Fresno Famous

Music Promotion

It's safe to say that no one is losing money. The promoter, the venues and the bands must all be benefiting financially or it wouldn't be happening.

As much as I am not a fan of River Park I think the concept of having bands play at venues that are likely to draw people, no matter who is playing, makes sense. Andy mentioned the Coach House in his post above and it is a good example of a cool place to hang out. I've been to many shows at the Belly Up Tavern in Northern San Diego County. On any given night, especially weekends, half the people there have never heard the band prior to paying there $10+ dollars at the door. It was a fun place to hang out so people just showed up.

I don't know the first thing about promoting live music, I wish that I did. There are bands I'd like to see in Fresno that I'd be willing to front money to get here.

location, location, loqution

I think if a well run venue
(IE: Good stage, Good greenroom, Good Audience space, Good sound, Reasonable chow, Reasonable size,
--and a venue owner/renter that does not have to pay an arm and a leg for (said) venue --was in operation up near Riverpark?

With proper promotion, the shows would sell very well.

There are plenty of HS, College Aged, and Post College/College-Workies that would 'risk,' even an unknown band, -if it was close-by.

What scares a lot of folks away from a lot of the current venues is that the average Fresnan thinks Tower and Downtown are scarey and out of the way, --and (in truth,) to somebody who lives up around Hearndon and North, it IS another world.

Though it's more 'mystique' than reality,
-Riverpark frightens no-one, and something up closer to the NE
-even a smaller venue,
---with good acts and proper promotion,
--could probably outsell Howies.

Considering Fresno shows for most acts from outside the area have been 'swing-by, do a gig at Fresno,' while either playing SF or LA shows, --there is no reason why some of the same acts pulling in down at Howies would not play up here,
---but the shows have to be well run in venues that are comfortable, affordable, and well promoted.

(I'm sure part of the Howies magic is the venue, the food, and the relationship cultivated between the town, the pizza joint, and the 'regulars,' --and that a band knows that they're tapping into a steady, nice, local 'indie,' crowd. ----who doesn't love that? (viva Howies)

IN Fresburgh?

-Thousands showed up for 'Plain White T's' at a Wall-Mart up here on Bullard (which, though I never heard of 'em, I guess other folks did... --and even though the show was 'free,' --a decent ticket rate would not scare those folks away. (The show was not even promoted that severely, it was largely word of mouth.)

-and Hundreds showed up for 'Scarey Kids Scaring Kids,' (a band I've seriiously NEVER heard of, and is (I'm guessing,) not at all mainstream, but niche market
--and that show packed a venue that was obviously pooly run -for a show that was a disaster in terms of crowd handling.
(Had the guard not peppered the crowd? the general public still never have heard of the band, the show, nor the venue, ---yet hundreds were there and money was made.)

-(Which: --if somebody wanted to play their cards right?
A decent venue/operation could swoop that crowd right away from THAT venue, if somebody struck while the iron was hot.)

A venue in 'the Riverpark area' would work.

I think

I think the discussion here needs to address an important reality: economics. Someone has to pay the bands upfront. Who is making this happen financially? Is Gomes operating independently or is Howie's hiring him to bring in bands?

Gomes, although I'm sure he's a great dude, can't bring in these bands by mere philanthropy and goodwill, even though I'm sure his contacts and reputation help him get bands to play. But bands don't play for free. Even the crappy ones only a few people care about want to get paid.

Howie's must see that they have a steady group of bored high schoolers that will show up regularly and more than make up for the artist fees in pizzas sold. Even if you get 100 kids paying $5 at the door, that's still only $500 to split up among the band if operating only on ticket sales. So I have to assume Howie's is giving Gomes a budget to work with and some sort of salary for his services.

So Howie's needs to be credited for valuing live entertainment at their place. And it's not just philanthropy on their part, either. They are taking advantage of the situation, which seems to not exist (or not be exploited properly) in Fresno.

