The two hottest trends in arena concerts right now are soft sales and canceled tours. Ticket listings for the Black Keys’ upcoming tour disappeared from Ticketmaster on the Friday that opened Memorial Day weekend. A week later, Jennifer Lopez announced her upcoming self-financed tour wasn’t going to happen as she was “taking time off to be with her children, family and close friends.
” Meanwhile, heavy hitters like Justin Timberlake and Billie Eilish have upcoming Xcel Energy Center shows with vast banks of unsold seats. What’s going on? The Black Keys didn’t formally announced that they axed the tour and didn’t make a statement until days later, after some fans speculated on social media about the duo’s health and well being. “The band wants to assure everyone that Dan and Patrick are alive and well,” they posted on social media .
“We have decided to make some changes to the North American leg of the International Players tour that will enable us to offer a similarly exciting, intimate experience for both fans and the band, and will be announcing a revised set of dates shortly.” A “similarly exciting, intimate experience” is a nice way to say that ticket sales were so bad, they’re going to retreat to smaller venues. There was plenty of online chatter about the Black Keys even playing arenas in the first place, but back in the ’10s, they enjoyed a sold run of arena tours, including three stops at Target Center.
Anyone who saw the Black Keys phon.
