Good news, bad news
Andrea Bocelli will play Milwaukee, but Rage Against the Machine postpones at Alpine Valley.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, one of the first musical artists people turned to for hope was Andrea Bocelli.
The opera great’s online concert on Easter last year from the Duomo cathedral in Milan was watched live by 2.8 million people, and has since been seen more than 42 million times on YouTube.
Bocelli has offered other online and television appearances during the pandemic. But now he’s getting ready to perform for live audiences.
And the first stop of his first North American tour since the pandemic began will be at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, on Oct. 13. The 21-city trek will wrap up Dec. 19 in Orlando, Florida.
“It will be like going home, in each of the 21 cities,” Bocelli said in a statement Thursday. “It will be exciting to meet again with the public of my beloved and great homeland who adopted me over 20 years ago. I await that moment with the joy and trepidation I felt at the beginning of my career. Because those arenas we meet in have a glimpse of the sun after such a storm. Because I will sing for the life that wins, and thanks to music, we will celebrate beauty and faith in the future together.”
Tickets for the Milwaukee show will go on sale at 10 a.m. May 3 at ticketmaster.com.
The news of the Bocelli tour was part of a remarkable day for concert announcements for the Milwaukee Bucks arena, which, like every major venue in Milwaukee, and most venues around the country, hasn’t hosted a concert since March 2020.
Thursday morning, Kane Brown announced a Jan. 20 stop at Fiserv Forum as part of a 35-city tour that kicks off in October. An hour later, Roger Waters announced his postponed 2020 tour will take place in 2022, with a stop at the Bucks arena July 28.
With vaccinations underway, the devastated live music industry is expecting a major concert comeback starting in late summer or fall. Experts believe the first major shows might be outdoor amphitheater concerts and festivals.
Summerfest, for instance, is scheduled for three weekends in September, while its largest venue the American Family Insurance Amphitheater, which completed a $51 million renovation last year, has five shows set for July through September that were originally booked for 2020.
The Bucks are so bullish about concerts that they created a new position, vice president of booking, last month, hiring Starr Butler, the booking leader at the Prudential Center in New Jersey, for the job.
Experts believe touchless interactions will be emphasized for new events, while stressing full or near-full capacity would be necessary to make concerts financially viable. Mask requirements, vaccine passports and rapid testing have also been discussed, but industry leaders like Live Nation and AEG have yet to finalize criteria.
Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or plevy@journalsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.
Piet also talks concerts, local music and more on “TAP’d In” with Jordan Lee. Hear it at 8 a.m. Thursdays on WYMS-FM (88.9), or wherever you get your podcasts.