The two hottest trends in arena concerts right now are soft sales and canceled tours.

Ticket listings for the Black Keys’ upcoming tour disappeared from Ticketmaster on the Friday that opened Memorial Day weekend. A week later, Jennifer Lopez announced her upcoming self-financed tour wasn’t going to happen as she was “taking time off to be with her children, family and close friends.”

Meanwhile, heavy hitters like Justin Timberlake and Billie Eilish have upcoming Xcel Energy Center shows with vast banks of unsold seats.

What’s going on?

The Black Keys didn’t formally announced that they axed the tour and didn’t make a statement until days later, after some fans speculated on social media about the duo’s health and well being. “The band wants to assure everyone that Dan and Patrick are alive and well,” they posted on social media. “We have decided to make some changes to the North American leg of the International Players tour that will enable us to offer a similarly exciting, intimate experience for both fans and the band, and will be announcing a revised set of dates shortly.”

A “similarly exciting, intimate experience” is a nice way to say that ticket sales were so bad, they’re going to retreat to smaller venues. There was plenty of online chatter about the Black Keys even playing arenas in the first place, but back in the ’10s, they enjoyed a sold run of arena tours, including three stops at Target Center.

Anyone who saw the Black Keys phone it in last August in front of a half-full Minnesota State Fair Grandstand knew something was up with the blues rockers. Much like their 2019 show at Target Center, guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney seemed distant and disinterested, in each other and the crowd. It didn’t help matters that the three albums they’ve released since 2021 failed to find much interest among listeners. Their most recent one, “Ohio Players,” peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard charts, the pair’s lowest ranking since their 2006 major label debut “Magic Potion.”

The Black Keys guitarist and singer Dan Auerbach performs the song Gold On The Ceiling at Target Center in Minneapolis on Friday, Oct. 24, 2014. (Juan Pablo Ramirez / Pioneer Press)

Lopez had been on a winning streak in the time since she turned 50 in 2019. That same year, she earned raves for her playing an aging stripper in “Hustler,” even though she didn’t land the Oscar nomination so many folks predicted was a lock. She played the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show and her 2022 films “The Mother” and “Shotgun Wedding” drew huge numbers on streaming.

To the surprise of the world, Lopez rekindled her romance with Ben Affleck a year into the pandemic. The couple married in Las Vegas in July 2022 and Lopez was so starry eyed, she made the ill-fated decision to share her love with the world.

Earlier this year, Lopez released the album “This Is Me … Now,” an hourlong film of the same name and “The Greatest Love Story Never Told,” a documentary about the making of it all. She invested $20 million into the three projects, which all focus on her romance with Affleck. The tour, in theory, would be the icing on the cake. Turns out, though, no one’s that hungry. (In a splashy Variety feature that ran in February, Lopez’s longtime producing partner Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas said she questioned the entire project: “I was worried … It made me uncomfortable for her.”)

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Canceling tours is not good for business. Also not good: Playing to empty seats.

By any metric, Timberlake stands as one of the most successful pop stars of the past 25 years. After blowing up as the leader of ‘N Sync, the Memphis native went on to find massive success as a solo artist, while carving out a second career in acting. Even as interest in his music has dropped off — he’s scored a mere three Top 10 hits in the past decade — he remained a strong draw on tour. In 2018, he headlined the Super Bowl halftime show and spent a year on the road, including two sold-out stops at Xcel Energy Center.

Timberlake’s current tour seems to be doing well. He announced it in January and added additional dates last month, including a show at the X, with Live Nation announcing more than one million tickets had already been sold. Perhaps local fans didn’t get the memo, because two weeks after it went on sale, the Halloween night show in St. Paul has sold roughly half the floor and just a smattering of seats in the 100 and 200 levels. It’s pretty much unthinkable that he’ll go through with this one if sales don’t pick up.

