Hasbeen tours

Back around 1987 or 88 I remember listening to the radio and they were talking about some concert at the Fairgrounds or somewhere and it was Herman's Hermits, the Turtles and probably two other 60's bands. I remember laughing and thinking it was pathetic that these old bands who were once something had to get together in in a package tour of four-five bands just so they tour during the summer and make money off of the people that liked them twenty years earlier. Well now here it is almost twenty years later and there are 80's metal hasbeen tours going on during the summer. Just because I might refer to a band as a hasbeen doesn't mean I don't like them. A band like Judas Priest or the Scorpions are well past their prime, but they are big enough to play some sizable places by themselves so they are not really hasbeens in that respect but to non-metal fans those guys might even be hasbeens. I think the ones that seem more like hasbeens are the bands who touring in groups of three or more and playing clubs. Also a lot of these bands are not touring to promote a album, they are just touring. No, that's not a sin but it just seems a little desperate to me. I know these guys are just trying to make money, but I guess deep down I hope they would try hard to release something and show they have some life in them other than just getting on stage for 45 minutes a night. The Rock never stops is one tour that's going on this summer and it features Firehouse, Quiet Riot, Ratt and Cinderella. The other one I thought of is the American Metal Blast which features Metal Church, Stephen Pearcy, LA guns and Wasp. My understanding is that WASP's set will include a lot of the blood and stage theatrics that garnered them a reputation in their early club days and they have not done any in that in nearly 20 years. That's great and all I guess, but then Blackie says he envisions this tour as being a yearly summer event with WASP as the headliner. Uh, somehow I don't think this will turn out to be his version of Ozzfest. Now don't get me wrong, I am not slagging WASP just to slag them in fact I am a big fan and the last album was very good. It just sounds to me like Blackie is overating his bands status. I guess a lot of these guys went through serious down times between say 92-99 where they were not recording or at least had to move down to smaller labels and they couldn't make money touring like they did in 80's. Over the last last six years there seems to have been a little bit of resurgence of metal so now these guys have pulled themselves back out and group together to go out on tours. Nothing wrong with it, but sometimes they charge a lot of money for guys who well past their prime. I just wonder if say Nu-metal bands from today will have to form a touring group of four bands to do a summer tour in 2025 going around to all the best dives they can get booked at while fans age 35-45 pay to see them 20 years past their prime?