Angered over a rain-soaked cancellation, Christopher Langone, a self-proclaimed “lifelong fan” of the rock band Rush, has filed a class-action lawsuit against the band’s three members and Live Nation over a canceled July 7 concert at Chicago’s Charter One Pavilion.
According to Langone, the concert, which while held in an open air pavilion, was billed as a rain or shine event, meaning the band should have played despite the ever present rain storms in the area. In his suit, Langone asserts that he is entitled to a full refund of the ticket price, along with reimbursement for his travel expenses. He reportedly bought six tickets for himself and several friends to attend the concert at a price of $80 per ticket. Langone, who currently resides in New York where he is a PhD student at Cornell University, also paid for airfare to fly out to Chicago to see his favorite band perform.
Langone could not be reached for comment. Companies such as Mondial Assistance offer ticket insurance for such occurrences, but whether he had such insurance is unknown. Many fans opt not to pay for the insurance, which can drive up the cost of a ticket by several dollars.
Langone supports his class action lawsuit by noting that on July 7, while the Rush concert was being canceled, the Chicago White Sox managed to play and finish their baseball game in spite of the rain. James VanOsdol, a Chicago based writer and a fellow Rush fan, took to his blog on Chicago Now to offer his take on the canceled concert that he too attended. According to VanOsdol, after a 45 minute wait to see if the rain storms would pass, the audience was notified that the concert would be postponed to a later date, at which time their tickets would be honored.
The reason offered for the cancelation was that the weather was not predicted to improve and the safety of the audience and Rush would be best served with a postponement. VanOsdol also noted that there were noticeable puddles on the concert stage, and that the ChartOne Pavilion offered little in the way of protection to the stage area. The tentative date for the rescheduled concert could be in September, which, according to Langone, would not accommodate his school schedule.
This is not the first instance of a class action suit against a band for a canceled concert. An attorney in Hawaii successfully sued rock band Aerosmith for a canceled Hawaiian concert date. However, unlike this current suit against Rush, the Hawaiian concert was canceled apparently due to Aerosmith’s desire to play several more lucrative concerts which made travel to Maui for the show too difficult.