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Garth Brooks speaks with Steve Wynn after a press conference on the debut night of his new show in Encore Theater at the Wynn on Dec. 11, 2009.
Published Friday, Dec. 11, 2009 | 7:15 p.m.
Updated Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009 | 2:34 a.m.
Taking measured steps as he walked down the hallway leading from the Petrus Ballroom toward Encore's Sinatra restaurant, Steve Wynn talked of vision.
Not his own, but Garth Brooks’.
“Garth Brooks is the smartest guy I’ve ever worked with in entertainment. Absolutely,” Wynn said tonight after Brooks finished a news conference at Wynn Las Vegas in advance of his first show at Encore Theater. “Tonight I am going to be looking at the audience through his eyes.”
Garth Brooks speaks during a press conference on the debut night of his new show in Encore Theater at the Wynn on Dec. 11, 2009.
There’s a lot to look at. Wynn has taken great strides to ensure that Brooks is sated during this unique partnership, which has encompassed a private jet Wynn purchased to tote the star to and from his primary residence in Owasso, Okla., and an almost obsessive search-and-destroy mission against any ticket broker attempting to scalp Brooks’ notoriously loyal fans.
The base ticket price for all tickets to Brooks’ show is $125 -- for now. Those purchasing tickets have complained of an arduous policy in which anyone seeking to buy tickets online or over the phone were limited to six per order, and tickets could only be picked up on the day of purchase by the person who ordered the tickets. The hotel initially also reserved the right to check the IDs of fans entering the theater (a process from which Wynn has since backed away).
Garth Brooks speaks during a press conference on the debut night of his new show in Encore Theater at the Wynn on Dec. 11, 2009.
This was all to avoid ticket brokers hoarding bulk orders and selling the $125 seats for thousands of dollars more than face value. Scalping, they call it.
Wynn says the ticketing for Brooks is still an evolutionary process.
“We learned a lesson here about the tickets over the first 20 shows. I think that before this is over, we’re going to scale the tickets a little better,” Wynn said. “As for scalpers, I’m not going to be checking every receipt at the door and inconvenience fans, but I did send a message to scalpers. That I accomplished.”
Asked about what sort of scale he was thinking of and where the current $125 would land in that scale, Wynn said, “The midpoint.”
Garth Brooks speaks during a press conference on the debut night of his new show in Encore Theater at the Wynn on Dec. 11, 2009.
But for this initial indoctrination to a Strip headlining engagement, Wynn said it was important for Brooks to be satisfied financially, personally and creatively.
“It would have been wrong to try to change any of his preconceptions until he was in the room, in Las Vegas,” Wynn said, noting that the single-scale price was Brooks’ wish. “That’s why I shut up and let him have his way. He had a program that was easy to figure out, which he toured on, and it did the job.”
In his touring career, with his backing band in the 1990s, Brooks typically charged $25 per ticket for his enormous fan base and consequently became one of the highest-selling concert draws in history
Garth Brooks speaks during a press conference on the debut night of his new show in Encore Theater at the Wynn on Dec. 11, 2009.
“I let him have his way with the ticket prices, but we might be going with scaled pricing before too long,” Wynn said. “We will have to talk about that.”
“Everything he did made perfect sense -- under the old model,” Wynn said. “But we’re looking at it differently here. I think he’ll have to learn for himself about how to scale shows in Las Vegas, to charge less for the balcony, that this approach does matter. Then we’ll have a different discussion, for sure.”
The first batch of shows covering five weekends through the end of February (this weekend, Jan. 1-3, Jan. 22-24, Feb. 12-14 and Feb. 26-28) are all sold out, though fans can stand by for unclaimed tickets at the Encore Theater box office on the day of the show.
As for what type of show they will see, the county music superstar (who was more than an hour behind schedule today after a delayed first flight to Las Vegas) reminded fans that it will be just him, his acoustic six-string and his life story.
For Brooks, the cowboy-and-guitar thing is old hat.
“Me with the band, when I was touring, that was new,” said Brooks, dressed in an opened avocado-colored jacket, baggy cargo jeans and a black cap that seemed to be a Pittsburgh Pirates hat. “This is the real me.”
Brooks is going to hearken to the year he was born, 1962, and bring in covers of such artists as James Taylor and Bob Seger, meandering musically to his own catalog, which has made him the most successful solo artist in the history of U.S. record sales, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (only The Beatles pushed more vinyl, tape and CDs in the States than Brooks).
Brooks often talks of performing such a show at Wild Willie’s Saloon in Stillwater, Okla., intimate and organic performances that grew to include a band playing arenas across the country. Brooks didn’t rule out bringing his wife, Trisha Yearwood, onstage on occasion. He said he’d take requests shouted from the crowd but didn’t commit to playing each on guitar; singing a cappella, that’s possible, singing just long enough so “people won’t figure out I can’t play.”
When asked which song he’d request of Brooks, Wynn didn’t hesitate.
“ ‘Against the Wind,’ ” Wynn said. “He sings that better than Bob Seger.”
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.
isnt sinatra's at encore
Garth asked " Where's the buffet"?
Dodgercuck, yes, Sinatra is at Encore. We walked from the ballroom, which is located at Wynn, over to Sinatra at Encore. I changed the wording a bit to reflect that Sinatra is at Encore. And it's a fine restaurant, indeed.
