2020 Speculations - PLEASE DO SURVEY

I’m hoping they’ve learned their lesson and taken the feedback from this year to heart.

Here are some artists I think will be touring next year due to album releases.

Kings of Leon are probably my second least favorite live set I’ve seen. So fuckin’ impersonal and boring. They’re also arrogant bags of douche, so it makes them easier to hate — despite me being pretty cool with their music.



As for 2020, I’ll worry about that in two weeks. At the very least, we know it’ll sell more than this year. I hope for Queens of the Stone Age tbh. Josh Homme’s a raging dillhole, but they’re incredible live.

I took the girlfriend to Kings of Leon last fall when they did an arena tour and came to Columbus.  There could not have been more than 4,000 people in a 18,000 venue and they literally just stood there and the lead singer looked miserably bored.  It was easily the worst show I've ever been to.

There is no doubt in my mind that Imagine Dragons are what Kings of Leon wanted to be but they over played their hand too early

I really don't feel confident in making guesses because this year's lineup was a total shock. Could go back to the type of lineup we were expecting this year. But I have no idea what level popularity artists to expect, never mind who would fit into those slots.

Hmmm... best guesses for me would be
-Weezer
-Billie Eislish
-imagine dragons (I hope not, but they’re likely)
-Tool 🙏
-Sum 41
-Some dope localish band (Starset)
-some big name rapper, maybe tech n9ne
-Angels and Airwaves would be the best shit ever for bunbury. Not only for a great band, but in spite of Blink.
-a ska band or 2
-some weird alt someone or another
-an old band that people forgot were still together

Weezer was still a shock to me that they did not get added this year.  I thought it would line up perfectly with their album releases they had and truthfully thought both them and the Pixies would be at Bunbury.

I hate to say it, but I really like some of Billie Eilish's songs, however I've seen videos of her live performances and it doesn't look super entertaining.  For someone who knows all the songs, I bet it's a great show!  However, I think what really shows how great an artists is is when they are able to entertain folks that don't know their music.  I don't feel that she had that yet.  Also, she's playing BIG festivals which likely puts her out of contention.

Honestly, I think imagine dragons are "too big" for Bunbury.  They are an atrocious group of noise makers that have unfortunately made their way into the pop spotlight.  I have to imagine that they charge a ridiculous amount of money and my perception is that they are going to peak fast and hopefully Bunbury skips them.

Tom stated that this small fall tour they are doing to promote the new album was a test to see how people would respond to them coming back touring and that it also is a warm up for him and his crew since they have not toured in such a long time.  He then went on to talk about how if there is a good reception, there's a possibility of a larger tour.  Plus, the closest show to Cincy is Cleveland which adds to the possibility.

All of these are good speculations so far.

I'll add in Lorde as a big possibility. She's working on a new album and I assume it will drop sometime in the next year or so. The Black Keys are definitely on my wishlist but given this year's lineup, that's probably not too realistic, but who knows. Cage the Elephant would make a lot of sense as an alt rock headliner, as would Vampire Weekend or Lumineers.

Undercard seems like so much of a crap shoot. But I feel like we can count on at least one band with a huge breakout hit like lovelytheband, Sir Sly, or Flora Cash. That seems to be a given. Someone like Oliver Tree or The Interrupters (so damn good live!!) would fit that slot I think. Oh, and I feel like next year we will get AJR just because they play anything and everything. Literally anything. I saw they played the NASCAR All Star Race concert last weekend.

lorde is probably too big

I was kind of surprised the marketing behind that album. The alternative stations played the crap out of a few of her songs but for how mainstream radio she was after  her first album, the record company or whoever, didn't do a great job of pushing her stuff out more. A lot of times I put that on the record company though. 

Also, kind of off topic. Does anyone have any info as to why certain acts, such a HAIM and Florence & the Machine, would put out new albums and then do tours for those albums that span maybe 8 big cities give or take and then just stop touring for that album? Florence is doing spurts of shows every now and then but never did a proper one for their newest release and HAIM legit did less than 10 shows for theirs and then just stopped all together. It's baffling to me why a record company would put that type of strategy behind an artist. 

Florence did a pretty big tour in the fall and is doing another 20ish show US leg right now. I actually just saw Florence last night for the first time ever and....holy shit! PLEASE Bunbury or Forecastle book her for 2020!! Absolutely incredible, incredible show. I was a little surprised at the fact that the venue in Chicago wasn't super big. I think about 12,000 for this show. It has a lawn that is used at some shows but it wasn't open for Florence. It is worth mentioning that she did play an arena in Chicago last fall so that might be why demand wasn't super high. I was actually very surprised Florence didn't hit Columbus on her tour for this album. I feel like she would have done well there

Oh yeah, she could easily fill nationwide. Express would be cool, but I can’t imagine how expensive it would be. I shelled out 110 for my pit ticket and there were approximately 2500 in the pit plus 10k reserved seats. 110 is the most I’ve ever spent on one artist, and it was certainly worth it because we were 5 feet from the barrier dead center, but I wouldn’t want to pay anymore than that

Oh it was so so worth it. Florence came in to the crowd during "What Kind of Man" and held my hand for a few seconds. Definitely a special moment. 

One pet peeve: The four or five people in front of me were literally THE ONLY ONES with their phones up recording the whole show. They held their phones up way above their heads even though they didn't have to do get a good shot. And I am quite tall at 6'1 so it was right in my line of sight. I definitely had to crane my neck at some points to see her and not a phone screen. I politely asked the girl in front of me to lower it and she gave me this weird look and continued to hold it up. I honestly don't get that. Other than that and some very poor entry management by the venue, it was perfect.