Here's Pollstar's current list of the top 50 concert tours. Number to the right is their "Power Index". Not sure why they only went up to 49: 1 Guns N' Roses 1.000 2 Bon Jovi .785 3 Dave Matthews Band .747 4 Peter Gabriel .695 5 Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers .693 6 Aerosmith .630 7 Creed .627 8 The Rolling Stones .622 9 Tori Amos .587 10 Foo Fighters .517 11 Counting Crows .461 12 Paul McCartney .444 13 Beck .436 14 Bruce Springsteen .400 15 Red Hot Chili Peppers .390 16 Guster .362 17 Tool .358 18 Ryan Adams .303 19 Sum 41 .302 20 Korn .257 21 Martina McBride .255 22 Our Lady Peace .251 23 Incubus .243 24 Steve Earle .223 25 Rush .210 26 Ben Folds .209 27 The Get Up Kids .208 28 Shakira .205 29 The Wallflowers .204 30 Bob Dylan .203 31 Jack Johnson .189 32 Nelly .188 33 Live .184 34 Wilco .183 35 Yngwie Malmsteen .182 36 Lords Of Acid .177 37 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club .172 38 Ronnie James Dio .170 39 James Taylor .168 40 The Cure .167 41 Tracy Chapman .166 42 The Vines .165 43 Flickerstick .164 44 Good Charlotte .163 45 Soft Cell .162 46 Ben Kweller .161 47 Sevendust .160 48 The Ataris .158 49 Jimmy Eat World .157
On the list I've seen: Tom Petty (in Austin w/Joe Ely Opening) Aerosmith (TexxasJam at the Cotton Bowl) Stones (Cotton Bowl) Springsteen (Wash. DC) Rush (Houston) And there are 16 I've never heard of before today.
Wow. I am amazed to see Peter Gabriel at #4. He is a brilliant artist and musician. Good to see other people like to hear his work.
Hrm. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Wilco Bob Dylan (three times) Red Hot Chili Peppers (twice, although one of those was incidental) Bruce Springsteen Beck (twice) Paul McCartney Foo Fighters Tori Amos (I was young and impressionable) Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Only 20%. I feel like I should have seen more than that. Although I can only see, um, about three more bands I'd actively go to (Peter Gabriel, Ben Folds and, um, Nelly!), and about three I'd go to if I got a free ticket, for the cheese factor (Dio or Guns'n'Roses, for example)... This ranking is based on Pollstar searches for the artist, right? Not actual takings or anything.
I'm not sure how this pollstar's top 50 works, but I'd love to know why U2 isn't on there. Everyone that I have ever heard from said that U2 was the best concert they had been to.
U2 probably isn't on tour right now (don't know). I think dimsie is close to right on how this is calculated. I'm sure there's an explanation on the site, but I'm too lazy to look right now. All I know is I'm going to see Andrew W. f'n' K. in Austin next week.
