It’s tempting to believe that this weekend is exactly the sort of thing Charlie Goldstone (Frank Productions) and Majestic Theatre owners Matt Gerding and Scott Leslie had in mind when they announced earlier this year that that their entities would officially begin merging forces (the process is expected to be completed by year’s end).
On Friday night, while Ryan Adams and EmmyLou Harris hold court at Breese Stevens Field, the Majestic caps its 10th anniversary celebration, with Against Me! wrapping up the venue’s free Live on King Street series. On Saturday, Frank Productions finishes its 2017 Breese Stevens lineup with another big show: Modest Mouse and Gogol Bordello.
That’s a jam-packed weekend of music, to put it mildly. But it turns out the whole thing was more a result of happy circumstance than some kind of masterstroke by the partner organizations.
“it seems like this was done by strategic plan,” admits Gerding. “But the truth is it was completely a question of timing.”
Leslie seconds that. “When you’re running venue calendars, sometimes it just happens,” he says.
Adams and Harris are both on the docket to play individual gigs at the Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival in Columbia. Missouri, later this weekend, an event to which Gerding and Leslie have booking ties. Pairing Gogol Bordello with Modest Mouse became a thing when the former wanted to play Madison and was convinced to do the gig outdoors. The two Breese shows represent the only times these artists will play together in a single gig on their current tours.
“We’ve been experimenting with different bands, trying to get artists and musicians to trust the venues,” says Goldstone, president of Frank Productions Concerts LLC. “Between the three shows, we’re probably going to draw around 15,000 people. That’s pretty cool.”
Because the performers’ genres are different (alt-country vs. indie rock), there’s less worry about Friday’s events canceling each other out. Given the timing, it’s even possible for someone to catch the end of the Adams/Harris show (which by city ordinance has to end by 10 p.m.) and zip up to catch the end of Against Me! (which has to end by 11).
“It’s good for the whole scene as long as people go to something,” says Goldstone. “If we’d had a major punk band up against Against Me!, that would have been a very different story.”
Gerding and Leslie say that they’ll likely use the results of this weekend as a test case for what’s possible booking-wise in the future, but the overlap isn’t likely to be something they’d seek to deliberately program again. And it’ll be another five years before the Majestic has another major anniversary to mark.
“If something like this landed in our laps again, we might consider it,” says Gerding. “But the shows that end up here are determined by the artists and the touring companies. When they line up like this, it’s a good problem to have.”
As the summer’s Breese season wraps up, Goldstone has been doing some evaluation of his own. He’s learned that classic rock acts do well in the venue (see the Boston concert from late May). For next year’s series, Frank Productions is mulling the possibility of selling $20-25 “porch seats” at the very back of the venue for patrons who aren’t sure outdoor gigs are their jam. There’ll also likely be higher-priced reserved seating in the side bleachers for patrons who aren’t interested in standing on the field for multiple hours.
But the biggest takeaway might be what a music-filled weekend like this means for our fair city.
“This market is no longer an afterthought,” says Gerding.
That’s probably reason to celebrate, too.
