five-week jaunt aimed at kids that took off three weeks in the middle after low ticket sales--but nothing major folded.
The number of acts on the road kept audio vendors busy during the warmest months, despite the fact that many of music's biggest stars were either sitting the year out in order to record, or headed overseas for the European summer festival season. There, they could get paid in Euros instead of the shaky dollar, and wait until the fall season to hit our shores.
For the performers that stayed in the U.S., it was a familiar summer--most of the biggest tours were perennials such as Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and The Dave Matthews Band. Only three top-grossing groups--Coldplay, Rascal Flatts and the Jonas Brothers--had been in the big leagues for less than 10 years.
Nonetheless, there was work to go around, as the usual suspects among the national tour sound providers were joined by Masque Sound (Moonachie, NJ) and Firehouse Productions (Milan, NY). While both companies have typically fielded a few national tours a year in the past, 2008 has found Firehouse on the road with Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Hall & Oates, moe., Interpol, Sigur Rós, Goldfrapp, Lou Reed, Ryan Adams and others, while Masque has been out with Van Halen, Jordin Sparks, Ministry, Celtic Woman and Jesse McCartney, as well as supporting some aspects of Maryland Sound International's Neil Diamond tour.
While the summer tour season did respectable business--and that, in turn, kept SR rental warehouses empty--some attributed the success to ticket sale dates held months earlier, before financial issues took such a firm grasp on the nation's psyche and wallet. Others attributed the black ink to a decrease in vacation travel this year due to the skyrocketing cost of gasoline. Although petrol prices have eased somewhat in recent weeks, even cheap gas costs a dollar more per gallon than it did this time last year. To cut back on consuming so much, many productions have gone on a diet, losing both weight (non-essential gear, trucks) and muscle (crew) in the process.