Where to put some music venues

I've started to do a bit of research for a project I am working on. And I just discovered this. It's a good place to find info on what Denver urban areas are being redeveloped.

DenverInfill.com: Downtown Denver and Its Urban Infill and Redevelopment Projects

The importance of critics to the arts community

Each Friday and Sunday, as I sit down with the Denver Post, I am grateful for all the arts coverage: the theater reviews, the art show reviews, the architecture discussions. I also like thumbing through the arts section in Westword.

I am much more likely to go to a music show than a play, but it makes me feel good that local media covers all aspects of the local arts community because it gives me a sense of being in an exciting place.

Below is an excerpt of an article written a Minneapolis actor who talks about how important critics were to his career and how they aren't covering the smaller venues these days.

I suppose that if art criticism in print declines or disappears, the Internet will take up the slack. Lots of bloggers are happy to offer their opinions. But still, there is something rewarding in seeing local papers devote space to the arts. Plus by being in the paper, these events are visible to people who are casually thumbing through the pages, whereas they might not see them in niche online sites.

Michael Kennedy: The fading away of the critics is a blow to us all - Minneapolis Star Tribune 6/18/07: "These days, all we seem to hear about is the Guthrie, recently so overpriced that nobody can afford to go. The Fitzgerald may as well be the only arts organization in this city -- if you listen to MPR. As far as art goes, we have the Walker and Minneapolis Institute of Arts. When the folks in the media want to get funky, they mention Theatre de la Jeune Lune, the Children's Theatre Company or the Weisman.

Yes, we have the smaller venues, but do you hear about them very much? Not really. We hear more about television shows, movies, traveling Broadway shows and what to wear to a nightclub than we do about the fine arts in the Twin Cities.

This city is in a quiet artistic crisis. With all of our small theaters, small galleries, music groups, dance companies and literary venues, we should be getting clear, serious criticism. We should have people working full time covering all of the theaters they can seven nights a week. There are tons of art galleries that most people have never heard of. Musical groups are everywhere.

We need the critics. Their opinions are one thing, but the fact that they can go into these small places, consider these artists and watch these performances says that the arts are a serious part of this community."

AEG's Plans for Denver

This article is about promoter Chuch Morris becoming the head of AEG Live's Rocky Mountain office. He left Live Nation to do this and brought several others with him. And before that, he ran his own promotion company.

One of the big local stories has been the venues that Live Nation and AEG have been booking. And the fact that AEG wants to put in yet another venue.

Rocky Mountain News - Denver and Colorado's reliable source for breaking news, sports and entertainment: Other Business: "With a changing concert demographic that is skewing to midsize venues, AEG looks to build a 6,000-seat amphitheater with a retractable roof for year-round use.

'What they're doing is the future of our business,' Morris said. 'We'll only build a building that is mind-blowing and makes sense economically. If that doesn't happen, we won't be building. That's going to be one of my many challenges.'

AEG has built buildings and entertainment districts around the world, from the Staples Center in Los Angeles to the new Wembley Stadium in England.

'If the right location happens and the right finances happen,' Denver will get a new venue, Morris said. 'If I can't create something that's never been done before, we're not going to do it. If I can, I'd love to be part of it.'"

The Family Dog in Denver

The Family Dog was famous for bringing so many 1960s acts to Denver (many of the collectable posters from that era were for shows there) and for giving Barry Fey, Denver's most famous rock promoter, his start.

My college roommate worked at the Family Dog and I used to go there. The only two shows I can remember were the Doors and Canned Heat (the night they got busted for the Denver police).

Denver's Family Dog had roots in, like, the Summer of Love RockyMountain News, 6/8/07: "It was 40 years ago on June 7, 1967, that Fey flew to San Francisco to meet with the Family Dog folks in what would mark the genesis of The Family Dog concert venue here at 1601 W. Evans Ave.

Fey was looking for a place to feature original music when he contacted Bob Cohen with the Family Dog. Cohen liked the tape of local band Eighth Penny Matter so much that he flew from San Francisco to Denver during the Summer of Love.

