by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

So why did Portland musician quickly, quickly cancel last night’s scheduled show at Reverb Lounge? 

The whole episode was sort of a mystery. I noticed something was up when I went to double-check the show’s start time on the One Percent Productions website. The listing was gone. Did I get the date wrong (again)?

I checked the Facebook invitation, which confirmed the Sunday 8 p.m. start time. It didn’t mention a cancellation. I found the answer at Twitter in the form of a message from quickly quickly’s Graham Jonson):

“Hey U guys. Unfortunately we’ve decided to cancel the remaining 4 shows on this tour (Milwaukee, Chicago, Omaha, Denver). The reason you may ask? I have completely run out of money! 

“This tour was entirely self funded which was a financial risk from the beginning but due to lower than expected ticket sales and overall cost of touring, it turned out to be way more expensive than I had bargained for lol. I am so sorry to the openers for these 4 shows and anybody who was planning on coming to see us play. We will be back and better! Thank you to my incredibly talented and supportive band members and our lovely tour manager leah for sticking with me through all this crazy shit.”

Big U.S. tours cancelling due to ticket sales is nothing new, but this might be the first time I’ve heard a small indie tour cancelling midway through due to lack of funds. Since almost all of them are “self-funded,” I’m surprised it doesn’t happen all the time, especially with the rising costs of gas, food, lodging and other tour expenses (as well as rising ticket prices – this was an $18 show). Is this the beginning of an unfortunate trend?

One of the biggest draws for last night’s show was the opening act — Carver Jones — another performer I’d never heard of prior to this gig, but whose YouTube videos caught my attention. 

Turns out Jones actually lives in Omaha (or so I’m told), and today announced a new show at Reverb Lounge with his band, Carver Jones and the American Dreamers, for Dec. 22.

This is a developing story… more to come…

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.