"Darker Waves." I don't get this - on a beach in Orange County, huh? Anyway, here we go again with a Cruel World-like extravaganza:

New Order
Tears For Fears
The B-52s
Echo & The Bunnymen
Devo
Soft Cell
The Psychedelic Furs
The Human League
OMD
Violent Femmes
X
The English Beat
Clan of Xymox
The Chameleons
T.S.O.L.
45 Grave
Christian Death

lots more...

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/2023 08:40PM by MrFab.

Hmm, something fishy about this, and I don't mean because it's on the beach.

- Tickets went on sale a couple weeks, and instantly sold out? And the show's not until November?
- I'm familiar with that area of Huntington Beach, and there are no giant stages or theaters on the beach, nor near it. Just a pier, where they have small scale surf-rock shows, nothing on this stadium-sized level.
-Who's promoting it? Can't find that info anywhere. Sounds like something GoldenVoice (Coachella, Cruel World) would do, but don't see their logo anywhere.
-It's the first "Darker Waves" fest, so if these organizers are rookies, all kinds of things can go wrong. Heck, even seasoned vets GoldenVoice kinda screwed up the first Coachella when they learned the hard way that maybe having a festival in the desert in the middle of summer wasn't such a (if you'll pardon the expression) hot idea.

If anyone else here reads French (or knows how to use Google translate), La Presse did a series of articles about a fake music festival that a fraudster pretended to organize in Montreal earlier this year. He managed to get a fair number of folks to pony up 650$ for tickets, and various sub-contractors were also defrauded. It seems to be a common thing these days. fake concert

Philippe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If anyone else here reads French (or knows how to
> use Google translate), La Presse did a
> series of articles about a fake music festival
> that a fraudster pretended to organize in Montreal
> earlier this year. He managed to get a fair number
> of folks to pony up 650$ for tickets, and various
> sub-contractors were also defrauded. It seems to
> be a common thing these days.
> fake
> concert
Translated:
“The Aurora Festival poster is enticing: British singer Harry Styles, in concert in the Old Port of Montreal, during a weekend in June where other music stars such as SZA, Doja Cat will also perform and Tyler, The Creator. If the offer seems too good to be true, that's because it is. The festival, which charges up to $650 for a one-day ticket, is just the latest set-up by a man whose serial antics have claimed victims for years.

The event page appeared on Instagram last weekend. Harry Styles, Doja Cat and SZA will headline the all-new Aurora Festival from June 1-3, it is announced in neatly designed publications. Khalid, FKA Twigs, Charli XCX and Tyler, The Creator are also on the program. The poster is straight out of the most beautiful dream of a music lover in his twenties. Pepsi and American Express are even listed as sponsors.

But now, the Aurora Festival does not exist. Some artists on the bill are not even available on the dates announced, including Harry Styles, on tour in Europe during this period. The festival is a scam set up from scratch by a young man, Nathan Scuderi, known to the police and linked to many other schemes.”
Etc

Now I’m not saying that “Darker Waves” isn’t legit. I hope for everyones sake that it is. But the mystery organizers need to answer some important questions…

That packed line-up reminds me of Heatwave, the ‘new wave Woodstock’ that took place in Ontario. Canada in 1980.

No, I could not attend. Anyone here go?


Heatwave

Well, for the sake of argument, the official OMD website lists the Nov. 18th date for Darker Waves. So it's probably real. Not that it might not be a case of rookie promoters getting in waaaaay over their pointed little heads. Note that the OMD site lists "Unknown Venue, Huntington Beach, CA."

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/2023 03:26PM by Post-Punk Monk.

As far as I know, it's put on by the same people as Cruel World. From what I'm told, it will be spread out over four stages. But like I mentioned in an earlier thread about Cruel World, the problem with this set up is that sets will be overlapping, as is the case with all multi-stage festivals. But with most music festivals that's not that big a deal - if Dua Lipa is playing on one stage and Beach House is on another and the Lumineeers on a third at the same time, people are generally not going to have too much of a problem choosing which stage they want to head for. But this and Cruel World are so narrowly focused that anyone attending most likely wants to see ALL the bands on the bill, and if Soft Cell, Devo and Echo & the Bunnymen all end up overlapping on different stages, that's a much, much harder decision for a fan to make than the aforementioned Dua Lipa/Beach House/Lumineers head-to-head.

But this thing and both Cruel Worlds sold out in a matter of days, so I guess 80s geezers with money to burn are okay with that calculation. It would irritate the hell out of me.

Agreed, Reno. The Lollapalooza tours (back when they were tours, not just a festival in Chicago) often had lineups like that. Some cool bands on the secondary stages, but it could sometimes be hard to make a choice. I don't think I ever made a choice I regretted, but I would've liked to have seen Pavement and Sinéad O'Connor, to name just two that I remember off the top of my head.

Was wondering how this went, so found a review:

[www.stereogum.com]

Despite my misgivings, apparently it went ok. And the review confirms breno's suspicions that they play short sets - yep, as short as 35 minutes.

and another affirmative to the Beat/General Public question: "The Beat’s set was a mere five songs, all hits, climaxing with “Tenderness” (by Dave Wakeling’s other band General Public) and “Save It For Later.”

and yes, tough decisions had to be made: " almost the entirety of Darker Waves’ top billing were in direct opposition to each other: OMD vs. X, Devo vs. Cardigans (maybe an outlier on this lineup, but also playing their first US show in 17 years), Psychedelic Furs vs. Echo & The Bunnymen, the B-52s vs. the Human League."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/2023 02:12PM by MrFab.