'That's how the Family Dog was born,' Fey said. 'That was the most important day in Colorado music history.'

Denver's Family Dog opened with Big Brother and the Holding Company, featuring Janis Joplin. Others who graced the stage were Blue Cheer, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Grateful Dead, The Doors and Buffalo Springfield.

The club, which never made any money, in part because tickets were $3.50, eventually morphed into The Dog until it closed with the return of Joplin in June 1968. 'The week before we closed Bobby Kennedy was shot,' Fey said."

Gangs and free concerts

Denver has lots of free concerts. The City Park Jazz series has been going on for 21 years and draws as many as 10,000 people to hear the weekly Sunday concerts. It's been considered a family-friendly event.

However, this year there are reports that gang members are using the event to show their presence.

More police to patrol at jazz series - Rocky Mountain News, 6/13/07: "Denver resident Dana Alexander has crossed the City Park Jazz series off his family’s calendar this year. ...

During the first two weekends this month, gang activity tarnished the popular jazz series, a normally peaceful and family-friendly event."

Colorado Music Scene History

Right now is probably the best time ever in the history of Denver rock. There are a ton of great local bands on the scene. And the major label success of The Fray has finally gotten the labels (what is left of them) to actively look at Denver bands to sign.

This is a look at Colorado music from about 1980 to 2000. It's not comprehesive (because no person could have been everywhere and involved with every band), but it's one man's look

The Colorado Music Scene - History

America's 40 Best Music Venues

Paste Magazine :: Feature :: America's 40 Best Music Venues: "Sometimes it’s the view—you’re at Denver’s Red Rocks, your eyes darting back and forth from the band to the landscape, and the music seems changed by the surrounding beauty. Sometimes it’s the history—a young band, onstage at The Fillmore, stands on the shoulders of the giants whose music helped reshape the world. Sometimes it’s the sense of discovery—you’re at L.A.’s Hotel Cafe, and you suspect the night’s opening act is headed for stardom. And sometimes, like with The Bowery Ballroom in New York, it’s simply the fact that on any given night, you know they’ve booked another great show.

To help find America’s best music venues, we went to the experts—you. In addition to our many contributors scattered across the country and many of the artists driving from club to club, Paste readers nominated more than 500 different venues at PasteMagazine.com—from hole-in-the-wall rock clubs to elegant theaters, legendary halls to brand new bars, quiet listening rooms to rock extravaganzas.

We weighed history, setting, sound, character, comfort, atmosphere, vibrancy, uniqueness, and their roles in helping launch careers. Among hundreds of worthy choices, these 40 venues rose above their peers. Our picks for the best music venues in America follow in this special section..."

Creating IPod Tours of Your Music Scene

Here's a site that makes available audio tours via iPods. Some people sell them, others give them away for free. I don't see a lot being done with music yet, it would be make sense. Combine a tour of local venues with music from local bands that play there frequently. Find interesting little facts about the venues that would appeal to tourists and locals who want to know more.

Denver would be a perfect location because some of our hippest venues are in colorful parts of town and have long histories as converted bars, failed past music experiments, etc. For example, the Family Dog, which existed briefly in the 1960s and featured the Doors, Janis Joplin, and the like, is now a strip club.

And Denver, famous for "On the Road," is intrinsically colorful anyway.

AudioSnacks.com: Podcast and MP3 Audio Tours for Travel, Museums, and More!

Using music on Second Life to promote tourism

This article mentions concerts being conducted at a Second Life site as a way to promote tourism at a real world location.

Lst night three Denver bands played a concert which was simultaneously broadcast live on Second Life and on ManiaTV. I didn't have a chance to watch, though.

Galveston Daily News, 5/13/07 - Site breathes 'Second Life' into isle tourism: "[Galveston.com co-founder Jim] Cordell’s private company has a contract with the Galveston Park Board of Trustees to promote the island through its official Web site, which the company owns and manages. The park board helps pay for advertising on Google but does not otherwise fund the company’s activities, Cordell said....

Cordell quickly learned that joining a virtual world costs real money, lots of it.

