Why Are Big Names Skipping Phoenix? John Mayer's One of the Latest

By Nicki Escudero Tue., Nov. 24 2009 at 9:00 AM

It was heartbreaking enough Lady Gaga decided to skip Phoenix on her Monster Ball Tour, but now another big name has said, "No, thanks" to P-Town--John Mayer's not coming here, either, on his new tour. What gives?

Sometimes it's outside of the artists' contol -- they can't fit in the city due to venue constraints, or perhaps Phoenix is unfortunately less important a market than surrounding cities such as Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Maybe the heat scares artists away. Or maybe it's because our venue selection sucks (read this.)

There's no reason the fifth-largest city in the nation shouldn't be a top destination for musicians. What's your take on why the Valley isn't a concert date for some musicians?

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john mayer, lady gaga

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That's a good question. Even mid-level "good" bands are skipping Phoenix. In the past few months alone, Joshua Radin, The Avett Brothers, Amos Lee, Jackie Greene have basically given Phoenix a "PASS" this time around. Could it be that Phoenix is a city with no culture? Maybe....but, there are a lot of people out there trying to get some kind of scene going in this city. It's just...hard to carry it on when the people don't come.
Excellent question! I've wondered about this for quite some time and me and my friends and I have debated with no conclusions. I don't think money has anything to do with it, because why would so many artists skip Phoenix and just go to Flag or Tuscon? How can there venues shell out more cash then ours? Just in the last year 3 bands I love, Wilco, Death Cab and Ween skipped Phoenix. I don't mind a little trip to see a show, but it just doesn't make sense to me why an artist would skip a major city like Phoenix. I personally think Phoenix's lack of quality mid-size venues is the main reason. Dodge, Marquee and Cricket are average at best (dodge is actually a really horrible place to see a show). I think we need a great sounding, beautiful venues, (ie, the fillmore in Denver and SF, the vic in Chicago, fox theatres in SL and Boulder, stubbs in Austin) that people will actually want to go to and artists will actually enjoy playing in and then in turn will want to return to Phoenix. But that's just like my opinion man.
Phoenix has no culture
it's not just big names that seem to be skipping Phoenix lately ... it's been weeks since we've had much of anything getting booked in town ... wtf?
Are you kidding? Would John Mayer or Lady Gaga even want to set foot in Modified or the Yucca Tap Room? Their venues would be places like Celebrity Theater or Dodge Theater or the Cricket Pavillion. There's only one reason they would skip and that's because the MONEY isn't right. So maybe you should ask the Promoters, Managers, and Venue owners why big acts like them skip Phoenix.
Reason. A lot of racism there. A bunch of yahoo's who thinki that America is the only country in the frickin' world.