The Biz

You thought all that was left of New York’s legendary rock club CBGB were some tourist T-shirts sold on St. Marks Place and Canal Street in Chinatown? Think again — the legendary dive bar brand that incubated artists like Television, Talking Heads, The Ramones, Blondie, Sonic Youth and Patti Smith is coming back. In the process, it reminds us that the club brands of the 1970s and 1980s remain a potent force in live music, as the industry sees shrinkage in arena gigs and small rooms once again become ascendant.

The down-easter phrase, “You can’t get there from here,” is a familiar one to anyone who’s ever asked for directions on a back road in Maine. Unfortunately, it’s becoming more recognizable to touring music artists as well, in recent years, and it’s not exactly music to their ears.

Branson, Missouri has been a musician’s punch line long enough. Long considered music’s equivalent of an elephant’s graveyard (and the actual home of The Beverly Hillbillies’ Clampett clan), this Ozark town is actually an entertainment destination that many in the live concert and event business would envy. The town is hardly huge — it’s barely 21 square miles with a population of 10,500, yet it welcomes more than 8 million visitors a year — some 80 percent of whom come for the shows at Branson’s 50 theaters with 64,000-plus seats — more than you’d find on Broadway. The city was formally incorporated in 1912, so it’s fitting that for Branson’s 100th anniversary, we take a look at what makes this town such a draw for live sound.

The live-sound mix console business is in play. The number of new desks is on the rise, and digital technology is leveling the landscape for deals. Consider the DiGiCo SD series consoles used at the world’s biggest televised audio party, the Grammy Awards, held Feb. 12 in Staples Center. The crew used a 256-input DiGiCo SD7 console at FOH and two 96-input DiGiCo SD10s at monitors, with a third 96-channel SD10 used for the production mix. These replaced Yamaha PM1D consoles, which had been used on the show for the last nine years.

The Winter NAMM Show is all about guitars, drums and Spandex, right? At its core it is a musical instrument trade show — MI, in the parlance of that trade — but over the last few years its pro audio aspect has grown considerably. That component was up 4.4 percent over last year, NAMM’s Scott Robertson estimated, in a conversation in the show’s crowded press room, halfway through the show. And this year, much of that can be attributed to a considerably larger footprint for live sound.

The new Austin City Limits venue suggests how live and broadcast sound can coexist

It’s been nearly 40 years since Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert first intimated that the best seat in the house might be in your living room. If residential subwoofers had been common in the 1970s, watching live music at home might be more widely-embraced. As it is, beyond the Palladia network, live music on television hasn’t become as ingrained as it might have been.

Finding that next (or even first) gig is still a matter of persistence

It’s January, the quiet season for touring — unless your work for the rest of the year isn’t firmed up yet. If that’s the case, this needs to be the busiest part of the year.

The 1970s were the golden era of the mid-sized music venue. From Max’s Kansas City, CBGB and the Bottom Line in New York to the Troubadour in L.A., a fire code of 500 to 1,500 people seemed like just the right size for rock ‘n’ roll. The larger theaters, like the Fillmores and the Beacon, were waiting to take touring acts to the next level, but the middle tier was the night-to-night Petri dish for the era’s music, a place for artists to develop and let fans watch them do it.

Back in July, this column underscored how UK Music, the British non-profit trade and lobbying organization, has been helping that country's live music industry, both by quantifying it and through legislative advocacy. For instance, this year, a UK Music survey found that large-scale live music events, such as festivals, are contributing over £1.4 billion a year – that's nearly $2.2 billion – to the U.K. economy from all sources, including ticket sales and travel to the event locations.

Doug Kocsis, president of leasing firm DK Capital in Okemos, MI, had just about nailed down another deal, this one for a PA system for a regional production company. Then he got a call from the lessee. "He called to tell me that the Missouri River was rising," says Kocsis. "That was going to result in cancelled gigs, so he cancelled the purchase."