Echo & the Bunnymen

Recently saw Echo in Portland OR (a life long dream of mine fulfilled). It was great, everything I always thought it would be. Song selection was superb (all the standards + some newer ones + a little Lou Reed thrown in). Ian and Will looked great, sounded great. It was a great night.
My question is this: it seemed like a very "thrown-together tour". Echo is a legendary band with decades of touring experience on both the grand scale and the club scale. And certainly they have label support and management that oversees the details of these things. What was weird is this- the opening band was of questionable talent and even mentioned that they "don't really have any cd's or anything". No biggie.
But I kept looking around the hall for the Echo table (I'm 37, but I still buy t-shirts and stickers and buttons and all that). Nowhere was a merch table to be found. That was strange. The ballroom was packed with adoring fans. Where was the merch table?
Am I missing something? I've just been to thousands of shows (dank clubs to arenas) and I've never seen a band tour without tour merch.
On the show: Ocean Rain sent me places. It was such a beautiful show. Was anyone else there?

I'm in Portland too and would really have liked to go to the show, but my 1-month-old would have none of it. I saw 'em back in 1987 or so and it was a great show then, complete with merch table. I can't imagine what would have kept them from setting up one this time around. I haven't been to the Wonder Ballroom yet, but I'd assume there's plenty of space for it.

One other Bunnymen note: I've never understood why the album "Heaven Up Here" isn't given more credit. It's my favorite album of theirs and to me is every bit as dark and powerful an album as anything Joy Division ever did.

Have seen the last coupla Echo tours.
Still mesmerized by Will because of the textures he creates without too many pedals and ya-yas. That's what it's about for me, his "tectures". Only like one track from the latest and 2 tracks from Flowers, but...yeahhhh.
IYL Will I strongly suggest a Church/Willson-Piper live fix.

The reasons for a missing merch table are as varied as the ways a merch table can be toured:: by the venue, by the band, by friends of the band, by the label, by an independant contractor...

I saw them when I was about 16 in 1981. It was the first time my favourite band at the time had come to Sydney, it was weird as they were pretty much unknown and didn't even get much independent radio airplay at the time, but we often get O.S. bands including Australia on their Japan tours so I think that may be why. It was just after Heaven Up Here came out so the whole set was Crocodiles (one of the best ever debuts methinks) and Heaven Up Here plus a Do It Clean somewhere in the encore. The first of three shows I saw in a week is still one of the top Ten concert experiences for me and it was one of the first!

On the merch table thing, I saw Bob Mould a couple of years ago and during the gig he was pushing his latest release 'avaliable after the show' and after the show there was nothing set up, but he sure thought there was. Hope nobody told him, he's a big bloke up close.

My take on the merch table issue is that when I saw the White Stripes last fall in Boston, I couldn't get near it due to the crush of people in the lobby. It was impossible to get near it and to see what they were selling and I was in the mood to get a T-Shirt or something. I wondered how they can get sales in such conditions.