After sexual misconduct allegations, Ryan Adams and Arcade Fire set to perform in Minneapolis

Two high-profile musicians — singer/songwriter Ryan Adams and Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler — accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women have upcoming concerts booked in Minneapolis.

Adams, 47, is set to play the State Theatre on Friday. As of Monday afternoon, Ticketmaster’s website showed more than half of the seats in the 2,181-capacity venue remain unsold. When the tour was announced, the lowest-priced seats were $39.50, but that price has now dropped down to $25.

Arcade Fire’s Nov. 13 show at the 8,400-capacity Armory appears to be nearly sold out beyond $182 VIP tickets. That tour went on sale in May, three months before allegations went public against the 42-year-old Butler. On Friday, ’90s alt-rock survivor Beck announced he was no longer going to open for Arcade Fire’s North American dates, which are set to begin Oct. 28.

After making his name in the alt-country band Whiskeytown, Adams went solo in 2000 with the album “Heartbreaker.” For nearly two decades, he toured frequently and played local shows 15 times. Most happened at First Avenue or the State and Orpheum theaters, although he opened for Oasis at Target Center in 2008 and played the Basilica Block Party in 2016. Most recently, he headlined two nights at St. Paul’s Palace Theatre in 2017.

In February 2019, the New York Times published a story quoting seven women — including fellow musician Phoebe Bridgers and Adams’ ex-wife Mandy Moore — who said Adams demanded sex from them after offering his mentorship. When they refused, the women said, Adams responded with emotional abuse and harassment. Soon after the story was published, promoters canceled Adams’ impending tour of Britain and Ireland. He did not perform live for the rest of 2019 and 2020.

At the time, Adams responded with a series of tweets that read, in part: “I am not a perfect man and I have made many mistakes. To anyone I have ever hurt, however unintentionally, I apologize deeply and unreservedly. But the picture that this article paints is upsettingly inaccurate. Some of its details are misrepresented; some are exaggerated; some are outright false … I am resolved to work to be the best man I can be. And I wish everyone compassion, understanding and healing.”

In July 2020, Adams issued a lengthy statement to the Daily Mail, saying he was now sober and seeking help with his mental health: “That being said, no amount of growth will ever take away the suffering I had caused. I will never be off the hook and I am fully accountable for my harmful behavior, and will be for my actions moving forward.”

At the end of 2020, Adams self-released the first of six new albums. According to the concert database setlist.fm, Adams went on to perform dozens of concerts in 2021 at private venues in Los Angeles. In May, Adams sold out Carnegie Hall in New York, his first public performance in more than three years, and went on to play four East Coast theaters. In June, he announced an eight-city tour that kicked off Friday in Atlanta. He has since added 18 more shows in November and December. He has been performing solo for up to three hours each night.

Arcade Fire returned to action in May with “We,” the Canadian band’s first album in nearly five years. At the time, they played “Saturday Night Live” for the fifth time and announced a month-long European tour and 13 North American dates.

In August, just days before the first date of the band’s tour, the music news site Pitchfork published a story with three women and one gender-fluid person alleging “sexual interactions with Butler that they came to feel were inappropriate given the gaps in age, power dynamics and context in which they occurred.” All four were Arcade Fire fans and were between the ages of 18 and 23 when they first started interacting with Butler.

Butler responded with a statement to Pitchfork that acknowledged having sexual interactions with all four people, but that they were consensual and not initiated by him. Butler’s wife and bandmate Regine Chassagne issued her own statement in support of Butler: “I know what is in his heart, and I know he has never, and would never, touch a woman without her consent and I am certain he never did. He has lost his way and he has found his way back.”

Canadian singer/songwriter Feist was set to open Arcade Fire’s European dates, but left the tour after the news broke.

“The best way to take care of my band and crew is to distance myself from this tour,” she wrote in a post to Twitter.

Over the weekend, news broke that Beck — who was set to perform a solo acoustic opening set for Arcade Fire’s North American dates — had pulled himself from the tour. The Grammy winner did not issue a public statement, but ticketholders were informed via email that he “is no longer able to perform.”