Dashboard Confessional has left its support slot on Beck’s North American tour, effective immediately. The Chris Carrabba-led group played its final gig on the trek Saturday outside Denver. The move is being chalked up to “circumstances beyond our control” on Dashboard’s official Web site, although sources indicate the band left the tour for financial reasons.
Fellow support act the Black Keys will remain on the trek through its June 27 conclusion in Irvine, Calif., and will play a longer set in Dashboard’s absence.
The move comes amid reports that despite respectable business in markets such as Atlanta and Chicago, the tour is not performing as well as had been expected at the box office. Venues for two of the remaining seven shows are being downsized, beginning Wednesday (June 18) in Vancouver. That show has been moved from the 10,000-capacity Plaza of Nations to the 2,788-capacity Orpheum Theatre. Sources say only about 1,400 tickets have been sold for the performance.
Meanwhile, Thursday’s concert at Portland, Ore.’s Rose Garden Arena has been moved to the Keller Auditorium.
Sources say the venue changes would have required Dashboard to accept a lesser performance fee, which the group declined to do, in favor of beginning promotional work for its new Vagrant album. The set, “A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar,” is due Aug. 12.
According to the Dashboard site, fans wishing refunds can obtain them at points of purchase. “However, we STRONGLY recommend that you do yourself a favor and take in the rest of their tour dates and experience the creative brilliance that is Beck,” the site says. “We have had a great time on this tour; we were treated so well by Beck and his crew that we will be forever grateful.”
Dashboard Confessional is expected to return to the road later this summer.
Source Billboard.com.
