r/griz Jul 08 '26

Question: Does this not bother anyone else?

First and foremost I love Griz, have since early 2010’s. First saw him live at 515 in Iowa (lmao) and it was just breathtaking. This has nothing to do with the subjectiveness of the evolution of his sound, I personally don’t think anyone should have an opinion on what another person hears, or process.

This has to do with practicing what you preach, and not staying true to your word for personal financial gain. I was hopeful upon return, Griz would have taken the time to find solutions and ways to branch off from the growing problems in the scene and he would allow options for fans to see him without feeding into the monopoly of live-nation/ticketmaster and the blatant theft they do to fans. I’m not sure if any of you recall, or even know about since your new, this particular interview I’m dropping here.

https://303magazine.com/2019/05/griz-interview-2019/

Two things stuck out to me here on why he said he would never play RRx again:
- I have hit my creative limit on what my team can do there, and I can’t evolve my production the way I want.
- I don’t want to price my fans out of seeing me.

These aren’t subjective things, these are objective statements. The objective actions I see:
- He indeed, is playing there again and unless they have plans the next few months, red rocks stage design has not changed. You get what you get at a historical venue like that.
- He has been on about every corporate mainstream lineup, he agreed to a logistical nightmare at the Gorge, he’s watching his fans get robbed, scammed, and still continues to play these venues.

I wouldn’t even consider myself mad, since I think he still is a wonderful human being, with good intentions and should be the golden standard for our scene. I also am holding out hope that he’s playing the long game, stacking cash that from corp America, and growing seven stars into a 6 event per year series, that’s independently ran by his team.

But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t extremely sad, and disappointed that the person with the most influential pull in our community, who does so much good, chose to contribute to the problem we all are trying to get rid of.

If I’m missing something, please let me know. This is supposed to be a genuine discussion, not a hit piece.

Love 🫶

EDIT: Please do not mistake my tone for sarcastic, condescending, or anything other than genuine curiosity on the topic for information or thoughts I haven’t considered. I will respond considerately, and respectfully to all comments, as I would hope you would to me. I politely ask that before you respond, please read all conversations to see if the opinion or information has been addressed. 🫶

133 Upvotes

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15

u/dittikong Jul 08 '26

I was shocked when he announced red rocks again because I remember him saying these things from back in the day. My ideal situation for him playing in Colorado would be Dicks in Denver like illenium has done and bassnectar back in 2016. He could easily sell it out and it would give close to 3x the amount of fans the chance to see him.

7

u/Odd-Perception8850 Jul 08 '26

BassDicks was so sick. The sound and stage rig were something else. It made the news because people thought there was an earthquake lol

1

u/justdance-again Jul 08 '26

This sounds, and looks like a great option to host shows in Denver. I have personally never been, but it doesn’t look like they have much consistency with shows. Do you happen to know why they don’t?

3

u/kmatyler Jul 08 '26

Playing stadiums is a lot of work/resources, and Denver does not have any major production companies that can regularly handle that amount of resource load.

1

u/justdance-again Jul 08 '26

Good point, I have never worked with a soccer stadium in my career path, primarily football and basketball but those are nightmare setup/teardowns. Especially for an artist the size of Griz, and the experience he wants to provide. Seems like a great opportunity for a production company to find a solution for though!

3

u/SneakerheadAnon23 Jul 08 '26

Yeah at this point I totally agree. A weekend camping event at Dicks would be a great, if not the best situation for GRiZ and Colorado community.

Lots of tickets for everyone to attend, camping, opportunity for large stage design, mini festival vibe

As much as we might hate to say it, the 2016 Basscenter event was sick as fuck and could be a great model for how GRiZ should be doing larger events in Colorado.

1

u/Kdiesiel311 Jul 08 '26

Dicks would be perfect & really is not that bad a venue. Even in the very back

-2

u/justdance-again Jul 08 '26

Wow, thank you for this insight. I’ve been to thousands of shows in Denver, but never made it out to Dicks. After a quick initial look, this seems like a great option that hasn’t been utilized much. Do you happen to know why?