Orthography Enthusiast wrote:Don't go getting all disappointed and stuff too soon, I'd be very surprised if Al didn't tour next summer too. Is Sony even financing Al's tours in any way? I certainly had the impression that they were more than self-supporting by this point. I think the abbreviated tour is simply because the album was released so late into the touring season, and Al really wanted to get SOME vacation time in with his family.
I have no idea whether or not Sony has any financial stake in it, but I would assume that since he's on their label, the concerts would at least be partially financed by some sort of marketing budget from the record label, since that's what concerts are essentially, marketing the artist and the album.
I suppose the album being released so late may have something to do with it, but it's not like Al hasn't had a summer tour that continues well into October, November, and December before. Look at the Running with Scissors tour, it started in Mid-July and ran continuously through Thanksgiving, then picked up again in February and continued on through the beginning of November, with only a few shortish breaks in between.
I take no issue with Al wanting to split up touring for his own sake and that of his family, what I take issue with is that he's hitting a lot of the same areas in 2011 that he did in 2010, and skipping over a lot of other areas he has normally stopped at in the past. Is New Bedford, Massachusetts REALLY that big of a market for Al that he needs to stop there in 2010 and 2011? How about Chehalis, Washington or Grand Prairie, Texas? Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm going to guess the answer is no.
I wonder what the reasoning was behind there being such an abbreviated tour this year? Seems to me like he hit a lot of the same areas this year that he hit last, with some pretty large and mid sized markets getting missed. Could it be that Al now having a family and a child doesn't want to be away from them for so long? Maybe the band is getting older and no longer has the energy to keep going for six months straight, sometimes doing 6 - 7 nights in a row with one day off and then another 5 or 6 shows? Maybe Sony is to blame, maybe they saw that the album didn't really have any hit singles, and had sales that one might describe as being tepid, decided that they didn't want to finance or promote a full tour schedule? I'm sure there were probably a number of factors involved, probably these amongst others, but I'm still pretty disappointed that I didn't get to see Al this year or last only because he simply drove by and didn't make the stop in the area.
