Behind the Music

Philly's rock bookers find new ways and means to set the stage.

by A.D. Amorosi

HOME TO ROOST: Rich Wexler, who now books the Green Line Café exclusively, subscribes to the motto: "bringing bands out of total obscurity into average obscurity." (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

With a summer's worth of shows looming on the horizon, it's time we look beyond the bands, the labels and the blogs to find the thing that truly fuels the boys and girls onstage.

Not Oxycontin. Not Red Bull and Patrón. Not those Synsepalum dulcificum berries that make everything sensational.

Booking agents make the music run. (Them and maybe just a few berries.)

That this season includes some new friends in old places and old friends in new places or just new places to begin with is just part of the fun. The main thing is that everyone in the game seems to be at the top of their game.

Old dogs, at present, have a few slick tricks up their sleeve.

For AEG Live's Jon Hampton, spring 2008 finds his employers buying the keys to the Keswick Theatre in Glenside for a cool $2 million plus, booking the All Points West Festival in Jersey City with Radiohead Aug. 8-10, and showcasing Wu Tang Clan and every solo permutation they could ever have — including RZA July 7 at the Trocadero.

At Live Nation Philadelphia, not only has Electric Factory lightning rod Larry Magid dropped the Fillmore name from the TLA. Magid's dropped "president" from his title, given it to Jay-Z's best bud, Geoff Gordon, and become LNP's chairman. With Gordon at its helm, EFC/Live Nation has grown a rock-n-hip-hop market at the Borgata and turned the Jambalaya Jam into something weird (Jams on the River starring Flaming Lips and company). Gordon's also created cool boutique festivals like last Saturday's Roots Picnic and the entirety of Paul Green School of Rock's 10th anniversary weekend (June 27-29) with Butthole Surfers and DEVO, and smaller, substantive festivals pertinent to particular crowds.

At Sean Agnew's R5 Productions, the company has gone full circle. "Literally, in that I just moved home and office to West Philly at 39th and Lancaster right next to where we started at Stalag 13," says Agnew. Along with doing small, free R5-office shows — quiet, mostly acoustic or minimal electronic stuff — Agnew is looking forward to doing more gigs at Johnny Brenda's as well as all-ages concerts and 21-plus party stuff at the Barbary. "It's going to really take off once the upstairs bar there opens," says Agnew of the Barbary. With longtime R5 employee Steven James now a show-running manager, Agnew has time to consider booking new venues in Fishtown, and bring what he calls "a bunch of new composers, both electronic and classical, to Philadelphia."

"The idea is to try and start a separate side organization and get some arts/cultural funding in 2009." Oh, and he wants to send American bands to Dubai as part of some yet-unnamed cultural exchange program.

Then there's a few faces with new booking gigs closer to home.

Joe Lekkas started booking shows in 2001 at LaTazza 108, Doc Watson's and the M Room. Three years ago he began working for Heyday Productions, booking bands at the Khyber and North Star. "I never really did many big national bills until I worked for Heyday," says Lekkas. "Now I do. But I always make room for locals." The "now" he's talking about is Village Green Productions. Lekkas, whose company is named after his favorite band's best record (The Kinks' Village Green Preservation Society), dug his pals in Heyday nearly as much as he digs Ray Davies (the Khyber is booked by Justin Coen, with the North Star being maintained by Andrew Miller) but felt it was time to go out on his own. "There are more people out at shows with more clubs to have them — why not?" says Lekkas. "Plus, bookers seem to have better relationships with each other than in the past. Maybe I'm a crazy optimist, but I like how things have become, in what has classically been a cutthroat booking town." He'll find out how nice everyone in the local booking scene is now that he's done his first gig at Fishtown's 941 Theater with World Café Live, Johnny Brenda's and M Room to follow. While we know he's an indie-everything sorta guy, we just found out what Lekkas doesn't want. "If a band that sounds like Puddle of Mudd is looking to play for Village Green, they're not paying attention to our calendar."

Are there bands like Puddle of Mudd left?

When Frank "Hank the Drag Queen" Henry and Heshey Schlachterman bought the South Street Pontiac Grille location that used to be called J.C. Dobbs — a legendary rock venue that hosted Nirvana, George Thorogood and Pearl Jam before the big leagues — they brought in Marilou Regan. She's the writer and editor of Rolling Stones book Love You Live, onetime president of the Stones' fan club, Navy Yard Web site content provider, yoga instructor and the self-professed groupie they hired to be the new Dobbs entertainment director. Why her? "Because out of the groupie-ness I became a rock professional," she laughs. "I think it's a natural progression. And like the guys who own this and the team of bookers under me, we share a zest for the zeitgeist that is Philly rock 'n' roll." The difference here is that Regan means down and dirty, balls-to the-wall rock. And she's got bookers Eric Walsh (ex-House of Blues punk booker,) Steve Gusky (of Biker Room metal fame) and Candace Kilstein (she did Redrum glam rock nights throughout Philly) to prove as much. "I think what we're doing is bigger than us — something that'll re-create the past, maybe a feeling — but put a new perspective on what rock 'n' roll means here." June 25 is when the new Dobbs shows its stuff first as an all-ages showcase with TV Sound and Prima Donnaz.

Hot Hands Studio: $50 for $25 Massage, Skin Care & Body Treatments | Curves | Cafe Nola | Paddy Whacks Irish Sports Pub: Plastic Debit Cards | Philadelphia Orchestra: Four Tickets for April 8, 2010 | Philadelphia Orchestra: Four Tickets for June 3, 2010 | Skirmish Paintball | Swanky Bubbles | Gillian's ticket | Mango Moon

HALF OFF DEPOT

Why live life at full price?

The Sherman Arts events provider has done gigs at Tritone, Marbar, Dahlak and every house in West Philly since 1998. "I wanted to create a community of artists and musicians after a friend, an amazing artist/dancer, died of a strange stomach ailment," says Wexler. "I still believe if she had insurance, or was surrounded by a more supportive environment, she may be alive today." Wexler's communal events have always been a mix of the holy, the curative, the loving and the goofy. He's a mix of Kermit the Frog and Broadway Danny Rose. But after a Night of Math Rock at the Rotunda (June 14) with Pattern is Movement and a last event at the Balcony's Monday Night Club (TBD), Wexler's walking the Green Line. He's been doing this for some time, going Green. But now he's bringing his motto — "Sherman Arts: bringing bands out of total obscurity into average obscurity" — and his showcases of avant-garde acoustic psychedelia, electronica and tiny rock into the new Green Line space at 45th and Locust only. "I just mostly wanted a home base. It was great doing many shows in many spaces, but it felt sometimes disconnected. Eight years of going place to place takes its toll." Along with gigs from Birdie Busch, Chapin Sisters, Fern Knight and events thrown by Gregg Mervine of West Philadelphia Orchestra (for jazz booking) and Nick Millevoi from Circles (putting on a monthly experimental rock show), being at one place will give Wexler a chance to think. "I can ruminate about my dreams, my aspirations, and how if I could just afford that boob job, my entire life would make much more sense."

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)