How do you find out which concerts/performances you would like to see are coming to your town?

August 27, 2004 4:41 AM

How do you find out which concerts/performances you would like to see are coming to your town? Hang around tickemaster.com like myself and my fellow morons?
posted by shoos to Media & Arts (21 answers total)

When I'm paying attention, I use alt weeklies or local music websites.
posted by weston at 4:42 AM on August 27, 2004

Pollstar.Com is decent - doesn't list everything but it's a good place to start if you don't have a weekly handy.
posted by Gortuk at 5:00 AM on August 27, 2004

sign up on the band's or band's label's mailing list. regularly check the band's or band's label's Tour section of their site. check the websites of your favorite venues regularly. any yeah, look over the alt weekly.
posted by lotsofno at 5:13 AM on August 27, 2004

I usually end up checking a Minneapolis radio station's website and find out somebody really cool is on tour... and was in Minneapolis 2 weeks prior. I live 90ish miles from Minneapolis, the local radio stations only seem to mention who's coming to the Eau Claire WI area proper. Who's coming to Eau Claire proper? Well, nobody.
posted by substrate at 5:21 AM on August 27, 2004

Why the hell doesn't iTunes do this? It knows what performers I like, and which new bands I'm listening to, so why doesn't it pop up a window telling me which are playing in my area? It would be trivial to code.

I have a sneaking susp. that Apple's deals with the labels somehow forbid Apple disintermediating them and giving fans any direct access to the bands...
posted by nicwolff at 6:40 AM on August 27, 2004

I'll second pollstar.com. Except very small local bands, it's got pretty good listings. You can search by artist, location, date.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 7:52 AM on August 27, 2004

nicwolff, probably nobody has thought of it before. It's an excellent idea and I never thought of it. Go download the iTunes SDK and get cracking!
posted by substrate at 7:52 AM on August 27, 2004

The other good thing about PollStar is that you can sign up to be automatically notified by e-mail when your favourite bands update their tour schedules. Unfortunately, they limit you to five bands at a time, but you can get around this by either using multiple e-mail addresses or (if you're desperate) paying for their premium service.
posted by Johnny Assay at 7:54 AM on August 27, 2004

I recommend this website for substrate and other Minnesota-based folk.
posted by hootch at 7:56 AM on August 27, 2004

Amen, substrate, that's a pretty cool idea. The trick, though, would probably not be on the iTunes end (I think you ought to be able to accomplish it through Applescript, even, by sorting the library by playcount), but on the concert listing end. Are there any "services" (RSS/SOAP) that provide this kind of information? Otherwise, it's a lot of messy hacking and screen scraping.
posted by mkultra at 8:09 AM on August 27, 2004

Washington CityPaper lists most of the clubs in the DC/Balt area so I peruse it each Thursday.
posted by terrapin at 8:15 AM on August 27, 2004

upcoming.org is an option. Alas, it's only as good as people in your area make it, so post events often!
posted by fletchmuy at 9:11 AM on August 27, 2004

No one mentioned waxy's Upcoming? It works best in the major US cities, but it could work everywhere if everyone chipped in a little bit.
posted by mathowie at 9:11 AM on August 27, 2004

I use: mailing lists, local weekly, this page, checking at venue pages, posters around the neighborhood. Nevertheless I miss a lot, especially classical and folk stuff.
posted by kenko at 9:24 AM on August 27, 2004

I'll second mailing lists of bands/labels/clubs (and I'm on mailing lists of music freaks as well and run one of my own).

I'll also second or third pollstar.com but I stopped using it when the wouldn't allow a login without a birthdate. Idjits.
posted by dobbs at 9:25 AM on August 27, 2004

This page on the Apple site lists a number of calendars iCal users can subscribe to. The selection in the music section are pretty paltry, but I know that some bands do publish iCal compatible calendar links on their web sites. It's not much good now, but for one example, the tour dates page on the Phish web site offers RSS feeds and iCal links. More bands should do this, definitely.
posted by emelenjr at 11:15 AM on August 27, 2004

CitySearch is pretty good for San Francisco, and I assume it'd work for other cities, too. (There's a lot of clutter due to ads and sponsored links, though.)
posted by kirkaracha at 11:53 AM on August 27, 2004

Unless it's a band that makes it's living touring, most times the band is only going to tour when a new album comes out. The first thing I do when I learn someone I like is releasing new material is to search their sites for tour info.
posted by archimago at 12:23 PM on August 27, 2004

JamBase.com. Despite the name, it's not just JamBands and festivals. It lets you track favorite bands, too.
posted by Asparagirl at 1:32 PM on August 27, 2004

Checking your local venue's listings or signing up for their email lists is a good idea.

There are some really good sites I have bookmarked at home that list almost every possible show/event coming to LA/Hollywood/Silverlake for months at a time - I'll post those when I'm not at work if no one else does.
posted by Lizc at 4:43 PM on August 27, 2004

Every Northern California music fan should have The List bookmarked.
posted by toddshot at 5:53 PM on August 27, 2004