Thunderbird, Roxian ready to get back to business
Greg Ray, who had served as executive director of The State Theatre of State College and The Community Arts Center of Williamsport, signed on with Roxian Live in January 2020 because he liked the vision of club owner/ musician John Pergal.
“One of the things that John is focused on is sort of neighborhood development, which I think is really exciting,” he says. “He looks at what live music does to a neighborhood: How does it affect it from an economic point of view, from a cultural point of view?”
By March 2020, that was all in full swing. The Roxian, a beautiful renovation of a vaudeville theater in McKees Rocks, had opened in May 2019 and was drawing big crowds, and, by July of that year, the Thunderbird Cafe had finished its three-year expansion to become even more of an entertainment jewel in Lawrenceville.
And then came the novel coronavirus, making its big impact on the entertainment industry on the afternoon of Thursday, March 12, 2020.
“The show we had on stage [at the Roxian], getting ready to perform was Jauz, an EDM act,” Ray says. “We had loaded them, we had soundchecked them. I think it was around 5 o’clock when everything stopped. Sales were going well, everybody was very excited, even with the pandemic looming. And then we were like, ‘Sorry, we have to put everything back on the truck, we have to close the doors.’ It was a humbling experience.”
Two nights later, they made a bold decision to roll with the Code Orange record release show as a crowdless livestream that made national press for its novel approach to the pandemic.
And then the two venues went quiet.
There was talk of Code Orange doing a Roxian show in the fall using lightbox squares to project where socially distanced fans should stand, but they abandoned that with COVID-19 cases still too high.
Through the late fall and winter, while some venues were doing 50% capacity shows, the Roxian and Thunderbird remained shuttered.
“We don’t begrudge anyone else for doing business in their own way,” Ray says. “Everyone has to make business decisions, and we understand that for some folks it meant trying to stay open. We chose not to continue operating and a lot of factors went into that decision.”
A key factor was that because the venues were still so new, they were able to negotiate the financial terms with their investors.
“That worked to our advantage,” Ray says.
Now, they are getting ready to get back to business.
Over the past month or so, the Thunderbird has been doing small, pop-up shows with local artists, which expanded with the Allman Brothers tribute show two weeks ago. On Friday, they present Karl Mullen, Mark Dignam and friends, which could resemble the festive Ploughman’s Lunch reunion show that would have happened on St. Patrick’s Day 2020.
They will continue with the local shows and go full-on with the touring acts next month starting with Brent Cobb & Nikki Lane (Aug. 26) and John Mayall (Aug. 27). Their new website detailing those shows (thunderbirdmusichall.com) goes up on Wednesday coinciding with their switch to a new ticketing service, etix.
“We feel that Thunderbird was built by live music lovers FOR live music lovers,” Ray says. “And we want everyone to get a chance to see the renovation. A lot of people don’t know what’s in the realm. They see the cafe when they walk by the windows, which is great, but go back to the ticket window, buy a ticket, walk into the main event. It’s an amazing venue. We’re hoping to get a wide swath of people in there.”
That goes for both places, which book a range from jam to indie-rock to bluegrass to punk.
The Roxian (roxianlive.com) returns that same week with a lineup that will include Shakey Graves (Aug. 25), Cold War Kids (Aug. 30) and Dawes (Sept. 23).
On Sept. 24, it goes full circle with Code Orange finally getting to play the Roxian to real, live and very wild fans.