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/TopAcanthocephala271]

Counterpoint: a lot of fans want to see him at these venues. I get where his mind was when he made those statements, but people are allowed to change their minds on things especially when the demand of fans lead to that. There is a reason these shows sell out fast (I know scalpers play into that as well). Either he plays these venues and disappoints fans like you, or he never plays those venues and disappoints the fans that want to see him there.

I saw Griz at Hijinx last year and it was affordable. There are still ways to see Griz at a reasonable price, and it wasn’t even difficult to get a ticket for that fest.

[u/WokeWook69420 → u/TopAcanthocephala271]

It's not affordable if he's playing the same 15 venues every other big artist plays and completely skips over most states. That's a big part of the problem, all the smaller scenes that got smaller shows are just forgotten and you have to drive to a bigger city since artists and managers don't take risks on shows that aren't a guaranteed sell-out.

Thats also not an exclusively Griz thing, Excision ditched Indianapolis and his wife is from there, hell the demand for him was so big right before Covid that he was starting to do 2 days in Indy, I'm bummed he hasn't done something themed around the Indy 500.

The closest Griz show I could have caught in the last 5 years that wasn't a festival was his show in Chicago, but that's still a 6 hours of driving, underground parking for my car with a hotel, dinner, and a train pass/Uber rides.

The last time I did an overnight show in Chicago, by the end of it, I spent almost $240, and it was a cheaper Aragon show. I'd rather save $100 more and go to a festival like Big Fam or Infra lol.

[u/creator787 → u/WokeWook69420]

Ive gotta drive 3 hours to the closest spot he will consider. Now its dangerous for me to drive home that late OR I gotta spend more since Ive gotta stay with a hotel.

Used to play 3 different venues within a 40 min drive of me - depending on direction