There are ways things are typically done and then there’s the way that New Zealand singing sensation Lorde does it. The 17-year-old star has basically made it up as she goes along on the way to Grammy-winning worldwide fame with “Royals” and that goes double for her first major North American headlining tour in the fall.
Of course, it’s a totally unique mix of predictable bookings, festival drop-ins and a few offbeat dates that are perfectly in keeping with her go-your-own-way persona. It kicks off with an Aug. 1 date at Lollapalooza, and then moves to the Osheaga fest in Montreal, the Boston Calling Festival, as well as the Ottawa Folk Festival and Austin City Limits on the weekend of October 10-12.
In between, she hits the LC Pavilion in Columbus, Ohio, Harrah’s Casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and the Greek Theaters in Los Angeles and Berkeley, Calif., on a tour that eschews an overall buy from AEG Live or Live Nation while focusing on local and regional promoters for most of the dates.
Following a gig at JBL Live at Pier 97 in New York, the teen and her team switched things up and bypassed the usual midtown Manhattan spots like Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall for the less-well-traveled United Palace. The 3,400-seat church, which has played host to Adele in the past, is just the place for Lorde, according to community usage manager Regina Trigg.
“This is New York and artists want to play all over and this is a majestic, beautiful theater and it’s a new location for people used to going to shows in Manhattan,” she said of the nonunion uptown venue in the Washington Heights neighborhood with a 25’ x 65’ performance space. While the Palace is often used for TV and movie location shoots, it does not get as many music bookings as similarly-sized rooms such as the Beacon Theater. But Trigg said it is the third-largest venue of its kind in the city and it does host 10-15 concerts a year.
“I call it good fortune,” she said when asked why the singer’s reps chose her 45-year-old venue over other potential New York stops. “We’re just grateful and happy she chose us and we expect a sellout. The setting here is spectacular and people always take out their iPhones and take pictures because it’s a very well-maintained space.” In addition, the Palace is easily accessible by cab and public transportation, as well as being situated by the George Washington Bridge, which makes it a quick drive from New Jersey and Connecticut.
For her first show in Nashville, Lorde will set up in the 4,500-seat Grand Old Opry House, a “very wise decision,” according to Pete Fisher, VP and GM of the venue. “Although the Opry House is home to the Grand Old Opry Radio show, it’s also a really exceptional, newly-renovated theater with wonderful acoustics and we’ve presented a number of concerts over the years,” Fisher said. Among those he listed are the Killers, Ray LaMontagne, Bruce Springsteen and Stone Temple Pilots.
While Fisher is happy to let the date’s booker, AC Entertainment, explain how the show came to pass, he thinks playing the largest theater in the market is a good choice over trying to bring the intimacy and intensity of Lorde’s show to an arena with a curtained-off theater setup. Reached just a few days after on-sale, Fisher said initial sales for the Sept. 22 gig were “very strong” and he’s sure it will be a sellout.
“The reality is, the Opry House has presented just a couple concerts a year in recent years,” he said, mostly due to limited availability because the Opry radio show broadcasts every Friday and Saturday from February through October, followed by the Radio City Christmas Spectacular in November and December. Add in the additional Opry shows on Tuesdays and summer bookings on Wednesdays during the summer and there are only a few open nights to really play with during the course of the year.
AC is handling only the Opry date (among the other bookers are Nederlander Entertainment for the Greek show in L.A. and Another Planet Entertainment for the San Francisco Greek date), but festival programmer and talent buyer Steve Green said that the show is emblematic of what he thinks is a prudent, smart approach by Lorde’s management and agents to build her career in the U.S.
“They didn’t sell the whole tour the way a lot of people are doing these days and they seem interested in having the right relationships in the right places,” said Green. “We could have done two shows at the Ryman Auditorium, which was discussed, but it’s tricky when you’re not doing a super long tour and there’s not really time [for multiple dates]. Given the Opry’s great history in Nashville and the spirit [of the building] in that context, it made more sense and seems a bit more exciting than going into an arena.”
Not that there’s anything wrong with arenas. In fact, Green said he thinks Bridgestone Arena has one of the best curtained-off setups he’s seen, but Lorde’s team seemed to want something nontraditional. In which case, the underplay at the Opry clearly clicked, as all but a few hundred tickets blew out the door within a few days. “We could have sold more, no doubt about it,” said Green, who thought the show could have gone into the Bridgestone and played without a curtain. “Lorde can do arenas now, and my guess is that she will be doing that in the next couple of years, or maybe on the next tour/album cycle.”
Green said the United stop in New York is similar to the Opry in that both houses don’t do a lot of touring shows, but that the small windows of availability they do have worked out perfectly for this outing. “What they’re doing with her [Lorde] is the 100-percent correct way to direct her career,” he said. “Instead of going in and selling the tour to AEG or Live Nation and playing arenas or sheds they’re doing it right and not necessarily going too small, but not huge, either. They’re playing interesting rooms and being very smart with ticket prices.”
Tickets for the Opry date ranged from $60.99 (with fees) to $73.32 for top tier seats, with some going for as low as $45 apiece.
Contacted for this story: Regina Trigg, (212) 568-6700; Pete Fisher, (615) 231-1500; Steve Green, (615)231-1500