On Tour Bookings, Pt. II: Iron & Wine, Beirut, James Blake

Last month I sounded off on my distaste for Fleet Foxes’ choice in booking DC’s 3,700-seat DAR Constitution Hall instead of the more acoustically-friendly, third-of-the-size 9:30 Club. I also praised indie legends Low for resisting the temptations of the large venue in favor of the cozy Black Cat Mainstage (capacity 700).

There’s another side to this discussion, of course — when popular artists choose venues too small to accommodate their rabid audience — which DC is currently experiencing with at least three upcoming tours.

Iron & Wine, Beirut, and James Blake all recently announced DC dates for spring/summer that sold out nearly instantaneously. I&W booked the 9:30 Club where they could have probably filled DAR. (That one sold out in less than five minutes, trust me!) Beirut, a band with no new album and only a small handful of U.S. dates announced, quickly sold out a Black Cat show that should be held at the 9:30 club. (A Tuesday nighter three months from now, no less.) And dubstep wunderkind James Blake — recipient of a whopping 9.0 on Pitchfork for this self-titled debut — chose the ridiculously undersized Rock and Roll hotel (capacity 400) for his first U.S. tour.

Iron & Wine get called up to the majors

Though it’s slowed over the past couple years, Sam Beam’s output over the last decade under the  moniker Iron & Wine has had one of the more rewarding stylistic progressions in all of indiedom.

It all started when a friend in Florida caught of whiff of Beam’s treasure trove of whisper-quiet home recordings and sent a few to Sub Pop in Seattle. The first LP, 2002’s The Creek Drank the Cradle, was culled (and sequenced quite brilliantly) from that collection, as was the follow-up EP, The Sea and the Rhythm. 2004 found Beam still working through a backlog of songs, though he moved the show to a proper studio, giving us the higher-fi Our Endless Numbered Days.