2 Outdoor O.C. Venues Had Up Year : Amphitheaters: Despite recession, Irvine Meadows and Pacific report business this season is better than last year. A resilient Southern California market cited.

While the pop concert business has suffered nationally during a recession year, Orange County’s two large amphitheaters were busier during the just-concluded outdoor concert season than they were in 1990, theater officials said this week.

Irvine Meadows was host to 43 concerts, up from 42 in 1990. Robert Geddes, the amphitheater’s managing partner, said attendance was about 440,000, contrasted with a reported total of slightly more than 400,000 a year ago. A substantial chunk of the 1990 schedule at Irvine--six shows--had been free concerts sponsored by a cigarette manufacturer. This year, all 43 shows were regular, paid-admission promotions staged by the venue itself. The Irvine Meadows schedule included the Pacific Symphony’s five-concert summer season.

The Pacific Amphitheatre staged 35 concerts, up from 30 in 1990. Alex Hodges, vice president in charge of West Coast concerts for the Nederlander Organization, which runs the Pacific, said paid attendance for the season was about 357,000, up from an announced total of 325,000 last year.

Despite the recession, “we had our normal year,” Geddes said. “This was not our best year, but it was a long way from our worst year, too. Southern California is far more resilient than (nearly all) the other (pop concert) markets.”

Hodges characterized the Pacific’s season as “a great year, though not without a few difficult areas that you just have to work through and live with. We ran into the economic downturn and survived it strongly.”

In response to the slack economy, promoters at both venues tried to persuade performers to agree to lower ticket prices, which typically means lower upfront financial guarantees for the acts.

“When we could, we did,” Geddes said. “Of course, we also had some very high ticket prices, too. It (depends on) a combination of how hot the ticket is and how willing the artist is to recognize” the need to keep prices down in a tight economy. “It didn’t happen in Orange County for the most part. It happened in isolated cases, but not as a general rule.”

Hodges said that after years in which rising costs were taken for granted, performers became “more willing this year than I remember seeing in a long time” to consider capping prices. Sting, Guns N’ Roses and Van Halen were among the acts willing to shave a dollar or two off the ticket prices they might normally have commanded, Hodges said.

While hot acts continued to do well, officials at both amphitheaters said that the season’s poorer draws went further in the hole than they would in a more flush economy.

“We took some major hits on some artists. We lost more (on those shows) than we ever had in our history,” Geddes said, declining to name specific acts. Hodges said that this year’s least successful shows at the Pacific were off about 25% from what promoters would expect based on the acts’ past performances.

Irvine Meadows, as it has been in the past, was a more frequent magnet for bands catering primarily to younger audiences, with 18 shows by heavy-metal, hard-rock and alternative-rock performers. Those included three nights by the Scorpions, a German heavy-metal band, a three-day stand by the Lollapalooza, a hot touring festival headlined by Jane’s Addiction, and a season-ending, three-night stand by Oingo Boingo. Other acts playing multiple nights in Irvine were Don Henley, with two shows, and two sold-out nights of “The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber,” featuring Michael Crawford.

The Pacific offered seven concerts in the hard-rock, heavy-metal and alternative categories, including a two-night stand by Van Halen, a Guns N’ Roses date, a speed-metal bill dubbed Clash of the Titans, and an instant sellout by alternative rock idol Morrissey. The Pacific’s only multiple-night bookings were Rod Stewart, who played a three-night stand, and Van Halen.

The outdoor concert season this year extended from March 8, when the Scorpions opened Irvine Meadows, through Nov. 9, when Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers closed out the Pacific’s schedule. Petty and his band are becoming Orange County’s favorite musical bookends: in 1990, they opened the outdoor season with a March 3 show at the Pacific.