The ups and downs of 2003
December 26, 2003
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For better or for worse, the year in music was defined on the second Monday in September.
That's the day the record industry declared war on its own consumers, blindsiding more than 250 downloaders with lawsuits alleging they shared copyrighted material online. One thing was abundantly clear: the music business wasn't going down without a fight.
And that's the kind of year 2003 likely will be remembered as, a time of upheaval and uncertainty.
It's been a year that's seen record labels questioning whether CDs will still be around in five years, and a time when music fans have learned that you can fit an entire CD collection onto an iPod that's no bigger than a pack of cigarettes.
CD sales continue to drop, but not as precipitously; album sales fell 4.7 percent this year, compared to 10.8 percent in 2002, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Yet if you add paid downloads, overall music sales only dropped 2.2 percent, thanks to the 15.9 million songs purchased through Internet stores like iTunes, Napster and Rhapsody.
At the same time, the concert industry continued to emerge from its post-9/11 slump. According to Billboard, tour grosses jumped 25 percent this year to $2.2 billion, with Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band — who played Denver in September — coming in as the year's biggest cash cow.
Local promoters reported a decent year, and while there were plenty of sellouts — Radiohead, Simon & Garfunkel, Dixie Chicks, five nights of the Dead, three nights of Widespread Panic, two nights of James Taylor — there also were too many shows where promoters were forced to give away thousands of seats.
Here's a look back at the year that was:
Last Call
The nation's struggling economy did a number on Boulder's music scene
this year, beginning, this spring, with the closure of the city's three
Wherehouse Music outlets. In April, dance club SOMA closed its doors after a
star-studded, five-year run.
Then, in September, tax agents seized the venerable Tulagi, the latest — and
seemingly final — in a string of closures during that club's storied 56-year
history. By the end of October, Denver's Wax Trax shuttered its University
Hill outlet. And, this week, the now-defunct Trios Wine Bar and Grille
hosted its last night of live jazz.
Most Welcome Return
Annie Lennox, who hadn't performed in Colorado since a mid-'80s
Eurythmics' date at Red Rocks, came to Macky Auditorium this spring to
deliver a triumphant, career-encapsulating set that was well worth the wait.
Most Disappointing Return
While this year's Strokes and White Stripes releases each failed to live up to those bands' fantastic 2001 breakthrough records, it was Jane's Addiction that fell flattest. Strays, the legendary act's first album in more than a decade, reveals that the former insurgents of modern rock have grown old and stale. The band's greatest-hits Lollapalooza set at Fiddler's Green didn't help, either.
Honorary Coloradan
Thanks to his membership in Gov't Mule, the Allman Brothers Band and Phil Lesh & Friends, guitarist Warren Haynes played a whopping nine concerts in Colorado this year — 12, actually, if you give him double points for the three nights the Mule opened for Phil Lesh at the Fillmore. What's next? Gov't Mule plays Steamboat on Jan. 14.
Passing the Buck
This summer, Universal Music Group announced plans to drop CD prices from $18.98 to at least $12.98, and possibly as low as $10. The plan was hailed by consumers, but bore a bitter sting for independent retailers. While UMG — which distributes big-name acts like U2 and 50 Cent — asked stores to drop their list prices by as much $9, it only cut its wholesale prices by $3, leaving retailers to absorb most of the cuts.
Best Divine Intervention at a Concert
Four songs into the Doors' electrifying Red Rocks set last August, Jim Morrison's new stand-in — Ian Astbury of the Cult — walked to center stage, looked toward the heavens and said, "Rain: It's all good." With that, the band — anchored by original members Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger — played "Riders on the Storm," and, as if on cue, the skies opened, pouring sheets of rain onto thousands of fans.
Worst Divine Intervention at a Concert
We've got a tie this year, more proof that outdoor shows are risky business in Colorado. First, Channel 93.3's Big Adventure — starring the likes of Social Distortion and Bad Religion — was scrubbed by a May snowstorm. Then, two months later, Jackson Browne's headlining set was scotched when a torrential rainstorm knocked out power at Red Rocks, just after opener Steve Earle walked offstage.
Best Reissue
Neil Young fans have long considered 1974's On the Beach to be
among the rocker's best work, so there was much rejoicing this summer when
the notoriously prickly Young finally got around to releasing this moody
masterpiece on CD, along with three other long out-of-print titles. It's
about time — but what about Time Fades Away and Journey Through
the Past, Young's remaining two vinyl- and cassette-only titles?
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Over the Hill Gang
The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles and half of the Doors played to ecstatic Colorado crowds this year, proving, yet again, rock 'n' roll's sturdiest maxim: nostalgia sells better than youthful rebellion. And nowhere was that more evident than at Simon & Garfunkel's reunion show at the Pepsi Center, where aging baby boomers shelled out $45 for T-shirts.
Sticking it to the Man
Recalling Pearl Jam's quixotic battle in the mid-'90s, Boulder's String Cheese Incident filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster in August, accusing the ticketing behemoth of monopolizing the industry. Ticketmaster, in turn, accused SCI of using the litigation as a publicity stunt.
