Artists skip Seattle because of a few reasons ....

#1 - promoters! Hey promoteres ... stop paying high wages to these touring artists! Who cares if they're your favorite group ever. When you do this, they expect it EVERY time they come through town! Not to mention, there's no money left over after you paid them for the club or the openers. If the club has a 350 person capacity. And you charged 8$ a head. Oh the touring act wants 3 grand? hmmm.

Seattle, you're very inconsistant in your club support. Empty, Full, Empty, Full. Tour mangers take note of this.

Oh back to promoters! So you brought your favorite swedish house act to town that no one knows about? I mean thats cool, thank you. But they're going to tell other people how no one was there.

Oh yeah. Canadians love music more than all of you. Do you want to be known as music haters?

Anyhow, 2 cents.

MSTRKRFT must be getting paid WELL to tour w/ Digweed. I'm surprised Element didn't book this. Whatever the case, it seems like a weird bill. MSTRKRFT will probably come around again on a headlining tour.

I don't understand Seattle. The Stranger gave serious coverage to techno superstars like Derrick May, Richie Hawtin, and Michael Mayer, but they didn't come close to selling out their venues.

At the risk of reopening old wounds, this sad state of affairs might be partially attributable to a large non-commercial Seattle-based radio station's avoidance of playing much electronic music during prime listening hours. More support there would probably result in better attendance at said gigs.

This is just a theory, not an invitation to pile on that large non-commercial Seattle-based radio station, which appears to be doing just fine NOT showing much love to instrumental electronic music during prime listening hours.

I am a local person affiliated with music biz folks. Many artists and managers are currently rethinking Seattle. The inconsistency in crowds and the unwillingness to promote are the main reasons. Portland is opening their arms to music of all genres and putting their money where their mouths are. NOT so in Seattle. Not only is the lack of promotion an issue, but the fact that you CANNOT count on Seattle crowds at all. There is no guarantee on any show unless it's a Pearl Jam thing at Showbox. Come on Seattle, prove these people wrong. GET OUT THERE and HEAR THE MUSIC you so often bitch about not getting! Enough whining! Put your money out there! PROVE IT!

Flyers all over town, posters everywhere, MySpace bulletins, specialist internet discussion lists, 2 alt weeklies devoting lots of space to music every week = unwillingness to promote? We experience an absolute PLAGUE of promotion every day w/r/t music. Are you sure this is a large part of the problem?

The problem is the lack of anyone in the 20-25 year old age bracket. They spend money on shows and drink every night where as the oldies in the 25-30 age bracket just don't have any party left in them.
Why is it that no young people are moving to Seattle? Rising rents? Catering too much to condo dwellers? Also, what effect is this stupid nightclub license going to have on Seattle longterm and how will it effect the cost of putting on a show in this city? Seattle is changing a lot right now and we could be witnessing the end of a really amazing neighborhood (Capitol Hill) if we don't become a little bit more proactive in making it thrive.

Hillbilly, you may be on to something. I've been wondering where the young people are for a minute now, but I don't know if I'm just not in the right spots or if there are actually fewer kids around. Do you have any hard data that suggests a decrease in 20-25yos in Seattle?

This isn't a stretch.

It's your local radio station KEXP. They aren't indy when some of the DJs get insanely high wages, they only play 1 genre of music for most hours of the day and THEY SPONSOR BANDS THAT AREN'T FROM YOUR CITY. Yes, Marketing genius it is. But come on people, you donate cash to a 'nonprofit' radio station that sponsors Art Brut tours or shows in New York or Chicago?

I like out of town music as the rest of us, but there's only so many ad spots on that local indy station for shows. And who gets the attention when it's for shows out of town?

i feel your pain eric. looks like i'm headed to pdx tomorrow for claude von stroke, then again for matthew dear in a couple of weeks.

seattle's a fickle town. for as much good music comes through town, i think seattlites have grown to take it for granted, and as such assume others are supporting the scene in their stead, which is obviously not true from the half-empty shows i'm continually attending. it's really too bad people are skipping us on the one hand, but on the other, shows in portland are more fun anyway. they out-drink, out-dance, and out-debauch seattle hands down.

Damn! I've still never seen Matthew Dear, think I might hitch a ride?

Oh shit! You got room for 2 Donte!? :)

The 2 previous MSTRKRFT shows here were kind of so-so (especially when compared to the crowd in SF, tho that was with Justice). But, I'm really surprised this didn't get booked at a place like Element (like PP said earlier) for Digweed alone!?

I got over the whole progressive house and trance thing years ago but, Sasha and Digweed are probably the 2 I would still go see, if the cost and venue were agreeable (which, they probably wouldn't be). Too bad the PDX show is on a Thursday..