Originally Posted by
kleiner352
What I see being a real issue is that Billy made it very clear in his texts that he sees this as a succeed or die moment for the band, and yet he set the aim so ridiculously high that there's almost no shot at succeeding heavily here. For the past year people have wondered why A Perfect Circle has been doing arenas when they aren't an arena band, and this is looking like the same sort of situation -- a band that isn't at all at the same peak they once were oddly believing that they'll be able to jump right back into being a gigantic act despite recent history suggesting otherwise.
What happens when tickets go on sale, and shows don't sell out right away, and they end up in half-filled arenas in the middle of nowhere? They're not promoting a successful new album, they have no big single, they have an incomplete reunion lineup that most people are unaware of and those who are know more about the dysfunction than anything else, there doesn't seem to be anything here that would indicate this tour will sell particularly well. Over 30 dates and all of them arenas. Is it going to be all seated? Are the 125 tickets seats on the floor? Who do they think is going to pay that? Some people obviously will, but not enough to fill in a room of 17,000-22,000.
If they'd done the reunion properly, had something new to show that was solid and promising and they had booked a string of theatres, sure, they could sell them out and build up to another run of larger venues. But, holy fuck, the only SP shows in the last two years have been glorified solo shows in theatres and I don't think they've been selling out at all. Before that you had some theatre dates and then a coheadlining amphitheatre run that seemed to do well, but nothing indicating this kind of a tour.
Billy is acting like this is what'll either make or break the band's future and yet it's a situation where there's very, very little chance of it being a giant success. He mentions some giant production with a static setlist -- is that what anybody has ever in a million years wanted from a Pumpkins show? That alone means no one will feel a need to see more than one date, and a bunch of these shows are in neighboring markets. It makes no sense to me. If it was a handful of arenas in the biggest markets, maybe it wouldn't seem as ridiculous, but this is a giant tour for a band that hasn't had any sort of mainstream presence in years.
I can't help but get the feeling that when this doesn't become a big thing, Billy will have a little fit of saying "See? Nobody actually wanted a nostalgia run, I was right all along," when in reality it'll be because he went about it in the worst possible way imaginable. It doesn't feel put together to create an environment of success, it feels designed to make a quick buck and then justify his years of cynicism and audience-blaming.
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