It was 55 degrees in January today. !!!!!!!
Dear Livejournal,
I hate Clear Channel. Thanks to them one of my favorite venues are closing.
This is another testament to the sad state of the concert industry, brought on by Clear Channel, and thier tactics of price-gouging.
The World to close in the Strip
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
By Ed Masley, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
It's beginning to feel a little like the End Times for club-level concerts in Pittsburgh.
Just last week, the Post-Gazette reported that Clear Channel Entertainment, the industry giant, is pulling back on booking clubs in Pittsburgh, with no club shows slated for early next year.
Now, Jon Rinaldo, owner of The World -- who last week told the Post-Gazette, "The numbers are terrible. One in 10 shows is a winner, and the other nine are losses. Eventually the bubble is going to break" -- has announced that the bubble has broken for The World. He's pulling the plug on his Strip District club after one final concert -- a New Year's Eve show with the Boogie Hustlers.
"It's just not financially viable anymore for me," he says. "It's time to downsize. This market is dead. We're not even a secondary market anymore. We're more like a third-tier market."
Rinaldo is moving to Club Cafe, where he'll work full time booking national and local shows. He also hopes to work with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and Gary Hinston at bringing in the occasional theater show, with a possible Bright Eyes date already in the works.
Rinaldo had been hoping that with fewer club shows being booked by Clear Channel, acts would drop their rates accordingly.
But that just hasn't happened.
As Rinaldo says, "They feel they're still entitled to these high guarantees. The market can't sustain it anymore."
In addition to the concert industry's financial woes, Rinaldo cites a rash of violence outside the club next door, the Empire. Since opening The World in April, Rinaldo says he's personally witnessed two shootings near the club on Smallman Street. Two men were shot leaving the Empire in August and, in May, there was a drive-by shooting on that block, according to police reports. Through November, police responded to 29 incidents at the Empire and five at the World, ranging from shootings to aggravated assault to auto theft.
"With the WYEP-type artists," says Rinaldo, "we were being told by patrons and local acts themselves that their fans were afraid to show up to the facility."
The move to Club Cafe, where he'd been booking many of his smaller shows, he says, is "for the best."
For him at least.
"I think the situation I'll be going into, I'll be happier," he says. "I won't continue to lose money. But I really pity the city. Concert-goers are really going to be hurting. I see a lot of tours this next year passing over the city."
Love,
Kay-leigh
I hate Clear Channel. Thanks to them one of my favorite venues are closing.
This is another testament to the sad state of the concert industry, brought on by Clear Channel, and thier tactics of price-gouging.
The World to close in the Strip
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
By Ed Masley, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
It's beginning to feel a little like the End Times for club-level concerts in Pittsburgh.
Just last week, the Post-Gazette reported that Clear Channel Entertainment, the industry giant, is pulling back on booking clubs in Pittsburgh, with no club shows slated for early next year.
Now, Jon Rinaldo, owner of The World -- who last week told the Post-Gazette, "The numbers are terrible. One in 10 shows is a winner, and the other nine are losses. Eventually the bubble is going to break" -- has announced that the bubble has broken for The World. He's pulling the plug on his Strip District club after one final concert -- a New Year's Eve show with the Boogie Hustlers.
"It's just not financially viable anymore for me," he says. "It's time to downsize. This market is dead. We're not even a secondary market anymore. We're more like a third-tier market."
Rinaldo is moving to Club Cafe, where he'll work full time booking national and local shows. He also hopes to work with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and Gary Hinston at bringing in the occasional theater show, with a possible Bright Eyes date already in the works.
Rinaldo had been hoping that with fewer club shows being booked by Clear Channel, acts would drop their rates accordingly.
But that just hasn't happened.
As Rinaldo says, "They feel they're still entitled to these high guarantees. The market can't sustain it anymore."
In addition to the concert industry's financial woes, Rinaldo cites a rash of violence outside the club next door, the Empire. Since opening The World in April, Rinaldo says he's personally witnessed two shootings near the club on Smallman Street. Two men were shot leaving the Empire in August and, in May, there was a drive-by shooting on that block, according to police reports. Through November, police responded to 29 incidents at the Empire and five at the World, ranging from shootings to aggravated assault to auto theft.
"With the WYEP-type artists," says Rinaldo, "we were being told by patrons and local acts themselves that their fans were afraid to show up to the facility."
The move to Club Cafe, where he'd been booking many of his smaller shows, he says, is "for the best."
For him at least.
"I think the situation I'll be going into, I'll be happier," he says. "I won't continue to lose money. But I really pity the city. Concert-goers are really going to be hurting. I see a lot of tours this next year passing over the city."
Love,
Kay-leigh