From the Sigur Ros Message board:
here is a message from dean, sigur ros’s manager:
Re: LAS VEGAS SWAG
The venue tonight charge 30% of our gross. The sales tax is 7% and on top of this there is a new gaming tax of an additional 10%. We, the band, have to pay for the cost of the shirt, the shipping, the printing, our merchandiser etc from the remaining 53%. The obvious and usual reaction to extortionate venue commissions is to hike the price of the shirts which simply serves to hurt the fan and help the venue to earn even more. It’s immoral for a venue to earn more from a band’s merchandise than the band. We simply felt that by reducing the price of the shirts to a mere $1 the venue might rethink the wisdom of keeping their fees so high when the taxes here are higher than anywhere else on the US tour. 30% of nothing amounts to nothing. Tonight’s protest will cost the band and the venue money but some of our fans will win in Vegas tonight….and that’s why we are doing it. There will be a limit of 1 t-shirt per person and stock is limited.
Check out their stunning video below. 18 Seconds Before Sunrise fansite.
that’s just awesome. good for them. yeah with a bunch of bigger venue shows coming to town, i’m getting really pissed about the ticketmaster “convenience charge.” how much can they extort from you for printing some cardstock tickets? its like 30% of the ticket price… i’m beginning to appreciate The Troubador’s fax in for tickets policy more and more…
i would follow this up by mentioning connor oberst’s recent boycot of a clear channel affiliated venue in st. louis, but that goes against my policy of not mentioning anything bright eyes affiliated.