Billie Eilish performs during Lollapalooza in Chicago’s Grant Park on Aug. 3, 2023. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/TNS)

Eilish, who sold out her 2022 Xcel Energy Center debut, has had a remarkably successful career so far and became the second person ever to sweep the four major categories at the 2020 Grammy Awards. While few seats remain for her Nov. 10 show at the X, the Ticketmaster map for Nov. 11 looks a lot like Timberlake’s and is awash with blue dots (which represent unsold seats).

Other shows at the X having trouble with sales include Future and Metro Boomin (July 31), Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper (Aug. 25) and Cigarettes After Sex (Sept. 24). (You’re not alone if your reaction to the latter is “Wait, who?”)

Just like the Black Keys and Lopez, the reasons behind Timberlake and Eilish’s slow sales vary. Timberlake’s latest album fell off the Billboard 200 after four short weeks and he’s become increasingly scrutinized for his history of throwing women like Britney Spears and Janet Jackson under the bus to further his own career. Eilish is playing on an in-the-round stage, drastically upping the number of seats available to sell. Plus, she’s playing on the two worst nights of the week for an arena show, Sunday and Monday.

What they all have in common, however, is a newly choosy audience. Arena shows started trickling back in the latter half of 2021, but truly took off the following two years. Everyone, it seemed, was hitting the road and fans happily gobbled up tickets, even as dynamic pricing led to seats going for hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of dollars. Throw in two massive 2023 outings with worldwide attention — Taylor Swift and Beyonce – and it appears that concertgoing fever has peaked.

A course correction in ticket prices was long overdue, as there are a finite number of acts that can attract a finite number of fans willing to pay big bucks. In May, the Department of Justice sued Live Nation claiming the company, which owns Ticketmaster, is a monopoly that harms fans. If successful, the move would have a seismic impact on the entire concert industry.

Whatever happens, it’s clear that the fans have spoken by not opening their wallets.

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By now you’ve probably noticed the rapid ascent of nicotine pouches like Zyn and Velo. The little round cans are everywhere: advertised in convenience store windows, strewn across the sidewalk, filling social media feeds and infiltrating offices.

Zyn’s synthetic nicotine offers the kick of a cigarette or dip without the cancer-causing smoke and chemicals of tobacco, packaged in a pouch that can be discreetly tucked into the upper lip. But that doesn’t mean they’re risk-free. In fact, we know very little about how nicotine pouches could affect health or addiction trends in the U.S. Moreover, tobacco companies are selling the products in dosages and flavors that seem very clearly designed to appeal to younger users, even though buyers are supposed to be at least 21.

Even without a ton of data, researchers can already tick off reasons for teens to steer clear of Zyn. The most obvious is that nicotine is addictive. “Nicotine is not good for developing brains,” says Brittney Keller-Hamilton, an epidemiologist at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. The chemical commandeers the brain’s reward system, giving it a strong hit of dopamine at a time when the organ is particularly vulnerable to addiction. Using nicotine at a younger age creates a harder-to-kick habit, while priming the user for addiction in general, she says.

So far, industry has sponsored nearly all the scientific publications on nicotine pouches, says Tory Spindle, a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. The worry, of course, is that “there’s the ‘file drawer dilemma’ where you don’t publish things that aren’t beneficial,” Spindle says. “They’re showing us what is going to help their agenda.” Independent science, not company-funded research, should guide the regulation of nicotine pouches.

The threats posed by different nicotine products are not equal, and it’s fair to say that tobacco-free products like Zyn (sold by Phillip Morris International Inc.) sit at the lower end of the risk spectrum. Indeed, tobacco companies are trying to position them as a harm-reduction tool, suggesting pouches can help curb smokers’ cigarette cravings. The jury is still out on that claim, although at first blush, Zyn doesn’t sound like such a bad idea. My dad was a lifelong smoker, and I’d much rather have been riding shotgun in an Oldsmobile 88 littered with Zyn cans than one stained with cigarette smoke — for his health and mine.

But there’s a wrinkle: We don’t have strong evidence that pouches help people like my dad kick a cigarette addiction. Furthermore, there’s no evidence thus far that they are as safe and effective as products like gums, lozenges and patches, all of which have Food and Drug Administration approval as cessation aids.

