Category → News
Beale St. Tavern New Ticketing Venue
We are super happy to announce the newest box office member of the Front Gate Tickets family… Beale Street Tavern! Fans and show lovers alike can now purchase tickets to any Front Gate Tickets event directly from the Beale Street Tavern in the historic east 6th neighborhood.
“We’re so excited to have Beale Street Tavern as a new venue for Front Gate tickets. It is in the heart of Austin’s thriving music scene and not only offers rad music, tasty food and great people, but tickets to must-see shows as well,” said Jeff Kreinik, sales and marketing director, Front Gate Tickets.
Beale Street Tavern, located at 214 East 6th Street in Austin, sits tidily below The Parish, an Austin live music staple (both owned by Doug Guller). The Elvis-themed restaurant and bar is a convenient downtown box office location, and offers great grub and a stellar jukebox. Stop on by Beale Street and nab some tickets to your favorite bands and performers
Pollstar conference winners
The 23rd annual Pollstar Concert Industry Awards happened last week at Club Nokia in Los Angeles, CA and Front Gate Tickets is proud to report that some of our clients and cohorts were at the winning end of this grand event! Please join us in congratulating…
Major Music Festival of the Year (non-touring) – Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival (Indio, CA)
Music Festival of the Year (non-touring) – The Hangout Music and Beach Festival (Gulf Shores, AL)
It feels good to have such rad people represented in such a big way! Here’s to another great year of awesome shows, successful ticketing and super fun music times.
Adding to the Biz Dev team
Exciting things are happening here at Front Gate Tickets, and we’re absolutely stoked to announce the addition of two new Business Development hires: Steve Fore and Neal Gilbreath.
Steve made his merry way here from Musictoday, a division of Live Nation, where he was Director of Ticketing for five years. Not only did he succeed in expanding fan club ticketing for the likes of Kenny Chesney, The Black Keys, Phish and Tim McGraw while at Musictoday, but he also initiated “scalper-proof” ticketing solutions for artists, including NIN. We’re overjoyed to have him onboard and are thrilled about the future of Front Gate Tickets with Steve here by our side.
Neal recently joined the Front Gate Tickets team after a stint at Green Mountain Energy where he worked with festivals and events across the country to help reduce their environmental impact. He’s worked with fest mainstays Bumbershoot, Austin City Limits Music Festival and Kahbang Music & Arts Festival among others, and brings his excellent festival chops and varied experience to our budding sales and marketing team.
Please send out a warm, welcoming hug to our new additions. We’ll see you in 2012… surely the biggest, baddest and RADDEST year yet for Front Gate Tickets!
Record label + Kickstarter = SonicAngel?
SonicAngel is a new company that is meshing two unlikely parts of the music industry machine into one very cool idea. They’re a record label, but they’re also a crowdfunding platform. Think Kickstarter + burgeoning record label.
SonicAngel works a little bit differently than your standard record label, or even friend-funding site. Artists sign up and levy support from fans and friends who also join up. Outstanding artists, as determined by fan support AND SonicAngel big wigs, are then signed up to a one release deal.
Then, SonicAngel provides the platform in which the fans can then invest (corporate or individually) in the artists that they believe in. Once an artists gets appropriate funding, their album is released digitally and in hard copy form with SonicAngel providing marketing, sales and touring support.
Sounds like a cool deal, and a way for the emphasis to be on bands creating their OWN extended fanbase. Hard work? Sure. Totally rewarding? You can bet your bottom dollar.
Jon Russell of the Head and the Heart attacks sound technician
Seattle indie folk-pop darlings The Head and the Heart have made quite a splash lately, and not just in their comfort zone of the northwest. Joy-seeking folk-loving listeners all across the country have fallen for their earnest vocal harmonies, tinkling piano interludes and effervescent charm. Their 2009 self-released debut (packaged in handmade denim sleeves and handed out at shows) blew up via word of mouth and some positive local press, and they’ve been on the upwards climb ever since.
But that lucky streak may be about to come to an end, all because of lead singer Jon Russell’s “uncharacteristic” bout of rage when he clobbered a sound technician at the Tractor Tavern in Seattle. Acclaimed sound engineer Doug Krebs posted on his Facebook page an account of the happening:
… Last Tuesday night I was violently attacked by the lead singer of this band, Jon Russell. This was after a performance he attended of his recent tourmates’… He did not know who I was—this could have happened to anyone. This attack was without any provocation… After approaching me at my work station and rudely accusing me of not being attentive or qualified for my job (which everyone in attendance refutes completely) I calmly asked him to leave. He angrily demanded to know what my name was. I told him I was not going to talk with him and asked him to leave once more. Thinking it was over, I went back to resetting the board. Out of nowhere he attacked me and began to choke me, pulling me out of the sound booth and digging his fingernails into the back of my neck while pushing his thumbs into the front of my throat. After his friends noticed he was attacking me, they grabbed him and removed him from the club kicking and screaming. All of his friends apologized profusely saying he has a bad temper and was intoxicated.
This unfortunate incident is particularly interesting considering the recent assault involving Seattle hip hop group Mad Rad. Eric Grandy of the Seattle Weekly chimes in with his thoughts on both incidences, their differences and what he thinks Seattle should do.
Both of these happenings raise several questions about the state of artists, attitudes, success and behaviors. Will The Head and the Heart get banned from multiple Seattle clubs (banding together in solidarity for one of their own) like Mad Rad did? Or will they suffer a much lesser punishment, purportedly based on the fact that they aren’t brazen impetuous rappers?
Krebs is more worried about Russell than angry, and good for him for taking that stance. But someone needs to hold him accountable for his behavior, drunk or not. And more importantly… is this behavior something we should get used to? Their music aside, it seems as if The Head and the Heart have got some re-evaluating, and re-imaging, to do.
