Two Madonna fans, Michael Fellows and Jonathan Hadden, are suing the pop star for starting her New York concert late, claiming that they “had to get up early to go to work” the next morning. Fellows and Hadden bought tickets to a 13 December show at Barclays Center as part of Madonna’s Celebration tour. The show was advertised to start at 8.30pm, yet the 65-year-old musician took the stage after 10.30pm, according to the lawsuit. The concert was held on a Wednesday, the late finish on the weeknight show affected Fellows' and Hadden's ability to “take care of their family responsibilities the next day”, NBC New York reports.

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis recently said she would love to go see Coldplay "at 1 p.m." since at their usual gig time she's already tucked in. Billboard wonders if the idea od matinee rock concerts is even possible. "Most of our margin is on drinks. It’s hard to sell drinks at 1 p.m.” - says Peter Shapiro, owner of Relix magazine, as well as the Brooklyn Bowl venues in New York, Las Vegas and Nashville and a number of other clubs. The majority of ticket revenue and service fees go to the band and ticketing agencies, the headliners take home most of the night’s haul, leaving the venue to live off ancillary revenue, most of which comes from the bar. Shapiro says there is another crucial element keeping shows after dark - mystique. “You can see a show in the afternoon, but at the end of the arc of the day it works going to a show in darkness. It’s the arc of the day, the moon… rock n’ roll lives at night. It’s in the DNA of rock n’ roll

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis shared her seemingly unusual bedtime habits with 'TODAY Show' hosts - the Hollywood star revealed she's tucked in at 7PM and wakes up around 4.30 AM. Curtis is also “challenging musicians to do concerts during the day,” since the usual schedules are way to late for her. “Why are there no matinees? For instance, I love Coldplay. I would love to go see Coldplay. The problem is, I’m not gonna go see Coldplay if they start their show at nine o’clock and there’s an opening act. I want to hear Coldplay at 1PM. I think if we filled a stadium with people who want to see matinee of Colplay, I think we would start a trend.” Billboard reports...

Concerts giant Live Nation generated revenues of $16.7 billion in 2022, with the concerts business being its primary revenue driver, generating $13.5 billion in 2022. The company also says that it "invested $9.6 billion in putting on artists’ shows in 2022" and claims to be "the largest contributor to artist income".

Elton John's Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour is the highest-grossing concert tour of all time - it has grossed $817.9 million across 278 shows so far, more than any other tour in Billboard Boxscore history (Ed Sheeran’s The Divide Tour made $776.4 million). Billboard has another fascinating statistic - dating back to reports for Elton John’s Ice on Fire Tour (1986), and including his share of co-headline runs with Eric Clapton, James Taylor, Tina Turner, and Billy Joel, John has grossed $1.863 billion and sold 19.9 million tickets over 1,573 reported shows. That’s the highest career gross and attendance for a solo artist in Billboard Boxscore history, having passed Bruce Springsteen and Madonna while on this tour.

"Many of the year’s most viral moments on TikTok were derived from live shows this year: Rosalía elaborately chewing gum during her song Bizcochito, Healy relentlessly touching his crotch, Gaga belting a power ballad while wearing an Edward Scissorhands-style claw and standing on a flaming stage. Perhaps these moments are reverse-engineered to go viral?" - Guardian asks about the nature of live shows. Tobias Rylander, who designed the 1975’s At Their Very Best tour, affirms the question - he says he’s always trying to put together “a show that reads well on social media”. LeRoy Bennett says that he and Lady Gaga were “absolutely” thinking about social media when designing her latest tour Chromatica Ball. Lorde and Rosalia had similar approach with their latest tours.

Music theorist Adam Neely takes a left turn in his latest video talking about musical gear. His band Sungazer had built a custom in-ear monitor system in order to avoid troubles with bad sound engineers. What also changed is the way they play. The Wednesday Night Titans drummer had told them - "You play like you can hear yourself".

"First, many artists could not tour this year due to a variety of factors, including inflation, high gas costs, supply-chain shortages, overbooked music venues, and poor mental health... Second, a much smaller number of artists this year... found that touring for the industry’s top one-percent is almost too viable, in that the shadowy corporations who run the live-music business... were able to gouge consumers for hundreds (if not thousands) of extra dollars above the original face value of tickets" - Uproxx looks back to "a weird and often bad year".

