"Because there’s no money in it.” This as a pithy response from Art Shechet, co-owner of Natasha’s Bar & Bistro, when responding to a question about why there are so few tenured music venues in the Lexington area. His tongue, however, was only half in cheek.
The recent loss of local venue The Attic added another name to a long list that includes iconic fallen music marquees such as The Dame, The Wrocklage, and Boot’s Bar. A scant few hardy musical stalwarts have existed for at least a decade, and those ranks haven’t seen increase in years, prompting the question of what makes the Lexington area such infertile soil for music venues, and whether the very nature of music venues by themselves creates such challenges for longevity. When searching for the answer, no better experts can be found than venue owners and operators themselves.
Non-business businesspeople
From the start, a music venue could find an obstacle in the very budding entrepreneur intent on the undertaking.
“There seem to be a group of businesses that attract non-business-minded people,” said Gene Williams, co-owner of Natasha’s. “These businesses are in the arts.”
In William’s view, music venues suffer this particular malady greatly. Music venue owners may enter the business because of an interest in promoting live music and not necessarily to make money. These neophyte entrepreneurs come to a business without a working skill set and the savvy required to handle a multitude of issues involved in operating a live-music establishment.
Too many hats
The successful local venues, Williams argued, are those coupled with another pre-existing business, such as a bar or restaurant.
“There’s not much money or profit from ticket sales alone. Venues are people-generators for bars and restaurants,” said Williams.
It’s this tension of coupling different kinds of businesses together in one that adds another challenge to running a venue.
“It’s a bipolar business,” said Williams. “The concept of a venue is sandwiched with other business models.”
Clark Case, owner of Buster’s Billiards and Backroom, agreed. In addition to the business models of both a venue and a bar, Case also discovered another business model to contend with.
“We were starting two fairly major businesses — venue and promotion,” said Case. “And both are full-time jobs.”
In addition to the standard chores, such as providing sound reinforcement, security, performance rights licensing, box office and more, venues that present live music on their own behalf also have to book and promote the music. Typically, this involves working with national and regional booking agencies, negotiating guarantees (the amount of money a band will definitely receive from the venue, regardless of ticket sales), and building relationships with touring bands.
“There are only a handful of [booking] agencies, and agents are creatures of habit. When they book shows, they look to Louisville and Cincinnati. We’ve had to be patient and develop that relationship,” said Case.
A thinning herd
An even harder relationship to develop, however, is a customer base.
“When you have a restaurant, you have a menu. It may change, but successful restaurants tend to have tighter menus where you know what the style is; a core idea is that you know what you’re going to get,” said Case. “Running a venue isn’t different, but you have to book such a broad range of artists, it’s impossible to have a customer base at our size. It’s hard to keep a fan base satisfied with such a diverse range of music.”
Programming for a customer base is a challenge that small-venue owners like Doug Breeding know all too well. Breeding is the owner of the new Henry Clay’s Public House near Cheapside, but he’s no stranger to venue issues, having owned the popular music night spot Breeding’s from 1981 to 1996.
“You want to keep the doors open, so you need to have a crowd,” said Breeding. “We’d like to have something different [stylistically] every night, but in a town this size, we can’t.”
Instead, Henry Clay’s will program more mainstream fare on bigger weekend nights and have more esoteric styles, such as a recurring Tuesday night electric funk/jazz jam session, during the weeknights.
Harry Sommerville, owner of The Green Lantern, chalks the lack of a motivated customer base partially up to technological advances in entertainment.
“No one is going to come out when it’s more comfortable to stay at home and watch cable,” said Sommerville. “They’d rather play Atari.”
Greg Stigall, owner and operator of the now-defunct The Attic, agreed that it’s hard to attract a crowd whose collective mind might be elsewhere.
“The allure and emotional connection of an intimate local show has been replaced by instant gratification of a search engine and YouTube.”
Stigall was quick to point out that technology isn’t the only scapegoat, however.
“Incredible artists and musicians are readily available, but there is a palpable variety of distractions that keep the crowds occupied with other things to do — Keeneland twice a year, UK football tailgating, UK basketball, Thursday Night Live, and everything else.”
Bring on the noise complaints
So imagine that a venue owner manages to aggregate a business skill set, negotiate several different business models of venue/concessions/promotion, and attract a crowd. Then come the noise complaints.
“Concerts are naturally substantially louder than other forms of entertainment, and while we spent money and time trying to comply [with] the city’s ambiguous standards, we were consistently cited for noise the first two years we were open,” said Mark Evans, production manager of Cosmic Charlie’s.
These citations can lead to hefty fines and can eventually lead to liquor license suspension.
“A few weeks of no alcohol sales can shut down a bar quicker than anything else,” said Evans.
Despite all of these challenges, every venue operator expressed optimism and a desire to see local music venues thrive and find solid footing in Lexington as venue owners become sophisticated in dealing with the challenges the venue brings. Doug Breeding said that a formula for this success isn’t too complex.
“Always keep an ear to the ground and try to stay ahead.”