Huey Lewis (with or without The News) should play a club show. And somewhere on the East Coast. But not New York City, Philadelphia or Atlanta. Maybe Pittsburgh. Or Cleveland. But definitely not DC. Tulsa, Austin, Oklahoma City – not a chance. They’re too big. And it would be too expected.
Perhaps the old boy really IS barely breathing. Which is why he only plays to the 40+ set in Performing Arts Centers, Casinos, soft-ticket college gigs and county fairs.
He comes through Lancaster to the American Music Theater probably every twenty-four months, but how’s THAT spreading the power of love when tickets are over seventy five bucks a pop?
At the pinnacle of his career (1986) tickets were less than twenty bucks. 
New York, New York really IS everything they say. Especially when you’re charging $106 BEFORE fees for a Gramercy show. With fees and travel and hotels, that’s a $500 trip for a couple. Because who goes to see Huey with his guy-friends?
Seems like a couples-heavy kind of show.
Wasn’t there a settlement about the Ghostbusters debacle with Ray Parker Jr? That surely must have been seven digits.
And when Spielberg came knocking for a tune for Back to The Future, didn’t Hugo opt to do it so he wouldn’t have to go through the Ghostbusters bullshit again?
And Sports is heralded as one of the best-selling pop albums of all time.
So why the hell is The News so damn expensive?
Every act is doing it these days. Especially the old-heads. $100+ dollar tickets, $40+ dollar tee shirts. $10 beers at the gig. And they’re missing the target that got them where they are today…the kids in the clubs.
I know, I know. By no means am I saying that Huey Lewis should go back to playing only clubs. That would be crazy. But two or three surprise gigs a year in a tiny, 500-or-less capacity venue in a non-major market could be good for the same guy who played harmonica on Thin Lizzy’s Live and Dangerous AND with Umphrey’s McGee in 2005.
You see, it’s not that I can’t afford to see Huey Lewis and The News at the Gramercy or American Music Theater or some other casino for a triple-digit-ticket. I can. That’s not the point.
It’s the principle.
Jane’s Addiction just did two nights at Belly Up! in Aspen. (Capacity 400). Springsteen plays the Stone Pony and the Count Basie Theater once a year. (Both with capacities of under 1,000). Shit, the Rolling Fucking Stones played a surprise club date in Toronto for a five dollar cover!
Again – he doesn’t have to do a club TOUR. Just a show or two. One of them preferably at my club.
It’s cool, Huey. We’re all working for a living. And it IS hip to be square. But if you REALLY THINK that it don’t take money or a credit card to ride this train, you’ll push those boxes onto a tiny little stage and rock the shit out of four hundred people on seventy two hours notice.
THAT would be the heart of rock and roll. And something I’d pay a hundred bucks to see.