Put a similar place in Riverpark (away from where the older people shop) with a nice stage and refreshments and maybe it would work here. Lame according to local artists, I know, but maybe more realistic than expecting big turnouts at the more remote parts of town where older, busier people go less frequently.

You can't really blame the Fresno venues for not having a steady clientele. The town is too big with too many other entertainment options and the demand just isn't there for this post-college hipster stuff, from what I've seen.

Fresno Music Scene

Great article Mike. Now that I know what is going on maybe I will stop screaming every weekend when I read about who is playing in Visalia.

I really don't think it's about the venue. If we could get Aaron Gomes to move to Fresno or find a way to clone him, I think the bands would follow. I had long hoped that Frank D would step up to fill the promotion void but that was a dream that didn't come true.

I often hear people say that Fresno doesn't support the local music scene. I'm sorry to say that I'm one of those people. All the shows I want to go to are in Visalia.

VISALIA gets KIMYA DAWSON (JUNO soundtrack artist!)

Doodes,

I heard those crazy Visalia guys just landed...

KIMYA DAWSON
(from the Moldy Peaches, and featured on over half of the Juno soundtrack)!

The Rhino soundtrack to "Juno" becomes the label's first No. 1 album on The Billboard 200, moving up 2-1 with a 13% increase to 65,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's the first film soundtrack to top the chart since last year's "Dreamgirls" and the first from an Academy Award best picture nominee since "Titanic"reached the summit on Jan. 24, 1998.

show details:

Sat., April 26, 2008
KIMYA DAWSON
(from the Moldy Peaches, and featured on over half of the Juno soundtrack)
Angelo Spencer
L'Orchidee D'Hawai (of France)
El Olio Wolof
@ Howie & Son's Pizza
$10 All Ages (9:00pm)

I'm going to www.soundnvisionmag.com to see if it is true!

Casablanca

The venue was OK -- but that place never really met its potential because there was never a promoter who was on point.

Again, it's about a good promoter with connections making the best of venues. We've often had one or the other, but hardly both.

Casablanca was perfect

Too bad Casablanca was torn down. That was a great place to catch those "in between" bands. The set up was like this: The stage was at the back of the room with a divider right down the middle. Under 21 to the left (mostly an open floor for moshing) and over 21 to the right, which also had tall tables with stools and a full bar. There was also a large open area for skanking. I saw 3 shows there. They were all Rock En Espanol bands like Molotov, Maldita Vecindad, Los Enanitos Verdes, etc. Good shows, good vibe. Almost like the Rainbow Ballroom, but newer.
The reason Tower and Warnor's don't open up for club type concerts is because a lot of damage is caused at concerts. These are old venues and sadly, they are too fragile to support a mosh pit. My brother used to work at the Wilson before the church bought it He and Pat spent the days between shows repairing ripped seats, cleaning graffiti, fixing cigarette burns and re-attaching broken door handles, towel dispensers, toilet paper dispensers, etc. The Wilson had some great shows though!

There have been some OK shows there ...

But it's generally the same promoters who do stuff at The Exit. And it's not that greater of a venue. It's just like a ballroom, not a music club.

We can't really try to compare places based on their similarity to Howie's, because it's not like that venue is anything special on its own. It's the people who make it great.

What About Star Palace

The Warnor's Star palace seems the correct size and layout to compete with Visalia's Pizza Parlor. A floor , decent stage. I remember it being a good place to see a concert.

Mike

You know how it's a small world and all. Liz shared your write up with another journalist in Visalia. Apparently, Visalia hasn't even recognized Mr. Gomes for what he's done for that town. Props to Mike.

We do have local promoters, but I think perhaps Mr. Contreras sheds light on things.