His company has spent almost $16,000 so far buying virtual land and paying a designer to re-create the island. Another $1,600 goes for monthly expenses related to Second Life.

Most of the money — $10,000 — has gone to Adam Gillis, a programmer from Nova Scotia, Canada, who has re-created many of Galveston’s treasured landmarks without ever seeing them in real life.

'The entire process was based on photos, photographic replicas for the most part,' Gillis said. 'I can pretty much build anything as long as I have dedicated photos that show the buildings from a good number of angles.' ...

'We are reaching an audience that wouldn’t come to us otherwise,' Cordell said. 'A lot of people don’t even know the real Galveston exists, until they visit us in Second Life. The whole idea is to get people to come here.'

Revitalizing Denver's "Harlem"

A new theater is opening in what was once Denver's center for black culture. Now the neighborhood is a mixture of 25% black, 43% Latino, and 27% white, so this theater plans to draw upon its neighborhood history but also expand to showcase a variety of cultural influences.

5/10/07, The Denver Post - New theater opening in Five Points neighborhood: "The Denver neighborhood once called "the Harlem of the West" is enjoying a cultural renaissance of its own these days....

Another person who sees the upside on the cultural front is Denver lawyer Kurt Lewis, who sold his house to open a new live theater, Crossroads at Five Points Theatre....

Five Points developer James Ellis is one of his biggest fans.

'One of the things we really like about Crossroads is that there are no boundaries, and that is implied by the name,' said Ellis, who plans to restore the facade of the historic Rossonian Hotel next door and reopen it as a live jazz venue with an upscale restaurant by summer 2008....

Five Points once boasted more than 50 jazz clubs and earned the city's first-ever designation as a neighborhood of 'cultural significance,' Ellis said. It was not only a favorite destination for such legends as Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Dinah Washington and Billie Holiday, it was a respite from the racism that pervaded just 10 blocks to the south....

And now Lewis, a white man, has leveraged his future to build an 84-seat, $450,000 theater in a building owned by a black man.

Everyone involved with Crossroads believes the theater, and the neighborhood, can best survive into the future if it celebrates its cultural past while also welcoming, even encouraging, all those who dared not go there before. That means celebrating diversity in a rainbow of colors.

That's one reason Lewis' 3,600-square-foot theater is opening with an Irish play. 'Bold Girls' will be followed by a one-woman jazz musical, and the world premiere of 'The Sisters, Sweetwater,' the story of two black women in the 1920s written by Hugo Jon Sayles of Shadow, Denver's only black theater company.

But Lewis envisions a melting- pot community resource open all day every day for classes, jazz, cabaret, poetry, fashion shows and even weekly 'open- mic dance.' Theater performances will start no later than 7 p.m., followed by late-night spoken- word artists Café Nuba and late- late-night screenings of the cult film 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show.'

Allowing many visions

'Denver doesn't really have a place that embraces the creative class, and it doesn't have a place that celebrates ethnicity,' Ellis said. 'Crossroads is a place that plans to do that and then some.'

Crossroads board member donnie l. betts said the theater will be unique because it seeks a convergence of creative cultures with differing values."

One of Denver's legendary music dive bars

Here's a good profile of Cricket on the Hill in Denver. It's one of those rough-and-tumble neighborhood bars that has attracted its share of "street life" tales, but through it all, it keeps going as a music venue. I'm not sure if Kerouac actually did ever go there, but it is easy to imagine him having spent time in a place like this.

The Denver Messageboard: "Dates and heresay about Kerouac and Ginsberg and Dylan and Hendrix and Judy Collins and Clapton hanging out, here, have been withheld to make a point. I could've killed myself researching such- and I started to- but once my sources proved to be exclusive- and largely irrelevant, upon meeting 'The Man'- I decided to skip all of that."

Denver indie labels

Denver has seen an explosion of talented indie bands in recent years and this article mentions some of the local labels working with them

The Denver Post - Local bands in tune with indie spirit

How to turn a working man's bar into a long-standing music venue

Denver's Herman's Hideaway is something of a Denver music scene institution. Big Head Todd used to be regulars. The Dave Matthews Band has played there. Here's a bit of history. An interview with Mike Roth.