Even if proven effective to help people quit tobacco, pouches could have a dangerous underbelly. They come in low-dosage forms that could create a welcoming entrée into nicotine use for teens — the way wine coolers or spiked seltzers are often more appealing to teens and 20-somethings than neat scotch or gin martinis.

Low-dose Zyns might ease a teen into a nicotine habit. “I don’t think it’s been designed for adult smokers,” says Vaughan Rees, director of the Center for Global Tobacco Control, at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Zyn has probably been designed for people who are beginning their tobacco career.”

True, recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that just 3.1% of high school students ever had used a nicotine pouch. But there’s reason to fear those numbers could change quickly. Consider vaping: After several years of little interest in e-cigarettes, teen use suddenly spiked between 2013 and 2015. For some, the habit was a gateway to old-fashioned cigarettes. With vaping rates finally declining, we should prevent this cycle from repeating with nicotine pouches.

Researchers are trying to work as quickly as possible to answer the many critical questions about these products. Those include: Are these an effective harm reduction tool for smokers? And if they are, is that benefit short or long term? Are there health risks to prolonged use? How often do people move from Zyn to riskier products?

And what might enhance their attractiveness or addictiveness to teens? While much attention has focused on flavors, it’s worth considering other factors that could draw teens in. Teen use of Juul skyrocketed after its manufacturer dropped the pH of its products, a move that increased the amount of nicotine absorbed with each puff — and as a result, made vaping more addictive.

And then there’s the gamification and memeification of Zyn. Phillip Morris has hooked users on a points-based rewards system that promises Amazon gift cards and iPads to the most devoted users.

Even if the research ends up proving nicotine pouches help smokers quit, regulators must find a sweet spot where the products are accessible to current tobacco users, but far less attractive to teens and nonusers. That might mean getting rid of those palatable low doses, limiting the flavors, and reining in the ads and games.

There’s no evidence of a mass teen migration to Zyn — yet. But given the tobacco industry’s astounding ability to hook people on their products, it’s not irrational to worry about it. Let’s hope scientists can stay a step ahead this time around.

Lisa Jarvis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering biotech, health care and the pharmaceutical industry. Previously, she was executive editor of Chemical & Engineering News.

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After a miserable start to his season, the Twins sent Matt Wallner down to the Triple-A St. Paul Saints to get himself right.

When the powerfully built 6-foot-4 Wallner is right, he’s hitting the ball out of sight. The last couple of weeks suggest that he is at least on the right track.

Wallner homered in both games of the doubleheader on Thursday at CHS Field as the Saints beat the Syracuse Mets 5-3 in Game 1 before dropping Game 2, 9-4. The Forest Lake native now has 11 home runs on the season, including six in his last 10 games.

“Just trying to keep it simple; get back to what worked last year and go from there,” Wallner said.

Despite the recent power surge, Wallner said he is focused on hitting the ball up the middle. The solid contact does tell him that he’s making progress.

“Just hitting all pitches,” he said. “Obviously, there’s going to be swing and miss in there, but if I can stay on a curve ball and hit the fastball with the same swing thought, that’s when I know that I’m better.

“Otherwise, it needed to be a fastball or it needed to be a slider; just when I can cover more pitches.”

The 26-year-old Wallner was hitting .080 (2 for 25) with the Twins when he was optioned to the Saints on April 16. Asked if any particular pitch was giving him trouble, Wallner said, “Kind of everything was.”

“The first two weeks (of the season), I was just trying to find my swing and not really care about anything that happened,” Wallner added. “That turned into thinking too much, and it led to a month of bad baseball.

“But now it’s just stick to the approach and let the swing come.”

Wallner appeared in 76 games with the Twins last season, batting .249 with 14 home runs and 41 RBI. Knowing he can succeed at the major league level makes him all the more eager to get back.

“It is what it is,” Wallner said. “I want to know that I can be the best player that I can be this year when I do go back.”

