{"id":6334,"date":"2025-07-18T20:27:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T20:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/6334\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T20:27:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T20:27:07","slug":"from-a-coldplay-kiss-cam-to-steve-millers-cancelled-tour-and-more-its-a-cruel-summer-for-concerts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/6334\/","title":{"rendered":"From a Coldplay kiss cam to Steve Miller\u2019s cancelled tour (and more), it\u2019s a cruel summer for concerts"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Steve Miller, pictured here in 2023, cancelled his band’s tour, citing everything from forest fires to extreme heat.Charles Sykes\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Rick Derringer died May 26, at age 77. The flashy guitarist represented a different era, when rock \u2018n\u2019 roll was fun, footloose and hoochie koo. <\/p>\n

Now, not so much. We\u2019ve gone soft. Jet Airliner singer Steve Miller just cancelled his band\u2019s tour before it even got off the ground. He blamed it on \u201cthe weather,\u201d presumably while gesturing vaguely toward the sky.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe combination of extreme heat, unpredictable flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes and massive forest fires makes these risks for you our audience, the band and the crew unacceptable,\u201d the 81-year-old rockstar said on his website<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Steve, my dude, whatever happened to \u201ckeep on rock\u2019n me, baby\u201d? <\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a tough week for touring all around, smack dab in the middle of the industry\u2019s busiest season. Let\u2019s start with the presale for three Paul McCartney concerts in Canada that caused long waits online and predictably triggered complaints about the sky-high ticket prices. Paul used to be the cute one, now he\u2019s the rich one (and one of the only ones).<\/p>\n

Also this week, members of Jane\u2019s Addiction filed lawsuits<\/a> against each other in a dispute that stems from a 2024 onstage altercation between singer Perry Farrell and guitarist Dave Navarro. It\u2019s a real he says\/Jane Says situation.<\/p>\n

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Dave Navarro, left, and Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction are pictured in 2017. The band members are locked in a series of legal complaints against each other.Amy Harris\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

In a 30-page complaint, Farrell accuses former bandmates Eric Avery, Stephen Perkins and Navarro of allegedly bullying, harassing and otherwise conspiring against him for years. He also claims his fight with Navarro was a result of his frustration over the band \u201cplaying their instruments at a high volume so that he could not hear himself sing without blasting his own in-ear monitors at an unsafe level.\u201d <\/p>\n

Loud music? Lock them up. <\/p>\n

In their own lawsuit, the other three musicians are seeking US$10-million from Farrell, alleging the singer caused the cancellation of last year\u2019s reunion tour. Navarro also filed his own action against Farrell for alleged assault and battery stemming from the scuffle at Boston\u2019s Leader Bank Pavilion last September. <\/p>\n

What with onstage punching and climate-change concerns, summer concerts are no longer safe. For further proof, just ask Andy Byron. The CEO of AI software company Astronomer was caught on a kiss cam<\/a> getting all Viva la Vida with a woman apparently not his wife at a Coldplay concert this week at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. <\/p>\n

\u201cOh, look at these two,\u201d Coldplay\u2019s affable frontman Chris Martin said upon spotting what he assumed was a proper couple. \u201cAll right, come on, you\u2019re okay. Oh, what? Either they\u2019re having an affair or they\u2019re just very shy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin, of course, missed the third option: Perhaps the pair was horrified at being outed as fans of Coldplay, the bland purveyor of melodically emotive piano ballads. <\/p>\n

Besides, who takes their paramour to see a middle-of-the-road band such as Coldplay? Extramarital concert-going calls for something edgier and dangerous \u2212 Air Supply or, apparently, Jane\u2019s Addiction would be more appropriate. <\/p>\n

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Coldplay’s Chris Martin performs with his band at Rogers Stadium in Toronto on July 7, 2025.Anna Lee\/Supplied<\/p>\n

Coldplay gets credit for its commitment to climate change initiatives. The British band\u2019s current Music of the Spheres tour reduces carbon emissions by using sustainable aviation fuel and renewable energy sources where possible, while practicing a zero-plastic policy at their shows.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Coldplay\u2019s environmental impact can\u2019t come quickly enough for Miller, whose worry over volatile atmospheric conditions is too much to bear. He might be part of the problem, though. This is the rocker who in the 1970s famously sang about going from \u201cPhoenix, Arizona, all the way to Tacoma, Philadelphia, Atlanta, L.A.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was that kind of inefficient tour routing that left an excessive carbon footprint that got us where to we are today. I don\u2019t have any evidence, but I feel like mile-high shag carpeting was involved as well. Fly like an eagle, indeed.<\/p>\n

This weekend, I\u2019m taking in a Beck show at Toronto\u2019s Roy Thomson Hall. I haven\u2019t seen him since 2002, when the Flaming Lips opened up for him<\/a> and served as his backing band at Massey Hall. <\/p>\n

An equipment snafu cut the Flaming Lips set in half. Beck came on and hit himself on the head with his guitar. He left the stage for a bit, only to come back and curl up on the floor to sadly play a harmonium.<\/p>\n

Be careful out there, music lovers.<\/p>\n