Herman's Hideaway "My father, Allan, owns it now. My grandfather bought the place in '62, and it was called Cunningham's Lounge. It used to be a steak and lobster place, and a lot of the old-school, professional boxers used to hang out down here. Denver, back in the '60s, had a lot of professional boxers. ...

There used to be pictures of boxers all over the walls. Then, my grandpa turned it into more of a shot-and-a-beer joint. We had Gates rubber company and Samsonite, all right down the street on Broadway and I-25. They had shifts of workers, that would work 24 hours a day. What they would do, when they'd get off their shift- whether it was seven o'clock in the morning, three in the afternoon or nine in the evening- they'd come down here, and get drinks and shots, and run kind of "tabs", all week long. Then, they'd come down here, and my grandfather would cash their paychecks for a small charge, pay off their bills. That's how it ran from '62 to '82. It was that kind of place.

In '82, I was four years old. My father came in, as a booking agent up in Boulder and around the country, helping bands tour through and around. He came in in '82, and turned it into a live music venue. He ran it for like a year, but my grandpa didn't like the way it was going, so he pulled the plug on him.

... Didn't like the way it was going. But my father convinced him to give him another shot, and it just took off after that. Then, my father remodeled the place three times between '82 and '94. There were expansions. Three expansions."

Colorado has a new song

Colorado now has a second official song, "Rocky Mountain High," by John Denver.

I've never been a huge John Denver fan (though I really liked Peter, Paul, and Mary's vesion of "Leaving on a Jet Plane"). Mainly I didn't like the fact that he co-opted the state's image for commercial purposes.

Still, reading the lyrics of the song, and occasionally hearing it on the radio, I have to admit it is very appropriate. It does capture the essence of what many of us feel for the state. Outdoors, mountains, love of life, etc.

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Think: Local, Local, Local

This blog is all about developing local music scenes. Noise:Floor is a multi-media concept about local music.

This blurb also talks about the future of local media.

Let me take this a step further. Local media needs to highlight their local talent as much or more than they do national/international talent.

It has been happening here in the Denver metro area. There is an unprecedented amount of coverage of local music.

And it is warranted. There's an explosion of local talent.

But there's still a bias toward bands that are going to break away from the local scene and make an impact nationally or internationally. There's more buzz about the bands that are being checked out by major labels and about bands being invited to the most prestigious festivals.

Perhaps a true local focus will equally tout talented bands that have no interest in leaving the area.

The Consolidation of Local Media - SeekingAlpha: "None other than The Kraft Group and Pallotta's The Raptor Fund have ponied up $20 million of investment capital in Plum TV, the network of local stations in high-powered markets like The Hamptons, Martha's Vineyard, Aspen and Vail -- 6 stations currently, with two more awaiting FCC approval.

"Media powerplayers Robert Pittman [Time Warner's (TWX) AOL] and Tom Freston [Viacom's (VIA) MTV] also led the round. While not yet public, a group this smart must know something. In the end, who really wants the 'pablum' of mass produced media in an age of consumer control and customization [think Starbucks (SBUX) and Apple's (AAPL) iPod, where the consumer controls everything about the end product]. And, who really wants the YouTube antics of candyies dropped in Coke bottles (except for momentary entertainment value and a good chuckle).

"Perhaps the future of media -- and the investment dollars that follow it -- will be refocused on local markets and local communities. Like MTV and Freston's vision earlier, Plum is really about influence, not reach. Do more 'eyeballs' matter? Or do the RIGHT eyeballs matter? Most savvy marketers vote for the latter. So do Kraft, Pallotta, Freston, Pittman.

"Consolidation of local media -- while keeping the local content -- may be what the likes of ClearChannel and others ultimately missed."

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A massive theater project that promotes a sense of community

Late month, the national staging of Suzan-Lori Parks' "365 Days/365 Plays" began. She wrote a play for every day of the year and in 15 different regions around the country 52 different theaters per region will each be staging a week's worth of plays, involving more than 725 groups.

