The Black Keys abruptly canceled their anticipated International Players Tour for North American arenas. Is this due to not selling enough tickets or what?

Variety reported the tour was announced in early April and was supposed to start in Septemeber. Stops were to include large arenas like NYC’s Madison Square Garden and LA’s Kia Forum. Additionally, there were stops in Milwaukee, Seattle, Boston, and then finally in Detroit on November 12.

The tour was to accompany their 12th studio album, Ohio Players, which was released last month. Drummer Patrick Carney and singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach’s latest is about the Buckeye State and good times, with songs like Beautiful People (Stay High) and I Forgot to Be Your Lover. It would seem like this would be the perfect theme to live shows.

Along with the new songs, they also released a documentary called This Is a Film About the Black keys that debuted at SXSW. It was about what happens behind the scenes with the duo and how they keep it together. “We’ve figured each other out, for the most part,” Auerbach said in the film. “We’re just two very opinionated, hard-headed people trapped for eternity together.”

The Black Keys are a popular rock band with tons of adoring fans, so what happened?

Are poor ticket sales to blame for Black Keys canceling tour?

The band from Akron’s website has been cleared of all dates except for a July 6 NASCAR Chicago Street Race event.

Consequence of Sounds stated that, though it’s not confirmed, the tour might have been canceled due to lackluster ticket sales. This may be due to the outrageous admission prices, which ranged between $100 and $300.

Also, Ohio Players isn’t exactly a hit. It’s the band’s least successful commercial release in about two decades, debuting No. 26 on the Billboard 200. In comparison, their 2022 album Dropout Boogie opened at number 8 on the charts.

They’ve also played arenas in the past, which they used to be able to fill. However, it’s looking like that might not be realistic these days.

A user on X posted a shot of availability at CFG Bank Arean in Baltimore and wrote, “An example of one show’s availability before all dates were yanked off Ticketmaster yesterday.”

If accurate, it’s showing a lot of available seats.

Comments state that the band is more suitable for a smaller venue with around 5-6K people instead of a massive arena.

“I was legit waiting until the day of the concert in Baltimore to buy tickets,” one user wrote. “Tickets were insanely priced from the start and they’d do so much better at The Anthem in DC.”

“Just do 2,000-3,000 standing room joints and sell em out and cut back on the absurd light shows and gimmicks,” another person wrote. “Give me rocks for $30-$35.”

We don’t know whether it’s due to poor ticket sales or another reason. The Black Keys had yet to issue a statement when this article was written. But it can be speculated that the Ohio-based rockers’ sales weren’t in the black.