Agency Intel: ICM Partners’ Mike Hayes On The Success Of Chase Atlantic’s 31-Date Tour; Signing David Byrne

– Agent Mike Hayes
of ICM Partners

Photo by Jordan Kelsey Knight – Chase Atlantic

Mike Hayes: Their management company MDDN, which is [run by] Benji and Joel Madden, were there before me. They brought me on four or five years ago. And since then, it’s just been a steady build. There might not be any radio, there may not be any kind of mainstream quote-unquote high level press, meaning “Saturday Night Live,” big television looks, but there’s a strong fanbase there; the band’s releasing music that’s really connecting to an audience.Especially with this last tour, which we put on sale last summer and played in the fall, we found that the song they put out at the time called “OHMAMI” really connected on the streaming platforms, basically with the same audience that was listening to BTS, Ariana Grande and Harry Styles, you know, 14- and 19-year-old females. The click rate is extremely high for wanting more, not just constantly streaming. At that point, we had just released a song, we had the tour on sale. So, there was a real, tangible value that an audience could get out of what we were delivering. … Although they have a great label partner, it’s not like there were songs on Top 40 radio or any of the traditional avenues that we think of when we see artists selling this many tickets. It was incredible to see the band work harder than anyone that I’ve met in a long time. The management are the most unbelievable managers and partners in this. It’s just been a real joy to be a part of it.

We booked the tour based on the success of the previous tour. Obviously, dealing with a pandemic and then dealing with [not knowing] how big has the audience grown, it was one of those things where no one can really be sure what the answer was other than previous tours sold out 95% of the shows, they’ve got music coming, a new album coming and a great touring partner with Live Nation.

[We decided] let’s just keep steadily increasing the venues. Let’s take a shot in L.A. at The Wiltern. Because the last time in L.A., we sold out the Regent, which is 1,100 and it had just got there as far as it sold out, but it got there maybe a week or so before the show. … I think we can get to a Palladium, but let’s start at The Wiltern. …  And sure enough, basically sold out The Wiltern at the onsale. For a band that hasn’t been that strong in L.A. or New York – their strength’s kind of been the suburbs, you know, like Chicago, the Minneapolis – that’s kind of all changed in that it’s growing exponentially.

And to see what it did in New York, when we blew out Brooklyn Steel. We are going to move to Terminal 5, but it was NFT Week in New York and we couldn’t get into any of these venues because they were booked and rented out. So, that’s when we added a show at the Wellmont Theater in New Jersey, and we sold that out; that’s 2,500 capacity. So we essentially could have done probably 7,000 or 8,000 tickets in the New York metro area. Luckily, we booked the tour with a few spots where we could add a show here or increase the venue.

All the credit to management, who were really the ones that had the vision pushing this. …[The tour] really got everybody seeing the power of how an artist who has incredible social and streaming numbers can take that to an audience.

They’re a full band – guitar, bass, drums and one of the band members plays sax. And the production is a huge LED wall … It is a total vibe and a party and you really feel like you’re at the church of Chase Atlantic and they’re giving their sermon. The audience is just going absolutely bananas, singing every single word, filling in the gaps when Mitchel, the singer, purposely doesn’t sing a part because he knows the audience is going to sing along with it. Everyone’s bouncing up and down and really just having the time of their lives.The live show is truly, truly amazing. What I always do is, like a proud dad, whenever I go to the shows I video it and send clips of the videos to the promoters like, look at this audience in L.A. or Toronto going apeshit for this group. You need to be involved because it’s truly a very special event.

They’re extremely engaging. Mitchel and his brother, Clinton, who plays saxophone, guitar, and sings backing vocals and then Christian, who’s the guitar player, the three of them, plus the other two members, Jesse and Pat, have such an incredible chemistry on stage. I believe that comes from Mitchel and Clinton being brothers and really having that family dynamic and then being able to express that from the stage.

We have a tour [that will include] 5,000-capacity outdoor theaters. You’ll see them touring the summer, but the specifics aren’t out there yet because we’re still working out the deals. We’ll be set to announce that in the next month or so.

Unfortunately, we had a COVID issue with The Go-Go’s. They were supposed to play some shows around Christmas time and there was there was a COVID case within the organization. So I’m currently rescheduling those dates, but I suspect they’ll play in the late spring.

Thank you so much. It was a really long process but, I guess, good things come to those who wait. It really encompassed members from all across departments within the agency:  film and television, branding, commercials, theater, publications. The team was so unified in building a compelling case to David, who is clearly a legend – (laughs) putting it mildly.

Look, I think everyone is cautiously optimistic … because I think if it’s going to go like it did last year, we’ll be able to get to festival season and figure out the right protocols and what that looks like. And obviously, producers feel the same way or they wouldn’t be announcing their amazing lineups. I think you’re going to see even more festivals announced in the next several months. It’s going to be an exciting time and I think we’ll find a way to get through this and really make it special.

UPDATE:
Since this interview was conducted, The Go-Go’s have announced rescheduled shows, with a run of March 24-31 gigs in San Francisco; Reno, Nev.; Temecula, Calif.; San Diego and Anaheim, Calif. A special hometown show scheduled for Los Angeles will be added at a later date. Presale tickets are available now and the general onsale starts Friday, January 28 at 10 a.m. PT.

Check out the confirmed routing below: