Both schools of thought have valid points. To wit:

The "Bands Are Its" Argument

The word band is singular. Saying "Collective Soul are playing the 9:30 on Aug. 27" is as ignorant as it is a sad statement of fact. Collective Soul is a band. The band is playing on Aug. 27. It would be incorrect to say "Only a group of people with unfashionable tribal arm-band tattoos are going to the Collective Soul show at the 9:30 on Aug. 27." The antecedent is not the plural noun people, it is group, which is singular. QED.

THE PROBLEM: Some bands have inconveniently plural names. To say "The Fiery Furnaces is playing the Black Cat on Aug. 8" is to create something almost as difficult to listen to as the new Fiery Furnaces album. So this rule requires a big honking exception: "The Fiery Furnaces are playing"; unfortunately, "the band is out of ideas." It can look odd to have both forms of address in one article.

The Bands Are Theys Argument

People write sentences like "Widespread Panic are opening for the Allman Brothers Band on Oct. 6 at Merriweather Post Pavilion" because people say "Widespread Panic are opening for the Allman Brothers Band on Oct. 6 at Merriweather Post Pavilion." It's unnecessarily stilted for a publication that doesn't address people by "Mr." or "Ms." on second reference to sound so stuffy. Moreover, consonance reigns in your music section. All bands are theys.

THE PROBLEM: Why should the music section follow different rules from the rest of the publication? Because musicians lack unfashionable tribal arm-band tattoos? "Apple are releasing a new iPhone?" "The government are declaring war?" Asinine! (INTERESTING SIDENOTE: In the United Kingdom, many ostensibly singular entities are referred to as plurals: "PARTICK Thistle have found a unique way of topping last season's headline-grabbing pink kit – by launching a new away strip in camouflague." Then again, the story misspells camouflage.)

My feeling:

Platform agnosticism is underratedoverrated [DOH! WISH I'D HAD A COPY EDITOR LOOK AT THIS]. Just as there are features that work better online and features that work better in print, the way you talk and the way you write can be different. Anyone who's ever heard me stammer through an interview would probably agree! I say option 1.

Looks like you'll have to deal with this guy.

So what kind of folks will be pounding away on their keyboards come sale time?

Well, here's an ad that appeared on the Washington, DC Craigslist site on Dec. 19, 2008 (PostingID: 964346143), from a guy who scored, so to speak, some passes to Phish's March 8 show at Hampton Coliseum, during the last Web sale:

Me – Holder of 2 extra Phish Tickets for Sunday Hampton
You – Attractive Female 18-30I'm looking for the sweetest trade of all – ANAL – that is right – good old-fashioned anal sex for 2 Phish Tickets. We meet, we have anal and you get 2 hard copy lottery tix for Phish – easy, simple and everyone wins – I bust a nut in your a$$ and you get to go to the show.

If your interested please reply with a pic and I will be happy to send you my confirmation letter with Phish as proof.

God only knows what sorta bartering this dude would go for if he got his hands on a pair of Easter Egg Roll tickets.

Did you know that the word pavilion derives from the Old French word for butterfly*? Neither did I till I looked it up to see whether or not we'd been misspelling the name of a certain amphitheater in Columbia, Md.

But as Prong (above) might have said, Google begs to differ. Its search results spell the venue's ultimate name "Pavillion." Click through to Merriweather's site, and the title bar says "Pavillion" while the rest of the Web site spells it with one "L."

The Washington Post spells Pavilion with one "L." We've been less consistent. So I called Merriweather and spoke to someone who did not wish to be quoted but has worked at the venue for nearly 10 years. It's been one "L" as long as she's been there, she says. She had no idea where the double "L" came from.

Anyway, I'm sold. One "L" henceforth, folks.

*pavillon, which I guess became papillon through a consonant shift; pavilion means large tent, usually with a peaked top, which could resemble a butterfly, yes.

Photo by Flickr user tonbabydc