hutch wrote:
but thats different from shows being booked close to DC and then NOT BOOKING THEM IN DC even though they'd do just fine just to get DC people to show up…
The walking, narcissism-fueled contradictions you drop blow my mind. To Hutch, Richmond is "close" to DC, so close that Richmond promoters book on the fact that DC people will buy all the tickets to their events, but also to Hutch, Richmond is "too far" from DC for DC residents to tolerate the drive. Instead, they should boycott until no one but DC gets any concerts.
The real problem with Hutch, ladies and gentleman, is he's a narcissistic loon who's divorced from reality. Take just two wild conjectures he's thrown out: (a) that Richmond shows depend on DC people showing up and that (b) Richmond gets a bunch of Cracker and GWAR type bands typically. Really? I was unaware alot of DC people traveled for bands of caliber. Doesn't seem to make much sense, considering those same bands tour constantly and come to DC with near similar frequency. But I guess everyone in DC is seeing them in DC, then driving down here to double-dip. Sure.
Let me school you all on a few facts: Richmond almost never gets a "perfect storm" concert where the band hits RVA but hasn't placed DC in forever and a day. Almost never. In the last few years, I can think of two: Denali and MBV. No, the decent shows that come to Richmond (Rilo Kiley, Dino Jr, Conor Oberst, Broken Social Scene, The Faint, Daniel Johnston, The National, etc etc just as examples) usually fall into one of two categories: bands playing 60+ city tours that hit both metro-DC and Richmond, or bands playing a smaller-market tour within 3-4 months of hitting major-markets such as DC. In neither case is DC being denied a show. And in neither case is there going to be a mass exodus of DC residents funneling their concert dollars into Richmond nightclubs. Only the most hardcore DC fans of an act are going to even consider driving 2 hours down here to see a band they saw in their own city either the night before or 3 months before.
On the other hand, DC gets alot of bands (particularly European acts) that will never, ever, ever play Richmond. The Bloc Party's, YYY's, Sigur Ros, Arctic Monkey's, etc's of the world are never going to tour this country extensively enough to fall into one of those two categories (again, to refresh everyone's memory: 60+ city tours, or a minor-market tour after a major-market tour) to book a show in Richmond. So what do the nearly 1.2 million people living in the Greater Richmond MSA do if they want to see such a show? That's right, we drive to DC and see it there. FAR, FAR more money is pumped into DC venues by Richmond MSA residents than DC residents pump into Richmond venues, despite having a much larger population to pull from.
Ask Seth, I'm sure he'd agree with me. He knows he's going to get some people from my area. He probably even, to use a Hutch word, "books shows knowing it." It's not a bad thing, it's business and it's the way things are. No one begrudges that fact. But what's annoying is when a narcissistic child having a tantrum throws a fit about the one time he's ever had to make a drive that millions of people make regularly without complaint and act like as a resident of DC it is his birthright to have every concert he'd ever want to see happen within walking distance of himself.
You never see Richmond or Baltimore people on here act like that. People might say, "Oh, man, I wish that show was coming here," or "I'd see them if they came to my town, but I don't like them enough to make the drive." And those are fine, sane, logical statements that sound like they're coming from relative adults. But to have someone who lives in a town that gets virtually every tour that comes down the pike complain about the 5 or so a year that hit Baltimore or Richmond and not their fair city, and to do it with such childish, egocentric bluster as to call for boycotts of all venues not in DC and drop verbal diarrhea like "natural DC shows" really takes the cake.
And again, I'm Julian. When Julian tells you you're being a spoiled, egocentric, entitled douchebag who's divorced from reality, good Lord, you are REALLY being a spoiled, egocentric, entitled douchebag who's divorced from reality. It's like Hitler telling you you're a hatemonger or George W. Bush telling you you're a poor public speaker. It should really give you pause.
