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L. Kent Wolgamott: Paisley show critical for Pershing

Thursday, Oct 06, 2005 - 11:51:36 pm CDT

Brad Paisley’s Oct. 21 show at Pershing Center is shaping up to be one of the most important concerts ever for Lincoln. The importance has little to do with Paisley or opener Sara Evans, even though they’re both artists that are expected to be among country’s biggest stars for the next decade or so. Rather, the concert’s significance has everything to do with the audience.

Put at its starkest, if people don’t turn up in big numbers for the Paisley show, Lincoln can likely kiss major concerts at Pershing goodbye for months or years to come.

Pershing’s struggles have been well documented. The nearly 50-year-old building is outdated and needs to be replaced. The city, university and other interested parties have finally begun serious discussions about a new arena for Lincoln, and it seems likely that will happen.

But it will be years — I’m guessing at least five — before any new building can be planned, funded, built and opened for business.

Until then, Pershing is Lincoln’s larger concert venue — if any concerts will come here. Which is where the Paisley show comes into the picture.

A few years ago, Lincoln had developed a reputation as a solid mid-sized concert market, getting a regular run of concerts and good attendance for shows by artists from 50 Cent to Good Charlotte. But then Omaha opened its nearly $300 million Qwest Center, and seemingly every concert in the region got sucked into the new building.

The only major concert at Pershing in the last year has been April’s sold-out Maroon 5 show. But that tour only came here because guitarist James Valentine wanted to live out his dream of playing in the auditiorium where he grew up watching shows as a kid. So one of the hottest bands in the world played a building half the size it usually plays for Valentine’s homecoming.

In the increasingly tough concert business, Maroon 5’s sellout doesn’t really count as a measure of Lincoln’s support for big concerts. That was a ducks-in-a-barrel guarantee.

Other than Maroon 5, Pershing has offered little of late that would be a true test for the city’s support of concerts. The Rock Never Stops tour that featured Cinderella and a passel of other ’80s hair bands wasn’t expected to sell out. But it didn’t do as well in Lincoln as it had done at other stops. And Kenny Rogers is long past anything resembling true popularity.

Paisley, however, is as hot as country gets — a young artist on his way up, a la Kenny Chesney a few years ago. Paisley’s just released the best album of career, has a hit single with “Alcohol” and a reputation for good performances that can’t be overstated. And he’s joined by Evans, country radio’s most played female artist of 2004, and that can’t hurt.

Paisley’s tour began last week on the West Coast and sold out its first four shows before heading to Los Angeles, where it’s a safe bet two more shows were packed.

That trend’s likely to continue as Paisley works his way east.

So the pressure is on in Lincoln.

Promoters who bring shows to the area are keeping a close eye on the Paisley Pershing show and, to a lesser degree, tonight’s appearance there by Larry The Cable Guy.

If the Paisley show sells out or comes very close to selling out, there’s a good chance that promoters will start bringing mid-sized shows back to Lincoln. After all, not every concert belongs in a cavernous venue like the Qwest Center, where attendance of 6,000 looks small.

If the Paisley show sells poorly, Lincoln is likely done as a tour stop for the forseeable future.

No single concert has been this critical to the city in my two decades of writing about entertainment here. We’ll see in a couple of weeks whether Lincoln turns up for Paisley and future concerts or if we’re doomed to drive to Omaha for most of a decade to see anything close to a big show.

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.