Okay, so Delirium is playing at that monstrous behemoth of a club (The Myth) in the middle of Suburban Nowheresville tonight (Maplewood). The best part? We have it on good authority that IT’S NOW A FREE SHOW!
Sort of.
When you show up you utter the code-word “SILENCE,” (I would have chosen “BACON,” but that’s just me) and they will let you in free of charge. Oh sure, if you want to drink you’ll have to deal with $8 Budweisers (and yeah, that’s the best deal you’re going to get) and count on spending $4-$8 in gas to get there but it’s Delirium (with Bill Leeb) and they’re essentially playing for free. Maybe they’ll pull out all the crusty, musty, golden moldy oldies that still carry weight as opposed to that Sarah McLachlan crap from the late Nineties. Apparently they’re touring with Sixpence None The Richer’s Leigh Nash (so Kiss Me) and Rose Chronicles’ Kristy Thirsk sharing vocal duties, Ashwin Sood on drums (drummer for and husband of Sarah McLachlan), Sean Ashby on guitar (Delirium has guitar in their music?!), Brian Minato on bass and the Leebster on Keys, of course.
Delirium is being supported by Elsiane – a downtempo, atmospheric electronic chanteuse you may want to check out, Morgan Page – some sort of Pretty-Boy DJ dude from LA that you may wish to avoid and Sarah Fimm – a Trip Hop artists from New York that’s certainly worth checking into.
So how did a $20 show wind up being free? Well, I have a theory as I always do. Thus far the Myth has survived on suburban rock/Metal and Hip Hop kids with plenty of disposable income. How they came to book this show I have no idea but with the nonsensically steep price and the fact that most Delirium fans aren’t willing to shell out so much coin and trek all the way over to this crappy establishment they probably figured it was time to bite the bullet and attempt to lure in whomever they could with the hope these people might at least spend the money on drinks. Consider this a “gimme” because I doubt the Myth will be booking many more electronic shows in the future (the Kraftwerk show wasn’t a big moneymaker for them either in spite of the fact that the act rarely plays US shows).
So make it an adventure and head out to Maplewood tonight for the show. You might actually be able to have some fun.
September 24th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
How did they manage to NOT make money on Kraftwerk? It was actually pretty crowded! Not jam-packed to the degree of questionable legality like the Rob Zombie show, but still, the only way to multiply that by $17 a head plus drinks and NOT turn a profit is to… hell, I don’t even KNOW how you’d lose that much money.
I share your sentiments on this show, though. I suspect they decided to say “screw it, free show; sell booze” after realizing only 3 or 4 people actually bought presale tickets. =)
The Delerium show at Quest (way back when) was freakin’ great though, so I would’ve paid $20, albeit a bit reluctantly.
September 24th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
kraftwerk was packed, did they really lose out? after suffocating in the crowd i got out and spent the rest of the time not being able to get close enough to see anything. it was a HUGE uncomfortable amt of people.