OBEY Blot

After seeing that the new Led Zeppelin greatest hits box set Mothership had come out this week, I realized I hadn’t mentioned in my previous OBEY Giant post all of Shepard Fairey’s mainstream commercial work. The latest being the aforementioned cover of Led Zeppelin’s new 2 CD/1 DVD box set. He also recently designed the cover to the new Smashing Pumpkins album Zeitgeist as well as the poster for the very successful and critically acclaimed Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line. I’ve included these works below along with a few additional items for you to check out. I just thought it might interest many of you to see some of OBEY Giant’s other works of art that you may have seen before but not realized it was created by Shepard Fairey.

2006 Lollapalooza Festival Poster

2006 South By Southwest Festival Poster

Matchbox Twenty's Exile To Houston

Did I miss something? Has there been a huge public outcry for Matchbox Twenty’s reunion? Has anyone bought their new greatest hits album Exile On Mainstream? As far as I know the album, with six new songs, isn’t really burning up the charts even if it was their highest debut on the charts. That stat is pretty misleading since album sales are at an all time low and it’s embarrassing the low number it now takes to reach the top 10 on the sales charts.

Look I’m as big a fan of Matchbox 20 as anyone I know. While it might be a little embarrassing to admit this, I’ve seen MB 20 in concert more times than any other band…somewhere between 11-15 times, but who’s counting. That’s partly because Matchbox got “big” in Birmingham before their first album spread across the country and they were playing there every few months.

That being said, I was really excited to hear after four years the band was getting back together and hitting the road. Their Exile In America Tour hits Houston February 28th at the Toyota Center and has the amazingly talented Alanis Morissette and MUTEMATH opening for them. When I heard Alanis was the opening act I was sold…until I saw the ticket prices. At that point I saw flashes of the Maroon 5 concert happening all over again.

There is no way Matchbox is currently as popular as Maroon 5, even with their new single being played on the radio over and over and over again. And yet they’re trying to sell out the same venue, with higher ticket prices, that Maroon 5 just played and couldn’t even fill up. All I can say is that it’s a really poor decision for a band with their best years behind them to go out on tour for the first time in four years and try to sell out arenas. Why not reward their long time fans with smaller shows that will definitely sell-out and drive up interest, instead of overcharging, turning fans off from even going to the show and playing to half filled stadiums.
I’ll tell you this much with prices of $40, $60 and $75 a ticket your average fans is going to say thanks, but no thanks, and will be leaving the scalpers with tons of tickets they can’t give away. Which is when I’ll swoop in and buy the $75 tickets off of some desperate scalper for $80 total and save a bundle. Too bad Matchbox doesn’t care enough about their fans to set prices at a reasonable level and allow a new, younger fan base, who are the ones that really spend money on music and concerts, to enjoy their show.