How did they sell out THAT place? - venue size shocker

Now that music consumption is primarily streaming-based, I find that I have no idea how big an artist's fan base really is.
This summer, Bon Iver is playing the basketball arena in my town (capacity: 19,500) but Carly Rae Jepsen is playing the House of Blues (capacity: 2,500).
Maybe i've been reading too much ILM, but I would have guessed it the other way around.

Other surprising examples?

Lock thread

Bon Iver’s last album (from 2016) “debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with 71,000 units, of which 58,000 were traditional album sales. It was the highest-selling album of the week.”

Jepsen’s recent album “debuted at number 18 on the US Billboard 200, with 21,000 album-equivalent units, which included 13,000 pure album sales.”

CRJ’s venue size sounds right, Bon Iver is the shocker. He’s playing a hockey arena here too that typically only sees concerts from the likes of Ariana, Taylor, Elton, and Springsteen.

honestly a little surprised that Dedicated flopped even more than Emotion did

i've been having this thought a few times a month for probably five years. i figure it's a combo of me getting old and the changing industry.

anyway, how about Vulfpeck playing Madison Square Garden:

https://www.msg.com/calendar/madison-square-garden-september-2019-vulfpeck-with-fearless-flyers

schedule for the 7500 capacity venue near me has got some minor surprises/arguable gambles (Ghost, Fat Freddy's Drop) and, booked nearly 18 months in advance, a band from London called the Dualers I have literally never heard of

Jepsen’s recent album “debuted at number 18 on the US Billboard 200, with 21,000 album-equivalent units, which included 13,000 pure album sales.”

http://www.thecommunitypaper.com/images/chuckle.jpg

I'm a little surprised to see Tame Impala headlining festivals this summer...

there are a lot of REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED who like albums tbf

All these middle-of-the-road indie-folk rock bands are massive you guys. Definitely been on ILX too long.

Ghost selling out arenas in the US last year.

The Australian Pink Floyd have played the O2/Wembley Arena in London to 12-15,000 people.

some just artists have no obvious cultural visibility/journos are bored of them now (or just dont see them as cool enough to cover), so you no longer see reviews or features anywhere despite the fact that normal people really do listen to / continue to listen to these bands a lot.

I was pretty surprised to see Dropkick Murphys are playing Alexandra Palace (cap 10,250).

I looked at other events there and even more improbable to me is King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

What Size places are king gizzard doing? They’ll fill a 2000 seater several night in a row in Melbourne burn thta is hometown.

10,250

xps yeah the thread whose name I can never remember but something to the effect of "you don't care about them anymore but they're actually bigger now than when they were a hype band" is a relevant corrective

i figure it's a combo of me getting old and the changing industry.

Yeah, Vulfpeck were first thing I thought of when I saw this thread. Friend said he was going to see them earlier this year. Hadn't heard of them, watched the YouTube clip he sent me and assumed they'd be playing somewhere like Dalston Vortex, not two nights at Brixton Academy. Also a bit surprised (but pleased) to see that Big Thief are gonna be playing Hammersmith Odeon next year.

Excellent thread idea, I have these thoughts all the time now. Can't think of "oh, they're really that big?" right now, more like acts that I've never heard of that sell out a 3,500 capacity venue here and have literally hundreds of millions of streams.

Just looking at the current calendar of this venue:

-AJR (apparently pop-EDM, exact the sort of thing that makes sense to be huge but have no critical presence or word-of-mouth from anyone I know)

-Cigarettes After Sex (kind of noirish dream-pop, could easily imagine this being released on an indie Bandcamp label with a few thousand streams & small club shows, rather than millions + big theater tours, but sure?)

Bill Callahan is playing the 3,000 capacity Edinburgh Usher Hall and stalls will not be seated. I appreciate he's more popular than ever but this makes no sense to me

misfits playing msg

the first band I remember really thinking this was The 1975 (in America), but that was years ago

xp - re Bill Callahan. A friend and I are thinking of going but were taken aback that was the venue. I think Calexico and Iron & Wine are playing there too.

Both Bombay Bicycle Club and Royal Blood are booked for Dundee’s similarly-sized Caird Hall this autumn (around 3,500 depending on the seated / standing split).

I often think this about festival bills. But yeah, we're old.

lol Bon Iver moved from Wells Fargo (20k) to Liacouras (10k)

The show in Philadelphia on 10/10 at Wells Fargo Center has been moved to the Liacouras Center on the campus of Temple University. All tix purchased for Wells Fargo Center will automatically be transferred to the Liacouras Center in equal or better seating locations. [1/2] pic.twitter.com/KVTuuaYMUG

— Bon Iver (@boniver) August 19, 2019

Jordan -

that stage where you think they aren't popular anymore but are actually way more popular than they were when they had "buzz"

yeah Vulfpeck is weird, younger guy I worked with loves them, first time I'd heard of them

Father John Misty/Jason Isbell played an 8400 capacity place that the 1975 played recently, Billy Eilish too

I knew they had good followings, but I didnt think that big, though I guess both could probably headline

see: every single contemporary jam band

an endless number of EDM acts with really terrible names that ilm or philip sherburne wouldn't touch with a 10 ft pole

https://armorymn.com/events/ganja-white-night-buds/

i had tickets for gillian welch at the hollywood bowl and it was only on the night of the show that i realized she was supporting father john misty (who i had never heard of). in fact if i try hard i have still never heard of him.

Father John Misty/Jason Isbell played an 8400 capacity place that the 1975 played recently, Billy Eilish too

I knew they had good followings, but I didnt think that big, though I guess both could probably headline

The Misty/Isbell tour played a 5,000 capacity indie-leaning amphitheatre here in Houston that surprisingly enough Misty himself headlined at on his prior tour. Isbell himself has been a 1000+ theatres the last couple times he's been in town.

Billie Eilish has graduated to big arenas: she's headlining the Toyota Center (18 thou capacity) this fall.

Sturgill Simpson's two most recent headline shows here were at 5,000 seat venues. He sold out a 500 capacity club before that.

tame impala are massive, look at the view counts on their music videos sometime

guster selling out terminal 5 fit in here?

Lana Del Rey is now at selling-out-the-biggest-venue-in-Europe stage (Manchester Arena; 21K capacity). I love that it’s happening but it’s kinda surprising, as a coupla albums back she almost seemed like a ‘cult’ artist and was at the local Apollo theatre (3K capacity).

that's interesting because i'm pretty sure her biggest success commercially is still Born to Die and its singles, by a decent margin. oh and "young and beautiful" but that's from a close enough time to count

Pretty sure she could sell out at least 8k by her last album

Jason Isbell is headlining (over Lucinda Williams) at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion (Houston's Summer Shed-capacity 16,500) this summer.

was i hallucinating or did i see that THEE OH SEES are headlining Red Rocks this summer?

related thought: is this summer a lousy time to think about this kind of thing because venue capacities might be reduced? or are we past that?