I think Brooks is starting realize that he unknowingly made a contract with the Devil himself.
nice,sounds like it was a long walk,so did you dine w/wynn and brooks
Nope. But I did have a little roast beef sandwich and three cookies at the news conference while waiting for Garth to arrive. And I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
$125 for a show that just has Garth and his guitar. Okay...
The cost for a threesome of Euphoria perfume for women is $125.00; a dollar cheaper for the men's set.
Woops! Correction, correction, the cost for a set of three Calvin Klein euphoria perfume products at this time of year in the Mid-west where Garth is claiming to be from is $125.00 for the set; and the Calvin Klein euphoria mens set if $124.00. Whew. That first one liner almost had you on the edge of your bed saying,...
I dunno , but I think Mr. Wynn would have made a better choice to have James Taylor for this here deal. JT covers a wider spectrum of musical styles, and can command high ticket prices that folks will gladly pay...
One of the best shows I've seen in Las Vegas was James Taylor at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in 2001.
dont you live in town. i heard sinatra's not that good
I've seen Garth Brooks several times before. He puts on an AMAZING performance.
Obviously he is a huge success and has huge following! Didn't the first round of his tickets sell out in 2 minutes? I'm hoping to buy some when they become available. If I can even get them.
Wynn picked the perfect performer. Garth is going to great and bring more people to Vegas. Isn't that what all the nah-saying, usual peanut gallery commenting complainers here want? More tourists? I can't beleive not one person said anything positive about Garth. Pathetic.
John, I've seen James Taylor but to me, his show is a big yawn. Honestly, if I knew that Taylor was playing at the local 7-11 right now, I wouldn't drive over! Never seen Garth but the buzz he's created here says it all.
attended the 10:30 show tonight...not much of a country music fan, but obviously aware of and enjoy some of the Garth Brooks major hits, usually leave vegas shows after about 15 minutes to hit the tables.
didn't look at watch and suddenly it was over 2 1/2 hours later. all i can say is WOW. the show was amazing. in the intimate setting his talent just oozes out. the sound in the theater is incredible.
he performs in a style mixing a history of the development of his style with audience requests. the scenery ain't half bad either. doesn't hurt having Sly Stallone sitting 5 rows up with his better half, joined by Steve himself.
Brooks is funny, engaging, and despite the obvious difficulty of taking non-rehearsed requests, shines through as a world class talent.
I was sceptical of the choice of genre for the Wynn/Encore crowd, but I was wrong. He smartly plays a lot of cross-genre classics and displays vocal range that I personally found shocking.
$143 is a bargain that seems unlikely to last regardless of economic conditions given the fact the guy consistenly sold out football stadiums.
dodgerchuck,
I'm with you on Sinatra. Maybe I just ordered the wrong thing or attended the wrong night. With so many other choices in the complex, I don't imagine myself choosing Sinatra again.
Flew to Vegas from Olympia, WA and attended Garth's Friday night show:
The Encore Theater is beautiful - great place to see a show.
Bought tix online - waited for 2 hours for 2 seats. GARTH in VEGAS - the possibilities were endless. Thought the first show would be a BIG deal. We couldn't have been more surprised and disappointed with the show. After all the hype and buildup, and after paying $143 per ticket, we are still scratching our heads in disbelief.
Nearly empty stage. Garth barely gave the audience a "hello" before starting his first cover song. Wore baggy Carrharts, dirty Romeos (or similar), hooded sweatshirt, and baseball cap. Looked so sloppy it could have been a mid-afternoon soundcheck. Seemed uncomfortable and unprepared.
Wireless headset mic sounded cheap - it popped and cracked and sounded thin all night.
Made jokes about being older, more forgetful, out of shape, a soccer dad, and "this is what happens after several years of retirement." This is $143 in Vegas??
While there were a few moments of excitement, the overall emotion of the evening was confusion and boredom. Stumbled musically many times, forgot words, stopped and restarted a few songs to find the correct key, and admitted that he doesn't always play guitar on his songs. He laughed it off and asked the audience to forgive him, but I found myself repeatedly thinking this is not a $143 Vegas show. He acted like a local bar singer, but I heard 8-10 better performers during NFR week in Vegas. Can't think of any other Vegas Headliner that would present themselves this way. Seemed like he wasn't committed to it - as if he didn't really want to be in Vegas - it was a quick paycheck before he jumped back on new private jet and went home to Oklahoma.
This was a chance for Garth fans to see him put on a great show in an intimate setting. It should have been an amazing opportunity, but instead was a disappointment.
Highlight was Trisha Yearwood sing "Walkaway Joe." They sound really good together. I know she wasn't feeling well, so unfortunately, they only did one song together.
Show lasted less than 2 hours with encore, and half the show was cover tunes. I really hope he comes up with a better Las Vegas show for his fans soon. This is something I would expect to see in a small club in Seattle for $20. Please, Garth - this is not a $143 Las Vegas Headliner ticket from the biggest selling solo artist in music history.
Must have been gruesome.
Now that all of the biguns' have their brand on Las Vegas JohnPaul Jones, Choctaw-Pawnee architect, can put his brand on the Strip, also.