Elton John spent five years and 330 shows saying goodbye, and this morning he took a piece of it back. He announced two nights in Mexico City at Banorte Stadium on October 2 and 3, saying the pandemic cheated Latin America out of its farewell. He is 79, candid about his failing sight, and apparently not done deciding what final means. Farewell, it turns out, is a negotiation. The tickets will not last the week.
The Long Take
Rush booked four nights at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. Travel delays pushed the opener. Then laryngitis and bronchitis took the last two entirely, now moved to July 11 and 13 so Geddy Lee can rest a 72-year-old voice that fans waited eleven years to hear again.
Nobody blames the band. Watch the replies: fans blame the schedule.
The 80-date tour is not a triumph. It is a bet placed against the artist's body, and the artist is the only one holding the downside.
The same week, Lionel Richie fell ill mid-set on opening night in Minnesota and postponed the next two cities on doctors' orders. Deadline had the statement up within hours, the word "heartbroken" doing the work the itinerary wouldn't.
Here is the researched part. Pollstar's top-100 tally hit a record 9.5 billion dollars in 2024, and the routing that produces that number is drawn up by agencies and promoters who never have to sing over it. The guarantee clears before the first cancellation does.
Nobody books a tour the artist can finish anymore. They book a tour the market can absorb.
The counter is fair: artists sign the contracts. Nobody drags them onto the bus. But management builds the routing, the system rewards over-booking, and the artist absorbs both the risk and the apology tour. Bon Jovi quietly showed the alternative this week: nine nights in one building, the audience doing the traveling instead of the voice.
The fans already understand what the industry pretends not to.
Forty dates in an eighty-date body.
“An 80-date tour is a 40-date tour with the cancellations already priced in.”
This Week in Shows
Bon Jovi opened nine nights at the Garden. The Forever tour launched July 7 with an unprecedented nine-show residency, Bon Jovi's first full run since Jon's vocal-cord surgery, all of it in one building at Madison Square Garden. The opening-night listing tells the story: the years-long "will the voice hold" question gets answered with 20,000 witnesses a night.
Rush's Fort Worth make-up dates are set. The two postponed Dickies Arena shows land July 11 and 13 while Geddy Lee rests his voice, per the reschedule announcement. If you hold tickets, they transfer. Rush fans waited eleven years; two more weeks won't kill anyone.
Thomas Dolby's 38-year reunion starts next week. The Lost Toy People headline the Totally Tubular festival kicking off July 17 in Phoenix. Their last show together was opening for Depeche Mode at the Rose Bowl in 1988, in front of 60,000 people.
Oasis 2027 is reporting, not a booking. Fresh coverage points to a rumored Manchester residency of 12 Etihad nights plus Knebworth dates for Oasis, after Live '25 grossed $405 million. Liam has said nothing happens in 2026, and nothing is confirmed. File under watch.
The Venue Report
Saint Vitus is coming back. The 250-cap Brooklyn metal and hardcore bar shut abruptly in 2024 over occupancy paperwork, the kind of ending that usually stays ended. Instead it reopens this fall in a bigger Bushwick room, the former Brooklyn Made space on Troutman Street. Günther, the mannequin mascot, has already moved in. After a year that took Bottom of the Hill and Music Hall of Williamsburg off the map, the scene finally won one. Heavy music keeps its Brooklyn living room.
95%
Then
40 years ago this week, on July 11 and 12, 1986, Queen played two sold-out nights at Wembley Stadium, 70,000 people each night, filmed and released as Live at Wembley '86. It is still the tape people reach for when they want to explain what a frontman is. Freddie Mercury had five years left and sang like he knew the cameras were for later. Every stadium act since has been performing against that footage.
Fan Debate
At Alan Jackson's farewell show in Nashville, a video tribute from Taylor Swift drew cheers and audible boos in the same breath, and the farewell-night footage turned a goodbye into a referendum on who counts as country. Worth saying: TMZ cautions the boos may have been one loud section amplified by the recording. Jake's read is that booing any tribute at a dying man's farewell says more about the booer than the genre. But the fight is real and it is not going away. Where's your line: is country a sound, or a membership?
The Practical Bit
As of July 1, reselling a ticket in Vermont for more than 110% of face value is illegal, and Vermont's new resale law also requires all-in pricing displayed up front. DC's version arrives January 1. The state-by-state squeeze on scalping is now real policy you'll feel at checkout.
B-Sides
- Missy Elliott closed ESSENCE Fest with an Aaliyah tribute. Mýa, Normani and Chlöe traded her catalog in an all-star Superdome tribute, 25 years after her final album.
- BTS's V stopped mid-song for one fan in Brussels. During Spring Day, he crossed the stage to trade heart gestures with a fan with Down syndrome, and the ARIRANG tour moment traveled exactly as far as you'd expect. BTS stadium shows run on precision; the best thing in this one was unscripted.
- Wilco turned a festival encore into a eulogy. Jeff Tweedy paused Solid Sound to remember Jay Bennett before a solo Mermaid Avenue closer.
- blink-182's "California" turns 10. The Matt Skiba era began with Bored to Death and a 119-show tour. Jake's aside: it reads differently now that Tom's back.
- Philadelphia's July 4 crowd sheltered for three hours and stayed. Storms cleared the Parkway mid-show; The Roots and the delayed fireworks went off at 11:30pm anyway.
The opener nobody came for, and the guy next to me who bought their shirt anyway, because somebody should.
Every farewell tour teaches the same lesson twice: go now, and never trust the word final.
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See you at the show. Jake