Indie music venues reel from closures
Bay Area clubs are banding together in effort to survive coronavirus crisis
Rickshaw Stop celebrated its 15th anniversary last year, a milestone for the Hayes Valley music venue. The TV studio turned independent nightclub built off that momentum with a number of soldout shows to kick off 2020. The future was promising.
Then the coronavirus hit the Bay Area. By early March, artists and agents started canceling concerts at Rickshaw Stop and other venues, large and small, throughout Northern California as concerns over the spread of COVID19 began to set in.
“For the first few days, I was afraid to open every single email because one show was canceling on us and then another,” said Dan Strachota, Rickshaw Stop’s talent buyer and managing partner.
Nearly a month later, the cancellations haven’t stopped. Strachota is still spending the bulk of his days trying to reschedule as many concerts as possible in hopes that doors will be open again before the end of spring. But with new restrictions announced almost daily, it’s tough for Strachota and others like him to know what the future holds for Bay Area nightlife.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced on March 23 that the city had established a $2.5 million Arts Relief Fund for local arts organizations, but it’s primarily dedicated to nonprofits and artist cooperatives. While some independent venue operators try to preserve their part of San Francisco’s $6 billionayear nightlife industry, they are doing their best to take control of their fate.
Allen Scott, head of concerts and festivals for the nation’s largest independent promoter, Another Planet Entertainment, and managing owner of both the Independent on Divisadero Street and the New Parish in Uptown Oakland, is heading up a consortium of venues that is working with the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. The group recently had its first conference call with representatives from the Independent, Bimbo’s 365, the Chapel, Cafe du Nord, August Hall, Rickshaw Stop and others.
“We’re all competitive for shows, but this is the time where we need to rise above that and try to ensure our survival,” Scott said.
In a similar effort, the Chapel’s general manager, Fred Barnes, and Parker T. Gibbs, a talent buyer at the Makeout Room and executive producer at Bayview’s Light Rail Studios, told The Chronicle in an exclusive interview that they have partnered to form the Independent Venue Alliance.
The alliance, which includes El Rio, Bottom of the Hill, Neck of the Woods and the Knockout, has reached out to District 9 Supervi
sor Hillary Ronen about financial support for San Francisco’s smaller independent music venues. Ronen indicated an assistance program could be enacted soon, Gibbs told The Chronicle.
“For the bars and venues of the city that don’t have big money from a multinational corporation, it’s a struggle. Even Bill Graham started out as an independent promoter,” said Gibbs, referring to the storied promoter behind some of the city’s most historic venues. “Being independent is part of what the city is. It’s in our DNA.”
Many nightlife businesses have taken up GoFundMe crowdfunding campaigns in hopes that patrons can assist. Rickshaw Stop alone has surpassed its initial $10,000 GoFundMe campaign goal, joining the wide range of longstanding local venues in raising funds that will be distributed among its staff, which include bartenders, security, sound and lighting technicians.
“These are the hardest weeks professionally that I’ve ever had,” Strachota says. “It just moved so rapidly from looking at what we were going to do to reschedule shows for next week, to the next six weeks. And now looking at how we’re even going to survive.”
Some venues have gotten even more creative. Potrero Hill’s stalwart Bottom of the Hill is running its own staff recovery fund on its website, where bigger donations can earn tickets to future shows, Tshirts and even a VIP pass to every show in the next year for $500. Along with an employee fund, DNA Lounge has started selling premade cocktails along with its ongoing pizza delivery through services like GrubHub and PostMates. Thee Parkside is putting on a virtual livestream series called “Thee Lockdown” with requests for donations to benefit its staff.
Even largescale promoters like Goldenvoice and Live Nation, which have extended their foothold among the Bay Area’s music venues in recent years, aren’t immune.
Goldenvoice books the Regency Ballroom and Great American Music Hall, while its parent company AEG produces the Coachella Music & Arts Festival in Southern California; Live Nation books the Fillmore and the Masonic, and helps produce BottleRock Napa Valley. Both have had to shutter their venues and postpone their marquee festivals till October.
“We don’t know when the end is,” said Scott, who oversees APE’s Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, which is still slated for August.
“No one knows. So we just keep pushing things out. I think you’re going to see a lot of clubs of 1,000andless capacity that are going to go out of business; indie momandpop venues who don’t have six months, let alone two to three months of cash reserves.
“Unless City Hall or the state can really help here — barring somebody putting a capital infusion into these places — it’s gonna be a rough going.”
Whether it’s May or later when live music venues and event halls can host large crowds again, they will find it tougher to get back to profitability than other businesses.
“There’s a bigger shadow placed on the recovery time of this industry,” Scott says. “You can’t open a 500or 700capacity club right away with booking and balancing artist touring schedules. Plus the volume (of business) to cover your bills is going to be months away.”
Molly Kish, who says she goes to at least three shows a week, is pulling for the survival of the institutions that make the Bay Area’s nightlife so lively and unique. She was recently laid off from her corporate communications job in the food and events industry, also hit hard by the coronavirus fallout. She has found some solace in watching virtual concerts. But she admits it’s just not the same.
“Going to see live music is why my friends and I go out. I even had friends from out of town who had planned trips to the bay around going to shows together, but now it’s all canceled,” Kish says. “It’s that feeling of being there with your group of friends and everyone around you, and I could really use that right now.”
Places like Rickshaw Stop did exactly that for Bay Area music fans. At its weekly Popscene party, the 400capacity space has hosted acts from Sam Smith to Billie Eilish, at the cusp of their breakthroughs. More recently, Rickshaw’s diverse bookings featured bills that put the spotlight on acts like Tones and I, an Australian dance pop outfit with one of the biggest dance hits in the world, and a Valentine’s Day showcase put on in conjunction with a national booking agency featuring local acts like Spellling, Sugar Candy Mountain and Zelma Stone.
Now there’s no telling when Rickshaw Stop or any other live music venue will be able to provide that exciting sense of discovery for music fans again.
“It’s a scary time,” Strachota says. “I never thought that the entire town could get wiped out in one fell swoop.”