So bummed to find out Elvis Costello has been touring.

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CharleyDawg@reddit

GO! He hasn’t lost a bit to aging. He is as good or better than 40 years ago.

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BradfordGalt@reddit

Set up a Google News alert for your favorite artists.

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TheJokersChild@reddit

That's how I know about stuff. Also got onto a couple local places' mailing lists so I'm pretty well covered on my concert scene.

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I saw Elvis Costello last month in Akron. I had to miss the Mavericks and Dwight Yoakum because I couldn't afford both. Found out Raul Malo had to stop touring because he has cancer. That's my recent concert regret. Hopefully he recovers fully and I get to see the Mavericks again.

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Olderbutnotdead619@reddit

I know they're coming in the Spring and I'd love to see them but, I don't handle crowds well anymore.

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JessieColt@reddit

See.

THIS is what MTV used to be good for 30+ years ago.

They would tell you who is on tour, what cities they were going to be in, etc.

Now you have to try to try to track all possible groups or singers that you might have gone to see if you had only known they were touring and would be playing in a city near you.

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edasto42@reddit

But we have the power of mtv combined with every radio station on the planet in our literal pockets. There’s little excuse for being uninformed especially for concert schedules. It’s just not handed to anyone and requires a minimal amount of effort

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JessieColt@reddit

Isn't that exactly what I said in my post?

MTV WAS a central location for learning about tours and concert locations 30 years ago.

NOW we have look up that information on our own to find out.

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edasto42@reddit

MTV was fine for popular artists I guess. I don’t remember ever really getting my info for local tours from them. They didn’t spotlight the artists I was going to see at 500 or less cap venues. I had the local entertainment rags for that. Plus it was comprehensive. Relying on just that source only got maybe an 1/8 of what was coming. Now I just get those same lists emailed to me.

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ongoldenwaves@reddit (OP)

Yes. We need a list.

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AlfaNovember@reddit

I am so nostalgic for the free alt-weekly newspapers. One central, easy place to see what was coming up, and to learn about new acts. I was working one night an missed seeing the Black Crowes play a bar gig about three weeks before their first record made them huge. They played the local 20k seat area less than a year later.

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MaximumJones@reddit

His SNL performance where he stopped in the middle of the song and said 'Im sorry ladies and gentlemen but there is no reason I should play that song" was nothing short of legendary.

The story was Lorne Michaels told him he had to perform that particular song and he did a big fuck you on live TV and played a different song. I remember seeing it and wondered what was going on.

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jfrankparnell85@reddit

He started Less than Zero and immediately switched to a brilliantly angry version of Radio Radio

He wanted to bite the hand that fed him…

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edasto42@reddit

That’s a myth. He felt Less Than Zero didn’t fit the vibe and wanted more uptempo.

https://www.nbc.com/nbc-insider/elvis-costello-1977-snl-radio-radio-performance

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ongoldenwaves@reddit (OP)

"I want to make them wish they never saaaavvvveed me".

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jfrankparnell85@reddit

I got to see Elvis a few times at the Beacon Theater - what was great was that he played mostly new stuff. The venue was perfect

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ongoldenwaves@reddit (OP)

He was banned from SNL for more than a decade.

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VolupVeVa@reddit

and then came back with the beastie boys!!!

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edasto42@reddit

He was back in 1989 to play Veronica. He was never banned

https://www.nbc.com/nbc-insider/elvis-costello-1977-snl-radio-radio-performance

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edasto42@reddit

No he wasn’t banned. It’s a myth that keeps getting perpetuated.

https://www.nbc.com/nbc-insider/elvis-costello-1977-snl-radio-radio-performance

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edasto42@reddit

I literally get email updates weekly from all the venues, large and small, telling me what tickets are going on sale and who is performing that week. Plus I regularly visit my city’s DoMore branch’s website that collects all the upcoming entertainment and other activities in my area so I can keep my finger on the pulse a little better (not all cities have a DoMore site, but I know similar ones exist elsewhere). But in this day and age of having all the information to access things in our literal pockets, this shouldn’t be an issue

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karma_the_sequel@reddit

“Spoon feed me — I’m too lazy to do this myself.”

