You’ve just seen your favourite artist announce a North American tour. You’re looking at the concert dates, only to see that Vancouver isn’t listed anywhere. You’re either salty that they’re not coming, or you start planning that trip to Edmonton, Calgary, or Seattle. It doesn’t even make sense to you why they’re not coming to Vancouver. They’re already going to Calgary and Seattle, so why not Vancouver? Do they just not like us? Are our venues that bad? Well, it’s kind of a combination of those things.
Since when did it become a thing to skip every other major city in Canada besides Toronto for concerts?! I see so many artists doing it the last few years. Vancouver needs some love too
— zhi (@loverzhi) January 17, 2023
Most Vancouver venues aren’t sufficient for most artists. Rogers Arena and BC Place are too expensive and other places can’t fit more than 10,000 people. Artists would rather not waste their time at a venue that small to stop by during a tour most of the time. Also, most of our venues aren’t that great to begin with. The acoustics at these places are pretty terrible. I was at a concert at Red Room back in May. The headliner and the band before them had their levels super high to the point where you sometimes can’t tell what was going on. You had to be at a sweet spot to hear things clearly, which should never be the case.
Thankfully, it looks like things are coming back to Vancouver. There are a total of 3 shows this year that I’m interested in. And these aren’t just top-of-the-line legacy acts. I’m talking about bands such as The Black Dahlia Murder, Kreator, Sepultura, and Rotting Christ. Bands of this calibre are the type to skip Vancouver and the fact that they’re coming is quite a treat. I’ve seen many of my favourite bands just skip Vancouver which has led to some disappointment.
Vancouver will unfortunately be skipped by many artists. They probably prefer just getting something big in Seattle and hope Vancouverites will make the journey down there. If your favourite artist is coming to Vancouver, don’t wait. That is your chance to see them in your city.