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San Diego’s live-music scene is packing them in, at venues small and large
IT’S A TROPICAL FRIDAY NIGHT at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach. But the Drive By Truckers’ lead singer, Patterson Hood, is leaping around on stage trying his damnedest to drag the capacity crowd back east to the Truckers’ home base of Athens, Georgia. He’s growling lyrics of southern-fried exhilaration and regret, backed by the wail of a trio of guitars that sounds like an ’85 Chevy van about to throw a rod.
The Truckers have a track record at the 600-person-capacity Belly Up, having sold out shows on previous tours here and at the other Belly Up in Aspen. But you can also catch their act in your living room on You Tube. In fact, even as digital entertainment becomes more individualized — and the concert-going demographic gets older and less likely to leave their electronic cocoons — live music is undergoing something of a renaissance.
We want to discover — or rediscover — what live feels like.
San Diegans have an impressive choice of seats for this revival, from the sprawling 17,000-seat Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre, San Diego State University’s Cox Arena and the neighboring Open Air Amphitheatre, University of California–San Diego’s RIMAC Auditorium and old concert standbys such as the Sports Arena to more-intimate scenes such as the House of Blues, the Belly Up and Anthology, which feature restaurant seating and a full dinner menu. Regional nonprofits such as the Poway Center for the Performing Arts have taken notice, booking appearances by baby-boomer acts such as Judy Collins, whose careers have been revived by public television.
To be sure, navigating the post–compact disc world requires acts and promoters to work harder for an uncertain payout. Gone are the days when a major label could land an artist’s disc in thousands of Tower Music outlets, with cross-promotion support from radio. Paul McCartney now records for Starbucks.
The rock armies that once swept unchallenged across the media landscape have been miniaturized into thousands of tribes. Without major-label support, recording acts are almost totally dependent on touring revenue and must tour constantly to keep their faces in front of fickle audiences. Lately, rising energy costs have taken a toll on musicians’ ability to tour and fans’ ability to come see them. But some tribes thrive.
“Groups like the Drive By Truckers have a loyal following,” says Eric Milhouse, national talent buyer at the Belly Up. “And a lot of touring artists just want to play here — B.B. King, for example.”
With artists under pressure to make their money on the road, ticket prices have become a concern. The artist wants to avoid leaving money on the table, but tickets must also be priced so as not to scare away music lovers.
Venues won’t talk about artists’ prices, but what goes into the equation is the size of the house, the ticket price and the house’s expenses for audiovisual tech, security and other personnel. It’s not rocket science. Multiplying the size of the crowd times the ticket price produces the gate, and really hot bands have been known to command the entire gate. A band’s demands can be blunted by its desire to return to the venue, taking into account that the venue is doing much of the promotion at its own expense.
“Our average ticket is $15 and never higher than $25,” Milhouse says. “All across the board there’s pressure on prices because people are saving for gas, but it’s also a place for people to escape to. If you’re in a money crunch, you can come to the Belly Up and forget about it for a night.”
Because of its reputation among bands and fans, the Belly Up is a favorite stop for “cult” bands with a built-in following — the kind that can fill the Belly Up but not Cox Arena. Devotees of Teenage Fanclub — a British pop rock act without major label support or a hit record, for that matter — have been known to follow the band around from town to town.
“There are fans of groups who will come out for every single show,” Milhouse says. “Take Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers; they’re from Phoenix, and their fans drive in from Arizona every time they play here.”
NICK MASTERS is president of Live Nation Southern California, which operates both Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre and the House of Blues. With some 30 years in the music business, he seems unfazed by cycles, technology, prices and the lack of new big-name acts.
“Something I’ve learned over the years is that it doesn’t take a lot of hot new acts,” Masters says. He points to ’06 when McCartney, Madonna, the Rolling Stones and U2 were touring more or less simultaneously. “All the other shows that year did better, because there’s a concert frame of mind that people get into and they’re more aware of what’s going on, so they’re paying a little more attention.”
This year, the concert season is being boosted by tours of The Police, Coldplay, Madonna and teen sensation the Jonas Brothers. “They’re for a younger crowd,” Masters says, “but last year they were opening for Miley Cyrus, and this year they’ve sold out their Irvine show on their own Web site — 16,000 tickets, between $25 and $65.” Look for the Jonas Brothers in San Diego this fall.
Given the music-happy audience and the large college population here, why do some acts skip San Diego? “There are some artists who give us a time frame in which they can work. Some will do only 15 to 20 dates, and so they’ll do two in L.A. and skip San Diego,” Masters says. “But Madonna is close to sold out for Petco. And we took Van Halen to Cox Arena at Christmas and sold out in three minutes.”
Nonprofit regional arts centers like the Poway Center for the Performing Arts are also drawing name artists in addition to the usual dance troupes and theater productions. In October, the 800-seat Poway Center will bring in Kris Kristofferson (“Me and Bobby McGee”), underwritten by a $10,000 gift from Suzanne Kropf, a local real estate agent.
“He was supposed to kick off the season, but now we’re kicking off with Judy Collins and Leo Kottke in September,” says Henry Korn, director and CEO of the Poway Center for the Performing Arts Foundation.
The Collins show is being underwritten by a grant from AEG Live. Korn says it’s a first-of-its-kind partnership for the Poway Center and AEG, which was looking for a “more intimate setting” for Collins, a former folkie turned singer of torch songs, and guitar whiz Kottke. “We wouldn’t be able to afford this kind of show without the partnership with AEG,” Korn says. “We’re hoping the arrangement will continue, and as shows become available they will let us know if it fits our ‘intelligent entertainment’ profile.”
THEN THERE’S JAZZ. Howard Berkson, a local real estate developer, surveyed the landscape and longed for the jazz supper clubs he frequented in his native Chicago. So he invested about $6 million and opened Anthology, on India Street in Little Italy.
“We have people like Wynton Marsalis, who hasn’t played a club for about 20 years, and Pat Metheny,” Berkson says. “A lot of the greats of jazz are hearing about this room and wanting to come play it, so we think we’ve done something special for San Diego.” Though the 400-capacity Anthology opened last year as a jazz-themed club, Berkson says he wants to branch out into other styles of music, and he anticipates future bookings running about 70 percent jazz, 30 percent rock, blues and world music. He says there’s an audience not only for jazz Grammy winners like Chick Corea but also vintage rock acts such as Dave Mason and Steve Winwood.
“We’ve got a great place for adult entertainment where you can be 50 feet from your favorite artist and have a culinary experience in a fine room,” Berkson says.
Though the Internet has drastically changed entertainment, the Belly Up’s Milhouse says live music is here to stay, and fans will find it.
“Sometimes when you are in the live experience, magic will happen,” he says. “The Internet has not been able to make a human connection — it’s connected, but it’s disconnected. When you’re at a live show, you’re building memories instead of watching someone else’s on a screen.”
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