Jacksonville arena a top-grossing venue

[wordofmouse]

And the announcement of a concert by Sir Paul McCarthy was the news you professed to propel this Mayor into an unbeatable position because of the earth shattering affects on the future of Jax. McCarthy is also playing in Lubbox Tex. so?

the more you guys continue to over hype every envelope opening in this town you continue to look like hay seeds. Always looking for that one big hit to propel your town into the world class city status.  Stop with the silly comparisons to other cities to live up to.  Document 260,000 people showing up for an event with free transportation and no gate fee is not a great city make.

If your attempting to become a professional journalist, stop with the outlandish claims.

[mtraininjax]

What happens when Fleetwood Mac announces a concert date here? Is Sir Paul's date less exciting? Or how about the next farewell tour, you know, the Eagles are on their 8th round of "farewell touring". Great event, but really Mr. Mayor?

After all, you do have the "Alvin Brown presents Jacksonville Jazz Festival" coming up next month. Don't wear yourself out during the campaign season.

[tufsu1]

^

[KenFSU]

Just being a smart ass of course. Definately not historic, but a positive for Jax. Hopefully this will lead to us getting some other major acts

Its historic as far as concerts go. You appear to have dismissed my earlier post stating that The Beatles are the greatest act of the 20th Century as merely opinion. Well when virtually everyone holds the same opinion, it pretty much becomes an accepted fact. The Beatles have the #1, #3, #5, #10, #14,  albums of all time according to Rolling Stone's Top 500 albums list, which was voted on by other musicians, producers, journalists, etc. Yes Rolling Stone sucks, but its a fairly accurate list.

Perhaps you need to brush up on your music history.

Calling the Beatles the greatest musical act of the 20th Century is purely opinion. I like Rolling Stone, it's one of the few print magazines I have kept my subscription too, but they have been accused for decades of championing 60s and 70s rock at the expense of everything else. Hell, the same chief editor has been in charge of the magazine since 1967. If you take a close look at both their Top 500 albums and Top 500 songs list, they both skew very, very heavily toward these two decades when the magazine was in its infancy, as do most dinosaur rock critics. Don't get me wrong, a strong case can certainly be made for the Beatles, but is that case a total slam dunk over, for example, the Rolling Stones? Or Bob Dylan? Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson had more number one hits, maybe Elton John too. The Stones have had way more longevity. I'd even throw Springsteen into the mix. Art is subjective, and there's a huge leap between "Rolling Stone considers the Beatles the greatest act of the 20th century" to a definitive "the Beatles are without question the greatest act of the 20th century."

That said, we're not even talking about the Beatles here, we're talking about Paul McCartney. Different beasts entirely.

A really nice, big get for Jacksonville.

I just think that, as a Top 40 metro with a beautiful, relatively new arena, sharing a Paul McCartney tour with cities such as Lubbock, Albany, and Louisville should be viewed as another day at the office, rather than as a historic, earth-shattering event. The mayor's overhype about things like this concert and the MLS exhibition soccer games makes the city seem a little Bush League.

We're not Lubbock, Texas. We have an NFL team. We've hosted the Super Bowl. Michael Jackson brought his Victory Tour to the Gator Bowl for three consecutive nights. 70,000 people packed the stadium to see the Stones. Garth Brooks played six sold-out concerts in a single week at the Coliseum. Luciano Pavarotti performed with the Jacksonville Symphony.

Awesome, yes.

Historic. To me, that's a bit of a stretch

[CityLife]

I've yet to see a credible non-genre specific list where the Beatles didn't finish as the number one act of all time. In fact, I heard a few years ago that in the Rolling Stone vote, which was done by a diverse array of musical acts, producers, critics, etc, the gap between the Beatles and the #2 act Bob Dylan was actually wider than the gap between Dylan and the #10 act. Basically, it was overwhelmingly unanimous.

