Think back to your biggest career fuck up. Now imagine that it not only spawned hundreds of tweets and multiple think-pieces (including one from us) about just how bad of a fuck up it was, but it also launched a whole other round of discourse about whether your clients were even talented or not.
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This is exactly what happened to now-former Black Keys managers Irving Azoff and Steve Moir, after the band failed to sell even close to enough tickets to support their planned “International Players” arena tour. The tour was supposed to kick off in September with a show at Tulsa, Oklahoma’s BOK Center, a venue with a capacity of almost 20,000 people. That show, as well as 30 other stops the band had planned, will no longer be happening.
“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,” the band posted on Instagram shortly after the entire tour was removed from Ticketmaster.
That’s some pretty obvious PR speak for “we had to size down because we can’t sell venues anymore.” Similarly, representatives for Azoff and Moir telling the New York Times that the two managers had “amicably parted” with the band in the aftermath of this whole debacle is pretty likely PR speak for something far less friendly. (The Black Keys have not publicly commented on the separation as of this writing.)
But while it may be easy to blame Azoff and Moir for being a little too optimistic regarding their clients’ relevancy, they’re not the only ones who have made a mistake like this in the past few months. While mega tours sold out in seconds in 2023, the scene has been a lot more challenging for the non-Taylor Swifts and Beyoncés of the world this year. Relatively niche indie band Wallows also booked a slow-selling arena tour that definitely feels above their station. Apparently even Jennifer Lopez can’t sell arenas anymore; the artist canceled her entire summer tour last week. Hopefully, the takeaway from all of this will be a return to mid-sized venues and reasonable ticket prices—not a dearth of live music offerings as more bands continue to miscalculate and cancel altogether.