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Olderbutnotdead619@reddit

9 inch nails touring next year

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tunaman808@reddit

They already did one leg of the tour. Lots of folks here in Charlotte are like "OMG! NIN IS COMING!" Guys, NIN played Raleigh six weeks ago. Where were you for that?

Charlotte's a funny town. When The Cure (THE CURE!) announced they were playing here in 2008, I thought there were gonna break MySpace. It seemed like there were 100,000 posts about it!

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tunaman808@reddit

First, fuck Elvis Costello. I saw him in 2000 or so. It was a GA show, we were standing in the second or third "row"... and he "aggressively stared" at my then-GF the whole show. I thought I was imagining it at first, but it was a group of 8-10 of us, and all the ladies were like "girl, he's TOTALLY checking you out!!"

Secondly, Bands in Town is a mobile app. You can input all the artists you like manually, or you can connect it to Spotify, Apple Music, etc. and let it learn your preferences that way. It will alert you - via notification and email - when a band you like is touring.

BONUS TIP: you can only have one "home city", but you can expand your venue search up to 150 miles. I live in Charlotte (a famous "black hole" for concerts), and many of the bands I like only play Atlanta. I chose Greenville, SC as my home town with the max 150 mile range, so I get notifications for shows in Charlotte, Atlanta and Asheville.

Over time, Bands in Town has done a decent job of guessing what I like and occasionally sending me a "this artist we think you like is playing Nashville or DC" email. They're not always right, but that's how I found one of my faves - Kid Francescoli, a French act that's probably never coming this way again - was playing DC.

Anyway, I'm not a shareholder in Bands in Town. Yesterday I picked up my phone to turn off the alarm and saw a notification that two artists I really like - Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore - are touring together, and are playing Raleigh next March. I ordered tickets right there, in bed, while still warm and cozy in the sheets, before my feet hit the floor. It was really nice!

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carlivar@reddit

Spotify tells me when my favorite artists have shows near me. Pretty nice.

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AgileMastodon0909@reddit

I saw his solo show a few months ago. He was doing a bunch of experimental stuff that people didn’t like. A bunch of fans walked out 10 minutes in. Those of us who stayed were rewarded with an acoustic set of his classic. Love the guy!

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Thurston_Unger@reddit

I've seen Elvis Costello countless times, I'd guess 30+ concerts. Sadly, his voice is totally shot now and his concerts are a drag. It's really sad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8DoKBJa-J0&t=40s

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EelsEverywhere@reddit

He wasn’t good. I mean I can say I saw him live but his voice is just shot.

Also download BandsInTown and select your favorite artists or sync it to your music apps so you don’t miss any future concerts.

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Fun_Reputation5181@reddit

I've seen him a dozen times and the last show - summer of 2023 - was extremely disappointing. Maybe he just had a bad night but it seemed like he would've rather been anywhere other than on stage that night.

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RagsMaloney@reddit

I just saw him in Indianapolis last weekend!

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ongoldenwaves@reddit (OP)

How was it?

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Legitimate_Ocelot491@reddit

Damn, he was just in Chicago on Thursday and I heard NOTHING about it.

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ongoldenwaves@reddit (OP)

He was down in little old Champaign as well.

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wisemonkey101@reddit

I went. It was a bit boring. The music felt slow. The audience was all us oldies that didn’t even stand to dance.

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mickthomas68@reddit

Your best bet is to get on the email lists of the artists you like. It’s pretty effective.

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ongoldenwaves@reddit (OP)

Yes. Let's come up with a list.

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kOobleck@reddit

David Byrne is touring for his new album Who is the Sky but his set list includes some Talking Heads songs as well. I missed him in my neck of the woods unfortunately.

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downtune79@reddit

He was just here in Atlanta a week or so ago