Diablo

I'm playing Cellar Door next weekend, ...aaron has been great

For those of you that don't know, I'm headlining The Cellar Door next Saturday. I've been working with Aaron Gomes for the past month and a half or so prepping for our gig next saturday march 1. I think alot of the success has to do with the way Aaron treats the musicians he brings in. I can only speak from personal experience, but I don't think I've met a more 'friendly' and 'down to earth' type of a promoter in the valley quite like aaron. I know he's got a crapload of shows, and many bigger than mine..but he still takes the time to answer every question i have and make sure i feel confident. And a big plus is that his company Sound and Vision is doing almost all the promotion (minus myspace), which is a big stress of my back. Also, Visalia is just such a cool enviroment...the downtown is just fun, you can walk from place to place..and LIVE music is everywhere....the coffee shop has acoustic indie music going on...cellar door has a mix of everything...crawdaddy's usually has a band to dance to...brewbakers usually has some great jazz.....heck ..visalia even hires bands just to play on the sidewalk.... All this makes for an enviroment worth coming to, even if your band is halfway across the country. one other thing about visalia, is that it does seem easier to draw people out....it seems that people in general in visalia just like to get out and see live music. 'sometimes' in fresno it feels like people would rather pay 11 dollars to see a movie or 8 dollars on a fancy martini than pay that same price to listen to live music.

Big Game

And it was The Belmont in between.
They do good stuff over there sometimes.

Thanks

Last I went I think it was called the game room or something like that. Saw My Ruin and Killswitch Engage

Diablo

The Exit

aka the place next to Richard's. Schedule here:
http://www.myspace.com/theexitpresents

Yep, promoters

those are the guys that need to make circles around all the venues in town.

Rainbow, I wish they would keep a website up to date on their schedule. Same for the place next to Richards.

Bands like Static X, SlipKnot and Lamb of God have played the Rainbow, and those are bands that know what a big venue is like. I have seen Video of Slipknot in England, literally a sea of people, complete with waves, at those places. Yet they come here to play at the Rainbow.

A merriment of Venues and Promoters needs to be made it seems. They all need to be friends and realize they are all after the same thing, and not be stuck up with each other.

Diablo

I think we need the venues

I think we need the venues first. Theaters with seats aren't good for the types of shows we should be getting here. We need a House of Blues-style venue.

As far as why Fresno vs. Visalia: It's mostly the promoter and his relationships. At this point, though, as I talk about in the article, Visalia has the reputation that people want to play there. Fresno can't just go and try to lure these bands here.

We Need Them To Scale Down Here

We need those bands to scale down here or get Warnors or Tower to start booking these types of bands. Even The Memorial Auditorium would work. Is it more the venue or the promoter that is the weak link in Fresno?

Good point, Andy...

That's why we need a good mid-sized venue in this town. None of the theaters are really doing it. Rainbow brings those types of shows sometimes, not with any regular frequency.

However, it's worth noting that a lot of bands that are out in Visalia (Pinback, Cursive, etc.) are playing much bigger venues in other cities, more like what you're describing. Visalia's charm is enough for some of them to scale down.

How about the Bands that Are a Step Up

I can remember when Warnors and some smaller clubs would bring in bands that were on the way up but were still a year or so away from nation wide fame. I will be dating myself but bands like REM, Replacements, Bangles, Meat Puppets. It seems we get today's equivalent bands now only as part of opening up for a bigger group at Save Mart. There seems to still be a niche market for the in between bands: Too big for Visalia's Pizza parlor but not big enough for Save Mart. Hanford's FOX Theater gets some bands as well as the Indian Casino's but these tend to be already peaked or declining in popularity but have a cult following.
It would be great for Fresno to get some combination of the old Warnor's type bands and Hanford's FOX theater groups. I am thinking the type of clubs like The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano http://www.thecoachhouse.com/

Thanks for the link, Whitewater...

I've marveled at what they do in Visalia for a while, but that's not a slight to Fresno. Fresno is just too big to unify in the way that has made Visalia successful. The individual scenes do well for themselves (be it indie at Tokyo, the kids who go to The Exit, the Starline folks, the blues people at Crossroads), but there's not really an all-together charge.

In my experience, it seems that most of these scenes are oblivious to what other people in this town are doing.

In Visalia, it's a different story.