Hundreds of Bad Bunny fans with tickets purchased through Ticketmaster for his sold-out concert in Mexico City Friday night were denied entry to the venue, the 80,000+ capacity Estadio Azteca, when security claimed that numerous people had fake, duplicated tickets, or canceled tickets. Ticketmaster apologized to ticket-holders, claiming an “unprecedented” number of false tickets overwhelmed their systems, legitimate ticket-holders were denied entry, and that refunds would be provided to ticket-holders if their electronic records showed they were unable to enter the stadium.  Ticketmaster’s system reported tickets that were duplicated or falsified, and to “guarantee the safety” of attendees, all of those tickets were canceled. Images from the concert on social media depicted large swaths of empty seats at the sold-out show. Vulture reports on the issue. Recently, Ticketmaster had to cancel the public on-sale date for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour due to “extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems” and an insufficient number of remaining tickets.

"Gig-going has become kind of… chaotic recently. Audience members heckling artists with crude comments, people playing games on their phones mid-performance for TikTok clout, fans bombarding artists with objects (yes, literal objects) – unhinged behaviour at live shows seems to have become commonplace. Expected, even. So what gives?" - Vice tries to find some answers.

Trapital's Dan Runcie looks into the Taylor Swift - Ticketmaster situation in his latest memo, and points out to the decision that most artists need to make:

• "If artists keep ticket prices lower, then more of their superfans who aren’t as rich can attend. The drawbacks are that lower revenue will put pressure on the artist to keep production costs low. That means that the artist’s show may not keep up with peer artists who still have lavish productions and may make more revenue as a result and capture more headlines.

• Alternatively, if artists keep prices higher to match demand, then the artist can maximize their profit per show, spend less time on the road, earn more money to put toward other interests. But this creates a concert experience for the fans most willing to pay, not necessarily the most passionate fans".

Fans with access codes for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s much anticipated 2023 tour were offered tickets priced between $1,000 and $5,000, in Ticketmaster’s “dynamic pricing" system. “In pricing tickets for this tour, we looked carefully at what our peers have been doing” Springsteen’s manager Jon Landau said to the New York Times, adding - “We chose prices that are lower than some and on par with others. Regardless of the commentary about a modest number of tickets costing $1,000 or more, our true average ticket price has been in the mid-$200 range". Ticketmaster argued that only 1.3 percent of tickets sold went for more than $1,000.

Pearl Jam have cancelled their show in Vienna, after Eddie Vedder developed throat problems following an outdoor gig in Paris. On Thursday, the band also nixed their show scheduled for Friday in Prague, the Guardian reports. The band explained that "due to the extreme circumstances at the last outdoor site outside of Paris (heat, dust, and smoke from the fires) our singer Ed Vedder’s throat was left damaged". Also from the PJ camp: Eddie Vedder booted a fan out of a Pearl Jam concert in Zurich after they started a fight with another attendee - "you’re out of here. Violence is not allowed”, Vedder said.

Adam Neely gives a detailed breakdown of all of their last West Coast tour expenses in his latest video. He also explores why it is so risky to tour as an independent artist in the year 2022 and why they do it anyway. However, it did almost cost them $17,000. A great video, almost terrifying at some points.

"When you enter into that space, try to be mindful of what's happening and pay attention and don't talk" - Big Thief's Adriane Lenker says in her recent Instagram video about the need for silence at concerts - "There is a real magic that happens when there is... actual silence."

These days it might be harder than ever for young bands, and not only because of astronomical gas prices and rising food costs. The pandemic has been devastating for the live-music industry, for artists and behind-the-scenes workers alike. Many bands were forced off the road for much of the past two years; now that they’re back, they could test positive and be forced to cancel a string of tour dates - Rolling Stone reports on the issue.

YouTube music theorist shared a video of his band Band Practice playing a gig in New York that's essentially - band practice. Also, in the video, prior to the concert they talk about what to play at the gig, although it's practice. Cool and funny stuff!

The U.K. government has agreed to temporarily suspend post-Brexit “cabotage” rules for some music haulers, following warnings from live-industry executives that the regulations were placing more than 100 European summer tours at risk, some of which have already been cancelled. The relaxation of rules allows some of the U.K.’s biggest trucking firms to work and travel freely across Europe by temporarily switching their vehicles from an EU operator’s license to a U.K. one for the home leg of a tour. Since January of 2021, truckers in both regions have been subject to the cabotage rules, which require haulers to return to the EU or the U.K. — wherever their business is based — after making three stops in the other market, NME reports.

It’s really good to be playing concerts again and seeing concerts again. Concerts are the new drug, seeing them around town. You don’t even need to get high anymore, it’s like, ‘wow, this feels almost unnatural and simultaneously so euphoric’. I saw Bob Dylan into Ween into Steve Gunn, I’ve seen a lot lately. I go out to all of them" - Kurt Vile told The New Cue about the "high" he gets from going to concerts. His new album (watch my moves) is out in April.