Sticking it to the Band
A fan who'd apparently had enough of the Dave Matthews Band's July concert at the Pepsi Center hurled a large hunting knife on-stage towards the end of the show; the blade ended up sticking into the stage floor between Matthews and violinist Boyd Tinsley.
A little spooked, the band, nevertheless, played on.
Best Stage Dive (Professional)
A few songs into Guided By Voices' set at the Westword Music Showcase, the band's visibly intoxicated roadie, a guy named "Buffalo," took over on lead guitar — and promptly stumbled off the lip of the stage, ax still in hand. Once Buffalo — his bent neck wrapped in a foam brace — was hauled off by paramedics, frontman Robert Pollard resumed the show.
"It's OK," Pollard told the crowd, "he just got stabbed last week."
Best Stage Dive (Amateur)
This summer's weirdly beautiful Flaming Lips gig ended with a final, unplanned pratfall: A jubilant fan slipped and plummeted over the railing of the Ogden Theatre's balcony. The concertgoer wasn't seriously injured, according to press reports, although medics probably wondered about all the fake blood that Lips' mastermind Wayne Coyne left behind.
Worst-Dressed Performer
For his July concert at the open-air Universal Lending Pavilion, Elvis Costello took the stage dressed in a black wool suit; needless to say, it didn't take long for the rocker to get a little hot under the collar on the sizzling summer night. Less than an hour into his set, a heat-stricken Costello ran offstage without saying a word, much to the bewilderment of the crowd.
After a few minutes of cheering, the house lights came on and some post-show music started playing, eliciting sporadic boos from the audience. Suddenly, though, the lights went out again, and Costello — who'd apparently cooled his heels backstage and regained his composure — reemerged for 75 minutes' worth of encores.
Hot Ticket
Dave Matthews' rare solo appearance at the Fox Theatre was the place to be this summer, and ticket prices, accordingly, shot through the roof. On eBay, single tickets fetched nearly $400.
And speaking of scalpers, the folks at the Fox Theatre should be relieved that Boulder doesn't have an anti-scalping law like the one in Denver, where concert tickets can't be sold for more than the price printed on the tickets themselves. The day the Matthews show went on sale, the Fox boosted the price to $50 a head — but never changed the tickets, which still bore the original $35 price.
Cold Ticket
Sure, Bruce Springsteen only drew 35,000 fans to the cavernous Invesco Field, but a crowd that size couldn't have fit in any other Denver concert venue. More embarrassing was House of Blues' decision to book — and then cancel — the Sex Pistols at Fiddler's Green over Labor Day Weekend. A week before the scheduled gig at the 18,000-seat amphitheater, seats were still available in the 17th row.
Weeks earlier, in an interview with the Daily Camera, Johnny Rotten had bemoaned the lack of shows the band had been able to scare up: "According to the (booking) agency, we can only get 12 gigs, which is astounding, I would think." Maybe not.
Dixie Chicked
Natalie Maines' antiwar statements — she told a London audience: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas" — led to boycotts and CD burnings, yet the Dixie Chicks remained extraordinarily popular throughout 2003, selling millions of albums and selling out concert after concert, including a summer stop at the Pepsi Center.
Dixie Chicked II
Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder was the subject of a mild backlash after he abused a George W. Bush mask during the band's April concert at the Pepsi Center. Fans complained that Vedder "impaled" the president's head on his mic stand, and reports circulated that "dozens" of fans walked out of the concert.
Best Archival Release
With How the West Was Won and "DVD" — an extraordinary three-CD, two-DVD package — the live Led Zeppelin experience finally has been documented in superb sound and video, a fitting testament to the power of one of rock's most potent live acts.
Best Opening Act
Fans who showed up early for the Eels' show at the Fox Theatre this past July were treated to an opening DJ set by MC Honky. Unbeknownst to most in the room, this portly, pipe-smoking DJ was actually Eels' frontman Mark Oliver Everett spinning wax in what appeared to be a fat suit, bald wig and a porkpie hat.
Worst Opening Act
Last month's Yeah Yeah Yeahs gig at Englewood's Gothic Theatre was almost not worth sitting through the opening band. The Locust — comprised of four masked musicians — pummeled the audience with a string of shrieking, 60-second blasts of white noise that sounded more like a herd of drowning goats than anything resembling music.
Biggest Draw
Over five sold-out nights, the Jerry-less Dead drew more than 45,000 fans to Red Rocks — a bigger tally than any other act managed to draw this year, including the Boss, who only filled half of Invesco Field.
Best Hidden Track
The first-rate soundtrack to Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation" contains one last nugget buried at the end of the CD: Bill Murray's mournful karaoke serenade of the Roxy Music classic "More Than This," the emotional core of the film.
Best Epitaph
There were a number of great musical sign-offs this year: Johnny Cash's box set of unreleased gems, Unearthed; Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros' rough-and-tumble Streetcore; and Warren Zevon's last testament, "Keep Me In Your Heart." Just as heartfelt, though, was Concert for George, a two-CD, two-DVD tribute to George Harrison's music, performed by the late Beatle's son and close friends, including Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and, of course, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. A real class act.
Contact Matt Sebastian at (303) 473-1498 or sebastianm@dailycamera.com.
(thanks, Beverly)
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