In theory, the upcoming Daily’s Place amphitheater next to EverBank Field could be a great venue for hip, relevant acts that would draw a young audience to downtown Jacksonville and build up to Jaguars games the following afternoon.
The venue’s year-one lineup, however, doesn’t seem likely to draw much excitement from anyone under the age of 40.
At a Friday morning press conference in front of the future amphitheater, Jaguars president Mark Lamping detailed how tickets and event planning at the new venue would work, and also announced the venue’s year-one concert lineup.
The announced acts were mostly a mix of country music (Dierks Bentley, Zac Brown Band), ’80s/’90s relics (Bryan Adams, the Goo Goo Dolls), and even older acts (Chicago? The Doobie Brothers? Yikes…).
Puzzlingly, Kidz Bop is also scheduled to be featured at the new venue. (Perhaps that was the attempt at youth outreach.)
The acts chosen seem to appeal less to the city as a whole, and more to a very specific demographic of the city – older, white audiences looking to relive the “good ol’ days.”
Even (relatively) modern picks such as Train, O.A.R., and Dave Matthews are the kind of neutral acts that suggest a fear to go too far outside of set parameters.
Absent from the year-one roster is any hint of diversity. If you don’t like oldies, country, or alt-rock, it seems that Daily’s Place is not your place – at least not yet.
Absent, too, is any hint of relevance. None of the acts booked are hot right now – and that’s surprising given that this is a brand-new venue.
The shows are still quite likely to be well-attended – this is the South, after all. Still, it would have been nice to see a better attempt at booking outside-the-box acts that would still draw big crowds locally.
Obviously, this is just the first few concerts, and the venue has plenty of time to book more exciting acts. Lamping noted that there will be many more concerts still to be announced, with the goal of up to 40 concerts per year occurring at the venue.
Additionally, the presence of Jacksonville-based Tedeschi Trucks Brand as the venue’s opening act is a great way of honoring a local band – a trend that will hopefully continue in the future.
But there’s no way around it – the initial lack of excitement or diversity is concerning.
Here’s the full list of artists announced today, with dates:
May 27 – Tedeschi Trucks Band
May 28 – Train & O.A.R.
May 30 – Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds
Jun 11 – Third Eye Blind & Silversun Pickups
Jul 1 – Chicago & the Doobie Brothers
Jul 13 – Dierks Bentley & Cole Swindell & Jon Pardi
Aug 3 – Foreigner & Cheap Trick & Jason Bonham’s Led Zepellin Experience
Sept 21 – Zac Brown Band
TBD – Bryan Adams, The Goo Goo Dolls, 311, and Kidz Bop.
