Billy Idol and DiscLive

OK, so here is my short (not) review of last nights events at the Billy Idol concert.
I must first explain, that i went as a birthday present for a friend of mine, and wasnt expecting too much of Billy Idol. But i go so much more.
The place was very very crowded, may have sold out last minute and it was an older crowd, over 30 anyway. And at 930 when the lights went out, man were they loud!! The crowd was so super into it as Billy came out and played Cradle of Love. He seemed rusty and slow during the opener but once he got going there was no stopping him! Rolling through Dancing With Myself, Hot In The City, Flesh for Fantasy, Eyes Without a Face and Sweet Sixteen, Bill got more and more silly and rowdy, totally feeding off of the way excited crowd. I saw more fist pumping last night than i did watching the Oscar De La Hoya fight the previous night!
He still has all of his orignial musicians i think too!!
Anyway, Rebel Yell closed out the main set and the encore included Mony Mony and LA Woman to end his 2 hour set.

But maybe the coolest part of the night was that DiscLive was there making and selling CDs of the show!!! Since i had heard about this i was anticipating it coming to DC/Baltimore and it did last night. $20 for a very very nicely packaged double disc live CD of the show, available moments after it was over! And the sound quality, 90% as good as a live CD you buy in a store (obviously they cant mix it down right there!) And they sold over 300 of them last night, probably more than the 10 shirts they probably sold off.
I thought so before, and now i am sure, thats the best damn thing the music industry has thought of in a while.

To sum it all up, Billy Idol is awesome and disclive is the best thing to happen to concerts since i turned 21! and i am very hungover today.
cool! I would have gone but I just saw him play the same set at 930 like a year or so ago…any word from him on that 10 years in the works new album :p
He did say that thier new record was coming out "next year" is what they said, and at the end he was like "See you next year" so , who knows. maybe he says that every year.
This years set was not even close to what last years was, last years lasted an hour and fifteen minutes at the most, this years was two hours easy. Last year he played that Simple Minds song, this year he didnt. He did however start of with "Cradle of Love" both times and told the same story before "Sweet Sixteen". I thought the bassist was better then last years. He was all into the show and had great backup vocals.
I'm enthralled by the idea of DiscLive. And boy, am I in trouble if this becomes prevalent, because I will buy many, many CDs if it's a good show. I'm always so pumped and never want the feeling to go away.

oy vey. But that's a good oy vey.

;)
I hear ya bags, i'd have about 40 concerts on disk a year. If i had know what that damn trailer with a looooong line of people was, i woulda bought one last night. :mad:
Me and the missus have both always hated concert albums…
Originally posted by Rhett Miller:
Me and the missus have both always hated concert albums…
Rhett, the anti-hipster strikes again.
I usually don't like live albums much either, but if it's a show I've been to, it's a whole different thing. I've watched that Black Cat Foo Fighters show online about a zillion times, and it's so cool because I get to re-live it (in a good way, not a crazy way).

Originally posted by Rhett Miller:
Me and the missus have both always hated concert albums…
Since when are concert albums HIP?

They're not as musically sounf as studio albums, and they fail to capture the real energy of a show, if that energy is a good one.

I suppose I see Bags' argument if it were a show one was at, but still the recording would just be a novelty, I'd rather have it as a memory than a recording….if there was video, well then that might be a bit better.

Originally posted by Jaguär:
Originally posted by Rhett Miller:
Me and the missus have both always hated concert albums…
Rhett, the anti-hipster strikes again.
Originally posted by Rhett Miller:
Since when are concert albums HIP?

They're not as musically sounf as studio albums, and they fail to capture the real energy of a show, if that energy is a good one.

I suppose I see Bags' argument if it were a show one was at, but still the recording would just be a novelty, I'd rather have it as a memory than a recording….if there was video, well then that might be a bit better.

Originally posted by Jaguär:
Originally posted by Rhett Miller:
Me and the missus have both always hated concert albums…
Rhett, the anti-hipster strikes again.
Actually, my comment had nothing to do with live concert albums.

Rhett, have you ever been diagnosed with oppossitional disorder?
Originally posted by Guiny:
I hear ya bags, i'd have about 40 concerts on disk a year. If i had know what that damn trailer with a looooong line of people was, i woulda bought one last night. :mad:
actually that line looked long, but what really happened was you paid for the CD at another table, which there was no line, and THEN waited in the long ass line, which moved quick since it was just "give your reciept and get a ticket". the whole process took about 10 minutes from whipping out my $20 until i had a CD in my hand…not bad since my girl was meeting Billy anyway. So, the line was deceivingly fast.
I still think that $20 is a tad steep considering that there is very little overhead.
huh? its going to be tad expensive to tote around a van full of high speed cd burners and production equipment. not to mention that the artist and the venue wants their cut of the action.
Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
huh? its going to be tad expensive to tote around a van full of high speed cd burners and production equipment. not to mention that the artist and the venue wants their cut of the action.
And it's about the same price as a CD that uses a fully stocked professional studio with expensive studio time; hired engineers, etc; cover artists (as in CD art work); CD manufacturing; promotions; shipping; etc…
but do people complain about the price of t-shirts or popcorn at movie theaters?
Originally posted by Jaguär:
Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
[qb] And it's about the same price as a CD that uses a fully stocked professional studio with expensive studio time; hired engineers, etc; cover artists (as in CD art work); CD manufacturing; promotions; shipping; etc…
but a good studio album will sell 50,000 copies and earn songwriting revenues if the songs get airplay……

Billy idol, it was more like 300 copies…….. $6000 a night isnt a massive amount of money for that kind of technology and speed of service.
Originally posted by Anton Newcombe:
but a good studio album will sell 50,000 copies and earn songwriting revenues if the songs get airplay……

Billy idol, it was more like 300 copies…….. $6000 a night isnt a massive amount of money for that kind of technology and speed of service.
the artist sees very little revenue from the studio album sales. I bet he gets a much bigger cut from these CD live things.

Let's say he gets 25% and sells 300 a show and plays just 35 dates a year. That's more than $50,000 a year. That ain't chump change Bubba.
minus of course 10% for his manager, accountant, lawyer… still good money
Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
Let's say he gets 25% and sells 300 a show and plays just 35 dates a year. That's more than $50,000 a year. That ain't chump change Bubba.
$50,000 a year for Billy Idol, I bet he spends all of that on leather trousers and hair gel.

So if I finally get my new job I will be getting more than chump change?

And why did you call me bubba?


I dont begrudge an artist making money in this way at all, well as long as it does not go beyond $20 for a double, $15 would be better, but the technology is expensive and new……