On a cool night in Manhattan, DJ Walton, who helps manage Alicia Keys, steps outside the Highline Ballroom to tell the guy at the door who, exactly, he may allow to carry a cellphone into the singer’s sold-out gig. The list is very short. “Like, Queen Latifah,” Walton says. Benji Spanier nods and spreads the news to everybody else. This is a “phone-free event,” he tells fans waiting in line. Spanier holds a gray, rubbery pouch in his hand. Your phone goes in here, he says, and then we lock it. Spanier adds an important addendum: You keep that locked pouch with you. Spanier also explains that if you need to use your phone, you can just step outside, and he can quickly unlock it by tapping it on a metal disc slightly larger than a bagel. The pouch has become the go-to tool for a slew of artists — including Dave Chappelle, the Lumineers and Louis C.K. — trying to reclaim their live performances. Created by the San Francisco-based Yondr, it has been used for special occasions, such as Chris Rock’s warm-up shows before he hosted the Oscars and the “surprise” Guns N’ Roses’ reunion gig at the Troubadour in April. For Walton, the only real issue is that Keys planned to premiere songs from her planned follow-up to 2012’s Girl on Fire. “We don’t want the first time you ever hear a song to be some [lousy] MP3 somebody captured on their phone,” Walton said. “We have a 30-foot stage and you’re looking at it through a 4-inch iPhone.”
A group suing to block construction of Star Wars filmmaker George Lucas’ museum on Chicago’s lakefront is willing to negotiate a settlement to allow the project to proceed, but under several conditions. Lucas wants the museum on Lake Michigan’s shores near the city’s downtown. The museum’s construction was scheduled to begin this spring, but Friends of the Parks’ lawsuit contending the 300,000-square-foot project violates laws restricting the area’s development put construction on hold. The parks group released a memo outlining stipulations under which it would settle its lawsuit with Lucas, The Chicago Tribune reported Saturday. The conditions include a legally binding promise from the city to protect the lakefront from development for the next century and 5 percent of the museum’s revenue allocated to a parks fund for improvements in areas lacking funding.