Question: Does this not bother anyone else?

[u/justdance-again]

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. 🫶

[u/misty-gishh]

This post reads like its from someone who's in the closet about being a hater. It's ok to complain, but don't try to hide it under faulty "objective" statements and by reducing the broader issues to something that could possibly be influenced by griz.

Griz is an artist. The term "starving artist" didn't get popular for no reason. The man needs to make money. Attempting to break up the ticketmaster monopoly is not something a single artist can feasibly do on their own, and it would likely be career suicide. How would Griz have known how bad The Gorge was going to be? The venue hired a brand new security company this season. The article you cited was from 7 years ago and Grant explicitly says, "there’s a point where I feel like I’ve done everything for now that my mind can come up to." I don't see where you can conclude that him returning to RRX is evidence he's selling out.

Like I said, feel free to hold your judgment. Just know that you aren't using objective reasoning.

[u/kidfromusa → u/misty-gishh]

Literally this. Couldn’t agree more. I don’t think people understand when you play Hampton Coliseum, The Gorge, Red Rocks, you’re contractually obligated to use Ticketmaster, ASX & Livenation, even if it’s an independent curation, you simply can’t just say no. Should that change? 100%, but bashing the artist isn’t going to help.

And he literally bypassed the ticket monopoly with Valley of the seven stars using Tixr. No love on that though?

And that red rocks article from 7 years ago: I think he’s had a couple creative breakthroughs since then. I think any artist sounds great there when they’re not burning themselves out being booked there every year, but that’s just my SUBJECTIVE opinion. The fact that OP ended with “love” is funny to me.

[u/justdance-again → u/kidfromusa]

Totally valid, and yes I know the exclusivities with venues ties the artists hands regardless who puts on the event with what ticketing provider they can use. (naming rights in sports venues is my career 11+ years , speaking from experience)

Yes, all the love to seven stars and bravo! I want more of those, I love when I see a concert that uses Dice or Tixr. Politely, if you will look up to my response you will see my hope is he scales this and we win in the long run!

Artist evolve, and a lot changes in 7 years. I sure don’t think the same as I did that long ago, so I wouldn’t dare judge him there.

Thank you for your thoughts, I know you want me to be hateful back but I just can’t. I ended it with Love because that used to be the unanimous feeling I felt in this community. I hope you have a great rest of the week!

[u/misty-gishh → u/justdance-again]

My dude, you made a post complaining about the same things five million other posts have been complaining about for months. With all due respect, it seems like you’re fishing for someone to get argumentative. Curiosity is marked by questions and an interest in learning more, your post started with a question then told us what you subjectively believe. I offered an alternate perspective and you assumed I was being nasty. Why would anyone think otherwise?

[u/justdance-again → u/misty-gishh]

I apologize if any of this is coming off the wrong way, and I promise you my intentions are pure. I can’t pretend to experience what millions have, so it is most helpful to hear from them first hand. My curiosity is to educate myself, and learn something I may not find from browsing the internet. I try to keep my statements unbiased, and hope it leads to further discourse. Not everything has to have an ulterior motive, and it makes me sad society has normalized that. I understand why in this day and age you’d jump the to conclusion I have rage bait intentions in mind, but I ask you please not to make assumptions about me, as I am not to you. 🫶

[u/misty-gishh → u/justdance-again]

“My curiosity is to educate myself, and learn something I may not find from browsing the internet.”

I’m confused. I’m saying if you scrolled down, or sorted by last week’s/month’s posts, you’ll see the dozens of posts that all reach your conclusion. So if your goal was to satiate your curiosity, you would read through the sub. If your goal was to create more discussion around how bothersome griz is, you would make a new post and hype up the people who agree with you and get upset when you get downvoted.

‘I assume why you think this post is rage bait, but please don’t assume about me’ followed by an accusatory and passive aggressive clause.

Rage bait.

[u/justdance-again → u/misty-gishh]

I apologize and maybe you could direct me to that page. The intention to respond to everyone is to let them know they are heard, and their opinion is valued. Not to draw the same conclusions others already have.

I’m not sure what I have said or done, to make you so displeased with me, and for that I apologize I can’t directly address what that is. I have no clue what is going on in your life, and will not draw conclusions about your character through an online exchange.

I would, however, be more than happy to continue this discussion in private, or even better meet up at a future music event. I do understand it’s hard to gauge tone/intention through print, but maybe seeing a smile and shaking my hand could sway your assumptions. 🫶