A week before the show, the Ticketmaster map turns pale blue almost all the way up. The pattern finally has a name: Blue Dot Fever is what fans and the industry are calling the unsold-seat color that signals a tour is about to fold. Pussycat Dolls just gutted their U.S. run, Post Malone scaled back six stadiums, average prices climbed from $82 to $144 in five years, and Live Nation's Q1 logged a $371M operating loss with $450M in antitrust accruals on top. The remedies hearing is tomorrow. The blue dots were always there; we just didn't have a name for them.
THIS WEEK IN SHOWS 🎸
Pussycat Dolls cancel 32 U.S. dates.
Only the June 6 OUTLOUD WeHo Pride festival appearance survives, including a planned July 20 Madison Square Garden booking. The group's official statement cited "an honest look at the North American run." Variety led with weak ticket sales. The European leg holds either way.
Kacey Musgraves brings the Mariachi Brothers onstage.
Antonio, Caleb, and Joshua Gámez-Cuéllar were taken into ICE custody during a required check-in in late February and held 13 days at Dilley detention camp before release. Days later, Musgraves invited them to open her three-night Gruene Hall residency and brought them onstage each night, including a Spanish-language cover of Selena's "Tú Solo Tú." Musgraves called it "Texas at its best."
ACL announces its 25th-anniversary lineup.
Charli XCX, Lorde, Twenty One Pilots, and Rüfüs Du Sol headline October 2 to 4 and October 9 to 11 at Zilker Park, with Skrillex on Weekend 1 only and Kings of Leon on Weekend 2. The undercard runs deep: Turnstile, The Chainsmokers, Geese, Lola Young, Suki Waterhouse, Bleachers, Blood Orange. The festival debuted in October 2002, and 25 years on the rock-Americana roots have given way to a pop, EDM, and indie weekend the original lineup never imagined.
T.I. announces his final tour.
The King Succession Tour is a 12-city intimate-theater run with sons King and Domani as direct support every night, opening July 8 at The Van Buren in Phoenix and closing August 15 at The Masonic in San Francisco. Stops in Dallas, Houston, Brooklyn, D.C., Charlotte, Detroit, Chicago, and LA in between. T.I.'s next album, "Kill the King," is being framed as his final studio record. Presale opens Thursday at 10 a.m. local.
THE VENUE REPORT
After more than three hours of public comment, Portland's City Council voted 5 to 4 in late April to pass a 750-foot music venue buffer rule.
[IMAGE: Exterior of Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine, or a photo of the proposed Portland Music Hall site — source: needs sourcing — Press Herald used a stock council-chamber photo, look for Merrill Auditorium exterior or the proposed site]
The vote blocks a 3,300-seat "Portland Music Hall" planned by Live Nation New England, sited directly across from the city's 1,900-seat Merrill Auditorium, which opened in 1911 as part of City Hall and was restored in 1997. Portland is the first U.S. city to use a buffer rule to block a Live Nation venue. Both measures take effect in 30 days, and the project may still be reworked or appealed. Small city, tight vote, real stakes for what a downtown music scene looks like for the next 30 years.
THE NUMBER 🔢
676. The number of times the Grateful Dead performed "Playing in the Band" live across their career, more than any other song in their catalog.
THEN 🕰️
10 years ago this month, Radiohead opened the A Moon Shaped Pool tour at Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam on May 20.
[IMAGE: 2016 A Moon Shaped Pool tour live photo — source: needs sourcing — Amsterdam Heineken Music Hall opening night, or any May to July 2016 European leg; avoid generic "Radiohead live" shots]
They walked on with two drum kits: Phil Selway behind one, Clive Deamer behind the other, the layered percussion of the album rebuilt for a stage. The two-drum setup became the template for how Radiohead toured for the rest of the decade. The night the band proved it could still reinvent what its live show looked like.
FAN DEBATE 💬
Olivia Rodrigo announced $20 Silver Star tickets at every Unraveled Tour show on April 30. Five days later, the Amex presale opened with top-tier seats at $799.50 and floors at $250. Ticketmaster has confirmed prices will not change during presale or onsale, so this isn't a dynamic-pricing fight; the criticism is the absolute price.
Two ways to read it. $20 Silver Star puts a real fan in the room at a real price, even if the program is small. Or $20 Silver Star is the headline and $250 to $799 is the actual math.
So which is it: the answer, or the press release? Tell Jake which side you land on.
B-SIDES 🎶
Eagles Sphere residency hits 64 shows. Six new fall dates added today, the sixth extension of the residency, longest run Sphere has hosted; tickets start at $175 all-in.
Post Malone postpones his stadium tour by three weeks. El Paso, Waco, Baton Rouge's Tiger Stadium, Birmingham, Tampa, and Oxford come off the schedule entirely; the tour now opens June 12 in Indianapolis.
Zayn Malik scales his KONNAKOL Tour from 32 shows to 9. All U.S. dates are off, plus Dublin and Birmingham; the Manchester opener is pushed from May 12 to May 23, with cardiologist treatment cited after April's hospitalization.
BTS played "Dionysus" for the first time since late 2020. Five-year gap between live performances, surprise Sunday slot at El Paso Sun Bowl, and Saturday brought back "ON" with Jimin's 2020-era choreo. The kind of moment fans cross the country for, and exactly the kind worth logging while it's still fresh.
A festival stage collapsed in Tianjin from May Day winds. LED screens shook violently before the BUZZ stage at Bubble Island Festival gave out structurally; performances were relocated, and this is the third major festival wind incident in three weeks.
The night the AC died in the back room and we kept dancing anyway, the floor turning into one shared sweat, nobody complaining because that meant the band was working.
It has been a heavy spring for ticketing news, but the work this week was done by a country singer who handed her stage over and a small city that decided what its downtown should sound like.
What'd you think of this week's Still Ringing? Hit reply.
See you at the show.