What has developed is both a sense of diversity and community, with ample room for local creativity.

Whether something similar could be done with live music across the country and whether the positive vibes would be the same, I don't know. But it's a thought.

DenverPost.com - 365 Days ... 365 Plays: "The festival's scope is boggling. The array of participants spans New York's Public Theatre to the Denver Center Theatre Company to colleges in England and Australia to the tiny Steel City Theatre Company in Pueblo.

"'But we are trying to dispel the thought that the Public Theatre is somehow doing anything more important than anyone else,' [Bonnie Metzgar, associate artistic director at Denver's Curious Theatre and producer of the 365 Days/365 Plays National Festival] said. 'They are one of 52 theaters in New York, the same as there are 52 in Atlanta and 52 in Colorado.' ...

"'This project does not build community,' Metzgar said, 'it reveals community where it already exists.'

"The plays can be performed in any manner or location the performers see fit. Parks' only stipulations are that they be free and performed in the order written. Some will turn up on sidewalks, in art galleries or in parks for passersby, 'just like they did it in the Middle Ages,' Metzgar said.

"Boulder's Naropa Institute will perform its plays inside a thick square of red yarn placed on a stage; the director will invite audiences to participate in the performance.

"'I can't wait to see what Colorado is going to do,' Parks said. 'I feel like I'll be visiting a lot because you guys are like, 'Woo-hoo, let's get wacky and wild.' It's the Rocky Mountain High, I think.'"

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Create Denver: The building blocks for a creative community

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has been a strong advocate of developing Denver as an arts and culture center. He has made frequent reference to Richard Florida's "Rise of the Creative Class."

I just attended a meeting on Monday in conjunction with the release of "Space Matters: A Report from the Mayor's Task Force on Creative Spaces."

Here are some of my thoughts on the challenges of creating creative spaces for music.

1. With so much of music tied to alcohol venues, it becomes very age-specific. There are relatively few places for all-ages shows. At the same time, some of the clubs are not particularly welcoming of anyone over the age of 30, particularly those with kids and jobs. Families can't bring their children, and the shows start too late for anyone who has to get up for a job or kids.

2. The report addresses zoning and regulations, and how to make it easier for the arts community to develop affordable space. Regulations are a particular problem with club/bar owners. Given that they need to meet more regulations than other types of creative spaces, maybe it would be easier to develop performance spaces than to try to help more club/bar owners to open those types of spaces.

3. The music community is more a collection of sub-communities -- cliques, in some cases -- than an united group. The close ties between some of the indie music bands and their counterparts within the visual arts and film communities reinforces a "hipster image" that discourages participation among a wider demographic. In other words, perceiving themselves as outside the "mainstream," some bands have bonded together with young creatives in other media, which has created an artist "elite" which can be exclusive rather than inclusive. This actually might be very good in terms of marketing Denver to the rest of the world, but can discourage some people from becoming involved.

4. At the same time, much of the music community does not participate in resources even when they are available. Workshops, meetings, community planning programs are often poorly attended by musicians. Progress in the music community is likely to come from a few individuals who take an initiative than from broad committees where everyone is welcome. It is hard for me to imagine any music program that can achieve a buy-in from wide group of musicians. Further compounding the problem is that quality in music varies greatly. Some performers are going to be excluded if activities are meant to promote the best in local talent. So you need to divide music resources between participatory spaces for the hobby musicians (who may never attract audiences but may be strong supporters of the local scene) and performance spaces to showcase the areas best talent (who will attract audiences and attention).

You can find a number of resources and a downloadable report here:

Create Denver: Art & Economic Development - Space Matters: A Report from the Mayor's Task Force on Creative Spaces

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How to attract the hip, the affluent, the well-educated

I moved to Boulder in 1991, so I have been living the lifestyle written about in this New York Times article for more than 15 years. Boulder is all about smart people working and playing hard.