Inspired by the tragedy at the Astroworld, where nine fans died, Slate remembers huge 1960s festivals Woodstock and Altamont where fans also died due to poor organizing and places being overcrowded. The black highpoint of the 1970s arena rock came in 1969 at the The Who concert at Riverfront Coliseum where 11 fans died. When punk came, it brought its own DIY-ethos, much smaller venues, and the podium where "orchestrated chaos" of pogo-dancing seemed dangerous, whereas actually "watch-your-peers" rule made everyone much safer. A great point, Slate!

Inspired by Brass Against's singer urinating on a fan's face, Consequence has assembled a list of the eight most shockingly gross concert moments. They go from Ozzy Osbourne biting off a bat's head, to Donita Sparks chucking her tampon into the audience, to Woodstock fans rolling in human feces. All for the sake of fun!

"The performer who emerged amid the skyline of the Strip came with a vibe—explosive, poetic, passionate, true—that reverberated deep into the souls of the 50,000+ festival-goers who turned up to see him" - Consequence reviews Kendrick Lamar's first US performance in two years. Billboard puts it simply: "Kendrick Lamar's Day N Vegas performance was art". Rolling Stone describes it as "casually dazzling".

"I felt a little bit of pressure: 'This is our first show in a while, I hope we’re not too rusty'. But I think actually the audiences were equally rusty: everyone was coming into it with a kind of fascination and curiosity and openness that really lent itself well to the evening" - Sarathy Korwar told the Guardian about his return to gigs. The London paper also talked to Mogwai, Corinne Baily Rae, Sleaford Mods, Jayda G, and others.

Music industry journalist Eamonn Forde has put forward a new set of rules that could improve concerts for everyone; via Music Business Worldwide:

1) No guestlist tickets for at least a year

2) Anyone talking during the performance is immediately ejected and banned from every concert venues and festival for six months

3) Anyone taking photos or videos during the show will have their phone smashed with a lump hammer in front of their eyes

4) Buy as much merchandise as you can afford

5) The end of hidden booking and/or processing fees

6) Loyalty cards for regular concertgoers

7) No U2 shows until at least 2035

The two biggest American concert promoters, Live Nation and AEG, have imposed vaccine mandates on all their venues and festivals. New York City began requiring proof of vaccination for entry to all indoor performances. Plenty of artists have canceled shows and tours, others are demanding proof of vaccination to attend a show - Music REDEF publishes a thread on the rules of attending a show.

Live Nation announced a run of new $20 “all in” ticket prices for nearly 1,000 outdoor amphitheater shows in the US taking place this year, Music Business Worldwide reports. Artists who will be playing shows under the $20 ticket offer include the Jonas Brothers, Kings Of Leon, Zac Brown Band, Trippie Redd, Maroon 5, Alanis Morissette, Lil Baby, KISS, and Korn. The $20 tickets will be available to the general public starting next Wednesday, July 28th at 12pm ET/9am PT on LiveNation.com for a limited time only.

Cultural critic Steven Hyden discusses the no-band-t-shirt-to-that-band-gig rule in his latest blog post. He first makes a distinction - it's quite ubiquitous on a metal show, but a no-no at an indie-rock show. His point: "When you go to show, nobody cares about what you are wearing. If there is one quality that all humans share, it’s that we’re all too wrapped up in ourselves to think about the shirts on the backs of strangers".

The great music theorist Adam Neely's jazz band Gungazer restarted touring, and he has shared a video of the band talking about how and what to perform at their The Sultan Room concert. A lot of "do ba do", "duh", and "wub" talk, but they seem to understand each other perfectly.

"Live Nation and AEG executives aren’t exactly running to answer calls from indie bands, while chart-topping acts like Twenty One Pilots and Tame Impala are much safer bets, guaranteed to sell out reopening arenas" - Rolling Stone points out to the issue of over-crowded touring calendar, in the US at least. "Venues are being queried by dozens of agents for the same slots and have to make pragmatic bottom-line decisions. And since Covid threw the staggered album-release cycle out of whack, concert dates on the entire docket right now are essentially a free-for-all".

In just the last 72 hours alone, a bevy of major US tours has been announced. Consequence (has a dedicated live music subsite) picks out a few of the biggest ones:

- Elton John has announced the final leg of his farewell tour
- Lorde has announced the first tour dates behind her new album 'Solar Power'
- J Cole has mapped out a tour in support of his latest album 'The Off-Season' - GZA, Raekwon, and Ghostface Killah are teaming up for the 'Chambers 3 Tour'
- Violent Femmes and Flogging Molly are teaming up for a co-headlining US tour