Are there any rock bands from the post-digital era that could fill a stadium?

Here's who's playing upcoming shows at the biggest venues in the Chicago area (one stadium, two amphitheaters, two arenas):

SOLDIER FIELD (capacity: 61,500):
U2

ALPINE VALLEY (40,000):
Dave Matthews Band
Coldplay
Jimmy Buffett

FIRST MIDWEST BANK AMPHITHEATER (28,000):
No Doubt w/Paramore
Kid Rock/Lynyrd Skynyrd
Def Leppard w/Poison and Cheap Trick
Crue Fest 2
Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival
Vans Warped Tour
Brad Paisley w/Dierks Bentley and Jimmy Wayne
Blink-182 w/Fall Out Boy
Nickelback w/Hinder, Papa Roach, and Saving Abel
Aerosmith w/ZZ Top
Creed
Toby Keith w/Trace Adkins
Dave Matthews Band

UNITED CENTER (23,500)
Green Day
Beyonce
AC/DC
Pearl Jam
Miley Cyrus

ALLSTATE ARENA (18,500)
Jonas Brothers
Demi Lovato
Marco Antonio Solis/Pepe Aguilar
American Idols Live!
Ricardo Arjona
Britney Spears
Wisin y Yandel
Pink
Taylor Swift
Vicente Fernandez

Kings of Leon... Situation in the States: Not huge. Not even close.

Kings of Leon sold out Madison Square Garden in a couple hours.
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/kings-of-leon-following-msg-sellout-with-1003939375.story

dub metalol

Still true that Kings of Leon are much bigger in the UK. Only by Night has sold three times as many copies in a country with a fifth as many people as the US.

The Killers are still huge in the UK; they played a sold out date to 50,000 people last Friday in Hyde Park.

The Killers def. The second album may have blown somewhat, but the third one contained a big hit and catapulted them to superstardom if they weren't up there before.

yikes i didn't realize "Human" was one of their biggest songs in most countries besides the U.S.

makes sense that that chorus would thrive more in places were English isn't the first language, I guess.

lol

im saying - is touring stadiums even a practice? i know that like sometimes billy joel or bruce or dmb will play shea or fenway but.. that just doesn't happen in the US anymore, and i dont think it's cuz there aren't bands that can fill stadiums, they just play arenas

if this is true, this doesn't happen "just because." A band sells out a stadium would make a lot more money than if they sell out an arena. there has to be a reason for downsizing, and i really doubt it's because an arena serves as a more intimate venue.

I guess sometimes one stadium gig can be a substitute of sorts for several arena gigs, so it's not that cut and dried

where are all of these kings of leon fans? i was under the mistaken impression that all of their fans wrote for nme. dave matthews sells out fulsom field which probably holds 40,000 for like weeks at a time here in boulder. half of the staff at my job are out sick whenever he shows up.

Any new thoughts on this?

my morning jacket.

they bridge the divide between jam band fans; arena rock fans; and indie fans.

white stripes

The only band I've seen play in the past three years was to a sold-out stadium and the band was Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Tickets were a Christmas present from a friend. I will make this tale even dorkier by telling you that I felt like I was watching...the Gavinners.

http://th09.deviantart.net/fs44/300W/i/2009/129/f/5/Klavier_Gavin__ROCK_GOD_by_Kira759.jpg

These are the kinds of bands you get when you live in a retirement community w/less than 90,ooo people.

Kings of Leon

molly hatchet.

lol maybe this poll was a harbinger of huegness to come: R WE Human or are we SEX ON FIRE?

THIS SEX IS ON FIRE

― Johnny Fever, Friday, February 6, 2009 8:24 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

Pink sold out 12 shows or some ridic amount in a stadium in Melbourne, not sure if you'd count her as a "rock" act but I dont see why not.

what about, like, Death Cab?

Interpol

both restricted to large theatre status, along w/ The Shins, Modest Mouse & other OC-era kinda-big indie bands.

Stadiums? I doubt it.

xpost re interpol

in most US cities, at least

yeah, fair enough

I think this has more to do with the music press than with digital downloading. The press doesn't give bands the time to develop, they are constanctly on the lookout for the "next big thing", meaning debut albums, and then tend to tear them down already by the time of the 2nd or 3rd album. And it is very rare for a band with 1-2 albums behind them to be able to fill stadiums (even though I guess Coldplay did)

it is very rare for a band with 1-2 albums behind them to be able to fill stadiums

That is the exact opposite of America. Here it's very rare for a band to fill a stadium without being around for 1-2 decades.

yeah geir, like the music press hyping up bands, dropping them, hyping up newer bands has only happened in the internet age..

That is the exact opposite of America. Here it's very rare for a band to fill a stadium without being around for 1-2 decades.

But it wasn't always like this. I think in the 60s through the 90s, bands could do this without being around for very long.

yeah, thiking of gnr at the kingdome (50k+), being popular less than 5 years

yeah geir, like the music press hyping up bands, dropping them, hyping up newer bands has only happened in the internet age..

It happens to a larger and larger degree. Surely didn't happen a lot in the 60s and 70s, when many of the still stadium filling dinosaur acts were slowly building their careers.

I think in the 60s through the 90s, bands could do this without being around for very long.

Many of the biggest bands of the early 70s were so-called "supergroups" consisting of members who were already partly famous from other bands. Making it easier for them to establish a name quickly.