Despite the recent home runs, Wallner’s batting average is still at .214. Although there is less emphasis put on batting average in today’s game, that’s not where Wallner wants to be.

“A lot of that is from the first month, when I felt like I was getting one hit a week,” he said. “Crawling out of that hole is never easy, but just trying to take it a week or two at a time. I feel the past couple weeks have been the best by far.”

The Saints fell behind 3-1 in Game 1 after starting pitcher Adam Plutko gave up a solo home run in the second inning and a two-run shot in the fourth. But St. Paul took a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the fourth on the strength of three home runs.

Wallner got things started with a homer leading off the inning. A two-run home run by Tony Kemp and a solo homer by Anthony Prato followed.

Jordan Balazovic (3-3) got the win in relief, while Josh Winder pitched the final two innings, allowing one hit, to earn the save. Four of the six outs recorded by Winder came on strikeouts.

Louie Varland started Game 2 for the Saints and gave his fans plenty to “Lou” about in the first inning when he struck out the side in the first inning, needing only 10 pitches. The second inning was a completely different story.

The Mets sent 11 batters to the plate, scoring five times. Syracuse got the first two batters on base on a walk and an infield single. One out later, Varland gave up a three-run home run to Pablo Reyes. Three more hits and a bases-loaded walk brought in the fourth and fifth runs.

Varland (2-5) pitched three-plus innings, allowing six runs on seven hits. He walked four and struck out five.

Briefly

David Festa (1-2) gets the start for the Saints on Friday. The top pitching prospect in the Twins organization, according to MLB Pipeline, is looking to rebound after allowing five earned runs in four innings in his last start.

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NEW YORK — Yankee Stadium has been a house of horrors for the Twins in the recent past. A spell of rain that disrupted Thursday night’s game for nearly an hour in the sixth inning forced the Twins to be trapped there even longer.

At least the good news for the Twins after a prolonged night at the ballpark is that they’re done with the New York Yankees in the 2024 regular season.

And the bad news?

They lost all six games they played against New York, falling on Thursday 8-5 to the Yankees on a day where starter Pablo López was uncharacteristically out of the strike zone.

“I think it was just lack of feel for everything,” the starter said. “ … I just kept getting in a deeper hole, inning after inning. That’s exactly what I should not be doing.”

López walked six Yankees (45-19), the most in a single game in his career. The two batters he walked in the first inning didn’t hurt him. The other four certainly did, all coming around to score.

He began his third inning of work by issuing walks to Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. Two scored when Gleyber Torres sent a single to right and the third scored on a sacrifice fly, turning a tied game into a three-run deficit.

“I’ve had games this season I walk away and I’m like, ‘Man, I wonder what could have been different today?’ It’s pretty obvious. Six walks. Hit by pitch,” López said. “That’s seven free passes right there against a lineup as good as this one. You’re just giving them fuel.”

An inning earlier, it was a pitch left in the heart of the zone that hurt him: Trent Grisham hammered a first-pitch fastball for a two-run blast.

All told, Lopez gave up seven runs. It marked the third game in his last four in which he has given up at least six runs. Two of those starts have seen him give up seven runs.

“It was really all about the command. It’s not like they hit the ball around the ballpark on him,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It was just when there’s that many baserunners out there, guys are going to score. They almost have to score.”

While the Twins (33-29) tried to claw their way back, they were never able to pull even after the third inning.
Carlos Correa and Christian Vázquez homered in the loss, a positive sign for the catcher who has had a difficult time of it at the plate but now has extra-base hits in each of his past two games.

Three more runs scored in the fifth inning, including one on a ball that Max Kepler hit to left that Judge seemed to give up on as he got closer to the wall. But though the Twins brought the tying run to the plate in both the sixth and eighth innings, they were unable to convert on either opportunity, sending them away from their perennial tormentors winless.

“Six games and you lose all six, that’s not easy to swallow,” Baldelli said. “You’re not going to take a lot of positives about it and feel good about almost anything.”

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