The Des Moines concert scene has officially been shot for the summer. The Extreme Steel Tour, set to take place on July 8 at Waterworks Park, is the second concert in a month to be cancelled.

The publicity received by the cancellation of the Big Ass BBQ last month and low tickets sales promoted the recent cancellation.

There were only 200 tickets sold for the show on the day of cancellation on June 14th.

As some may remember, I was very upset with the cancellation of the BBQ for this exact reason; it gives Des Moines a bad reputation. The concert was not canceled by the promoters, instead the final death blow came from Pantera’s agent in New York.

Pantera is not going to come and sing to 200 people at an empty park when they could go anywhere else and jam to a packed house.

I find it hard to believe Pantera, Slayer and Morbid Angel couldn’t sell out Waterworks Park, but the decision made by the Des Moines City Council one month ago obviously affected people’s perception on whether the concert would actually take place.

Mayor Preston Daniels was quoted as saying he hoped this one incident wouldn’t ruin concerts in the future for Des Moines.

Guess what, it’s a little late for it not to ruin other concerts, and Pantera’s agent showed how it’s going to be hard for big name bands to take a chance after the last Des Moines debacle.

Fans don’t need to let tragedies like these two fallen concerts repeat themselves in the future. I know it seems like the backward city council was responsible for the cancellation of both concerts, but they were not.

The first concert was, in fact, all the city council’s responsibility; They denied them a temporary liquor license. But the second concert was cancelled because the fans didn’t buy any tickets to the show.

Just because the city council decided the first concert was too loud to receive a license didn’t necessarily mean the second concert would be too loud.

If it had been ruled it was too loud a second time, it would have given the fans more power than they currently have to encourage the city to find big name bands.

By waiting to buy tickets or not buying tickets at all, the fans made the city council’s problem vanish into thin air.

Don’t think the members of the city council who voted no weren’t worried about the second show, because unless the vote was taken again while members were out of town, it most likely would have passed.

Fortunately for those members of the board, they didn’t have to make the decision of looking as if they were condoning certain types of music or upsetting their other constituents who believe the music is too loud.

It would’ve been a very difficult position for those members to have had to face, but they no longer have to worry about the issue thanks in part to the fans.

The city council is not off the hook entirely; their vote last month did influence many of the fans’ attitudes towards the second concert.

Someday those members will be forced to vote on a temporary liquor license of another concert, and all eyes will be watching.

Those members who voted against the liquor license can be pretty sure this is not something people are going to forget, although I have a feeling they are really not worried about how the people feel.

Opportunities for concerts are now numbered with two very devastating strikes against Iowa by both the fans and the city council, but hopefully the next major concert attempt receives a little better reception from the people who the bands love to play for.

The state of Iowa, as well as the city of Des Moines, will have to spend many years trying to combat our newfound reputation with big name bands, and I hope it’s a reputation we are able to change.

The chance for a big name band to come to Iowa is almost guaranteed to be done for this summer, with exception of the lowa State Fair, and the people that stood in line to deliver the final shot of death along with Des Moines City Council were the fans who did not have faith the concert in taking place.

David Frost is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Des Moines.