:: suzanne yada ::

By Suzanne Yada
Editor, Explore Central Valley Downtowns

In a tough economy, live music does not go away – it just plays smarter.

Throwing a concert doesn’t seem like the best thing to do in tight financial times, but live music is one way to give an electrifying jolt to the economy, and downtown areas are a perfect venue, local promoters say.

“When we have a concert, we bring in people from out of town,” says Dan Humason, a promoter at the Hanford Fox Theatre. “At night when downtowns are usually dark, we turn on our neon signs and crank up the theater. It gets new people who’ve never been to downtown.”

Humason says some of his bigger acts, such as George Strait, Wynonna and Gordon Lightfoot, bring in people from all over the state, pumping outside dollars into nearby restaurants and bars before and after the show.

Aaron Gomes, a Visalia promoter, sees the same thing. He frequently books nationally recognized bands that draw in plenty of out-of-towners.

“They’re having dinner, they’re shopping, they’re going out of their way to go to Visalia,” Gomes says. “It really lures people from all over the place, even people from San Diego, and it turns Visalia into a hot spot for music and making it a hip community.”

That reputation, Gomes says, adds tremendous value beyond the immediate financial impact. He’s even seen it reverse some of the “brain drain” – the tendency of college-educated residents to move away from the Central Valley and never look back.

“I personally know about four or five people who moved back to Visalia because of the culture here,” he says. “It’s partly because of [the bands] but partly because the community itself is invested in music and the arts. They’re spending the money to be there, and we’re able to pay for the bigger names because attendance is great.”

Smaller communities tap in

The city of Lindsay is beginning to fully appreciate the value of live music and entertainment. The McDermont Field House, a warehouse-turned-entertainment-complex that is owned and managed by the city, has just begun offering live concerts, including one for Mexican singer Pepe Aguilar on Sept. 13.

“This would be our fourth big concert we’ve had,” says Gary Tomlinson, who handles marketing and promotions for the McDermont Field House. “We’re a relatively new venue but we’re tying to branch out and bring in more acts.”

McDermont Field House’s aim expands far beyond just hosting live music. With everything from laser tag to video games, indoor sports to fitness rooms, the field house has plans for even more attractions. But first, they want to show off what they have to offer.

“Live music and special events are a great way to introduce the facility to the public,” Tomlinson says.

The concerts so far have drawn in people of all ages.

“It’s been a pretty good mix of a crowd,” Tomlinson says. “We’ve had some older folks who were country fans, we had a group from the Naval base out from Lemoore. We want fans of music to come and enjoy, there really is no target demographic.”

Though downtown Lindsay has a Friday farmers’ market with live music through November at the nearby Sweet Brier Plaza, the field house offers a permanent venue that can house bigger acts as well as local ones.

“There is an interest for people to come together and enjoy live local music,” Tomlinson says. “We did have a local band recently, Flight 409, which is more hard rock. We’re going to look to do more with local music.”

In fact, on Sept. 27, the McDermont Field House is hosting a Battle of the Bands, which Tomlinson says is more geared towards the hip-hop crowd.

Live music acts such as those simultaneously bring members of the community together while boosting the area’s economy. That entertainment is worth its investment even in darker economic climates, says Humason, who runs the Hanford Fox.

“We do lose money on about three-fourths of shows, so when we earn money we make sure we hang on to it,” Humason says.

“It is always a balancing act, juggling to get an artist of high caliber at a low price,” he says. “But I gain the satisfaction that the town had some strangers in it they wouldn’t usually have met. It’s a presentation of art, and I hope they had a good theatrical experience.”

Visalia’s Fox Theatre also plays host to a wildly diverse set of high-caliber artists in these next few months, from Christian artist Amy Grant on Oct. 19, country singer Vince Gill on Oct. 26 and indie rock star Conor Oberst on Oct. 23.

Gomes, who was responsible for booking Oberst, said Oberst agreed to play because of Visalia’s stellar live music reputation, even if it means a financial hit.

“[Oberst] said ‘We love what you do in Visalia,’ and I said, ‘We’d love you to come out, but we can’t afford you.’ But he said, ‘Whatever we can do, we can make it work.’”

Gomes knows something about making live music work in Visalia on a limited budget. He has been putting on shows for about seven years at venues such as Howie and Sons Pizza Parlor, the Cellar Door and now the Fox. That’s why the Downtown Visalians and Alliance have handed Gomes the keys to the Visalia All-Music festival, a three-day event set for the first weekend of October that will feature a diverse mix of local and nationally reknown music acts. In 2007, its inaugural year, the festival had a successful turnout but disastrous financial consequences, losing the downtown organization about $50,000 in the process.

That’s not happening again, Gomes says. The festival’s budget has been given a more humble chunk of change this time, and Gomes has been working tirelessly with other community organizers to raise funds for the rest of the cash needed.

“They knew I operate on a smaller budget,” Gomes says. “There’s no way to lose our bottoms this year.”

Other costs

Another fear that Central Valley live music enthusiasts can lay to rest: The record-breaking gas prices haven’t kept as many travelling acts from passing through the area.

“I thought with gas prices the way they are, we wouldn’t get as many bands,” Gomes says. “But it’s the opposite. We actually get more now because bands need to gas up on their way to SF or LA. They’re making more stops and shorter drives.”

With the increasing live entertainment options and the decreasing wallets of their audiences, promoters are catering to concert-goers within any budget.

“A ton of entertainment is free,” Gomes says. “The way the economy is right now, we wanted to make it extremely affordable.”

This article was published Sept. 12, 2008, in Explore Central Valley Downtowns, a quarterly publication inserted into the Visalia Times-Delta.