Chaotic Potential

So I'm going to see K-OS tomorrow at the Kool Haus in Toronto, and I can't help but be a little pessimistic; he just released a new album and has decided to go on a tour of "pay what you want" shows.

This is a bad idea.

Pay what you want shows only really work when a small amount of people know about it because it ensures that the people who want to see the band will still be able to fit in the venue, while there won't be an overflow of people who are saying "Hey, it's essentially a free show. What's there to lose?"

From what I understand this show's been spreading pretty quickly by word of mouth within my group of friends, and there's a good chance it's been doing the same with everyone else with access to the Internet in Toronto; this does not bode well for the capacity limits of the Kool Haus. I hate to be pessimistic about this, but I'm having trouble believing that we're going to get in when everyone and their mother is shrugging their shoulders and saying "Hey, why not?"

"Pay what you want" has worked well for some bands while selling their CDs, as well as indy bands who either don't care enough about the money or are running their shows out of their own homes. The model is dependant on word of mouth, but the problem is that it only works if there's a manageable amount of publicity; say Led Zeppelin or U2 was holding one of these: would you even consider going? Hell, I bet people would be camping outside of the place a year in advance.

I had the opportunity to see K-OS at the Manifesto festival in November, but due to some delays I couldn't stay until when he was going to go on; that set-up would've worked much better, because it was goddamn Nathan Phillips Square: open, capacity-less, and ultimately a lot more "free".