And it has always been this way. People come to Colorado during the boom times: gold and silver in the 1800s; oil and real estate in the 1980s; high tech in the 2000s.

And when the inevitable busts come, people like it here so much they decide to stay, even if they have to switch careers to do so. Denver Mayor Hickenlooper is just such an example. He came to Denver in 1981 as a geologist working for a petroleum company. When the oil bust came, he stayed and started Wynkoop Brewing Company, the first brewpub in the Rocky Mountains. The Wynkoop group grew to eventually include seven Denver restaurants and a brewpub in Colorado Springs. Then in 2003 he became Mayor. (You can read more about it here).

In 1999, I started writing about the Colorado venture capital/high tech/start-up scene for Courtney Pulitzer's CyberScene, ColoradoBiz magazine, and eMileHigh.

One of the founders of eMileHigh was Brad Spirrison. He came out from Chicago to start it and hired me. When the dot-com bust hit Colorado and the money ran out, we folded eMileHigh and he returned to work at the parent company in Chicago.

Still, we always had a vision of mobilizing Colorado's wealthy young entrepreneurs into a lifestyle/cultural/business/political force. Brad called them "the progressive leisure class."

It's happening now. Colorado went Democratic this year in part because young dot-com millionaires funded progressive agendas.

As for lifestyle, the action/winter/outdoor sports part of Colorado has been part of the culture for decades, but the music scene is now exploding as well.

Personally I haven't seen a lot of cross-pollinization between the wealthy young entrepreneurs and the local indie music scene yet (they are more likely to go to SXSW than go to the local clubs), but having a hip local scene is still good to have to draw others to the area.

The next step is to have more money following into the local music scene to support and grow it. The rich Colorado movers-and-shakers who made their money in the 1960s-1980s bought sports teams as hobbies. I'm hoping the rich from the 2000s buy clubs and sponsor bands instead.

Cities Compete in Hipness Battle to Attract Young - New York Times: "Mobile but not flighty, fresh but technologically savvy, 'the young and restless,' as demographers call them, are at their most desirable age, particularly because their chances of relocating drop precipitously when they turn 35. Cities that do not attract them now will be hurting in a decade. ...

"They are people who, demographers say, are likely to choose a location before finding a job. They like downtown living, public transportation and plenty of entertainment options. They view diversity and tolerance as marks of sophistication....

"In addition to Atlanta, the biggest gainers in market share of the young and restless were San Francisco; Denver; Portland; and Austin, Tex. The biggest losers included Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Los Angeles."

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Music festival risk management

Someone in Denver has just floated the idea of staging a destination music and film festival at Red Rocks.

All sorts of questions come to my mind. Has anyone stepped forward to put up money in advance to cover costs and negotiate with artists? Where are all the attendees going to stay? (There are no hotels and few campgrounds nearby.) How will people get back and forth to Red Rocks if they aren't staying within walking distance? (There is no public transportation to Red Rocks.) And so on.

So I decided to look around for some info, starting with festival risk management.

Here's a good list of all the various types of insurance which needs to be in place for a well-run festival.

Backstage: Risk management planning for one of the nation's largest festivals

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More music venues for Denver

Denver/Boulder has always been a great area for live music. While there aren't as many venues or musicians as the "music" cities like Nashville, NYC, LA, or Austin, the clubs here usually have good turnouts and musicians can actually make money playing gigs.

This article below indicates that even more music venues are coming.

DenverPost.com - Concert giant in need of a venue: "The Anschutz Entertainment Group is looking to build a new 2,500 to 6,000 capacity live-music venue in Denver as it tries to gain a larger share of the area's market, industry insiders said Tuesday....

"While acknowledging the glut of concert space in the metro area, legendary former concert promoter Barry Fey said it would make sense for AEG to build its own concert hall.

"'In this town now, you need your own space,' said Fey, pointing to Live Nation's contracts with the Paramount Theatre and the Pepsi Center, and its ownership of the Fillmore Auditorium....

"'Denver has had more growth in venue size in the last 20 years than any other major market,' [Dan Steinberg, founder of Seattle's Square Peg Concerts] said."

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