They finish #1 in every poll, because they have a ridiculously deep discography and can be appreciated by virtually everyone. I'll challenge anyone that doesn't think they are the unanimous #1, to go listen to the whole thing and see if you still feel that way. Heck, just go listen to Revolver and Rubber Soul and that should do the trick. Every single resident of Metropolitan Jacksonville could get on MetroJacksonville and disagree with me, but the world is pretty unanimous in agreeing that The Beatles are the greatest musical group of all time....and trust me I'm not just some Beatles superfan. I'm actually a big Stones fan too, and have listened to pretty much everything from the 60's on.

If you want to argue that McCartney isn't a historic act for Jacksonville, sure go ahead...but don't be ridiculous and argue that the Beatles aren't the undisputed greatest act of all time.

[mtraininjax]

Its too bad that your cocky, badly mannered, ultra conservative tea party candidate for mayor got Alvin elected, Mtrain. It seems to have put you in a very negative mood.

Ha Ha, not negative, I just appreciate a good ribbing at the expense of the Mayor. He seems to call a press conference everytime he sees a new Ant Farm and calls it the greatest thing that Jacksonville has ever seen. His "Cry Wolf" press conferences will eventually reduce him down to a cardboard cutout and punch line at parties, in fact, he is already there in many circles.

Can't wait to see the hordes wearing the "I'm With Alvin" buttons. lol!

[wordofmouse]

I appreciate your direction off the forum to the front page for news.  I will remain there with factual news and not your school yard blather.  Good luck with your paper route.

[KenFSU]

McCartney is a big get, but I was just looking through the upcoming concert list in the area, and man is St. Augustine ever cleaning up on the mid-sized tours. Jacksonville needs to lay down the hammer with a competing venue and force all those darn hippies to come to a real city for their concerts

American Idol Live!, Sunday, July 20, at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. No ticket information has been released.

Crosby, Stills and Nash, Sunday, Aug. 10, at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. Ticket prices and starting time have not been announced. On sale at 10 a.m. Friday, May 2.

Willie Nelson, with Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas, rescheduled from Tuesday, May 6, to 6 p.m. Sunday, May 18, at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. $46.50-$96.50.

Carlos Santana, 7 p.m. Sunday at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. Sold out.

Jack Johnson, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 20, at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. Sold out.

Styx and Foreigner, with Don Felder, 6:30 p.m. Friday, May 23, at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. $36.50-$96.50.

Switchfoot, with Thousand Foot Krutch, 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 31, at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. $25-$80.

Weezer, 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 6, at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. $39.50-$75.


Boston, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 7, at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. $39.50-$125.

Counting Crows with Toad the Wet Sprocket, 6:30 p.m. Saturday, June 14, at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. $40-$80.

Goo Goo Dolls, with Daughtry and Plain White T's, 6 p.m. Thursday, June 19, at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. $39.50-$79.50.

[CityLife]

Great point Ken. Worthy of its own thread really. I've been meaning to start one to call attention to it. The Amphitheater has been cleaning up for years, but what is more concerning to me is that the Ponte Vedra Music Hall is starting to get a lot of acts that should be playing DT Jax.

Recently Cat Power, Neko Case, and The Zombies have played there (off the top of my head). M Ward, Drive By Truckers, The Head and the Heart, and Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) are playing there soon. While none of those are earth shattering ( though some would say DBT are) imo, it is still ridiculous that a lot of the decent mid level local concerts are being played at an old church in the middle of nowhere.

Go look at Atlanta's concert lineups on pollstar...absolutely blows NE Fla out of the water, which is expected. We're missing most major and mid level acts anyways, but its even more troubling that the ones we get go to the amphitheater or PV Music Hall.

Florida Theater has John Legend, Rob Thomas, and Ray LaMontagne coming up which are all good pop acts, but still not enough for summer concert season.

Jacksonville has a SERIOUS live music problem.

[tufsu1]

The Tabernacle is a great music venue in Atlanta...will be checking it out this weekend

[ProjectMaximus]

Great point Ken. Worthy of its own thread really.

15 pages and 21 months worth of discussion:
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,14946.0.html