Full-strength staff gives The Blue Note confidence into late 2023 and beyond
Musicians swap stories from their time within the eye of the pandemic. Get an artist on the phone, and they talk of dried-up touring income, doubts and precautions, and taking their show, well, home — streaming to fans online and writing through the solitude. Optimists among them now stake their claim to a more innovative, sustainable future on whatever side of the pandemic we're on.
Staff at The Blue Note can sympathize. The Ninth Street rock 'n' roll palace and sister venue Rose Music Hall know the upheaval of the past three years. They speak of closed doors and cancellations, starts and stops and restarts, with recency in their voices.
The venue's not-so-distant past also includes turnover and a sort of musical chairs. But The Blue Note's staff is moving through 2023 with a sense of forward progress, the sort of motion that comes from finally being at full strength.
"After weathering the pandemic, this team is now whole," senior director of market operations Mike Nolan said earlier this summer.
The difference between spring 2020 and summer 2023 is hard to miss.
"We went from zero confidence in anything to an extremely high level of confidence that we’re doing what’s good for our venues, our community, our business, ourselves. It’s a complete 180," Nolan said.
Risks and rewards at The Blue Note
Nolan describes the live music industry as a form of legalized gambling. So many factors surround a show that almost nothing is guaranteed, he said.
He recalls walking toward 2020 ready to take more risks, facing the music on an exciting concert calendar laid out for the year. The pandemic stripped away any illusion of certainty.
When concerts more or less came back, venues like The Blue Note placed their bets on sure things — in a market like Columbia, that often means country music.
As a certain confidence returned, sure things opened doors for greater gambles, Nolan said.
Now he again sees a promising calendar reaching into more genres. That excitement is reflected in a pair of upcoming shows to be held outdoors on Ninth Street: Sunday's Modest Mouse/Cat Power double bill and the pairing of Father John Misty and The Head and the Heart exactly one week later.
One force behind those shows is talent buyer Melissa Roach, who split time between marketing and booking upon starting at The Blue Note in 2019. After longtime talent buyer — and beloved mid-Missouri songwriter — Pat Kay stepped away to pursue his own music full-time, Roach assumed responsibility.
Roach enjoys being the venue's first pair of hands, reaching toward an artist.
"Without you, the show isn’t happening," she said.
Roach feels increasing freedom to diversify the venue's calendar. She weighs what might work in Columbia, in part, by talking through lists of prospective artists weekly with staff. Roach also is quick to take the pulse of people she meets out in the community, asking what bands they want to hear loud and up close.
Among the risks paying off: indie-rock acts who emerged in the 1990s and early 2000s. Last summer's appearance by The Breeders rewarded Roach's faith; that trend only continues, she said, with a recent Bright Eyes date and this weekend's Modest Mouse show.
Recently Roach took a chance that Canadian rockers Peach Pit would do well at Rose Park, the green space outside Rose Music Hall. The band holds a definite youthful appeal, but a Monday-night show with most of Columbia's student population still miles away changed the stakes, she said. Roach bet right — the July 31 show sold out.
She hopes to keep nudging in the direction of hip-hop, metal and EDM, believing the more of these genres she books, the better shows will do.
The Blue Note's human resources
A more experienced staff makes Roach's life easier, she testified. While settling into her job, newer colleagues in marketing and technical areas also faced a learning curve, she said. With more shows under their collective belt, staffers know their roles and more easily collaborate.
Hearing co-workers with other responsibilities describe a show from their perspective helps Roach think about how to approach similar bookings in the future, she said.
The ideal Blue Note staffer is no less than a music fan, Nolan said, but needs something more. The venue can present a national touring band one night, then host a wedding or nonprofit event the next, he said.
Adapting to the personality of the next event is key, he said. And staff can rest assured — if they ever feel lost in a certain rut, a chance to get unstuck waits around the corner, Nolan added.
Carrying The Blue Note's culture through changes
Nolan is the first to acknowledge The Blue Note has been through a steady stream of change.
On the smaller but still noticeable end, policies related to bags and chairs fluctuated recently in response to COVID protocols and factors like perceived comfort and personal space. Considering moves like these, staff look to what other venues are doing — and if it makes sense for Columbia — as well what they deem the best interests of artists and concertgoers.
"Those are the two people that we care about the most," Nolan said.
Changes in ownership and proximity are most obvious. The venue opened — first on the Business Loop — in 1980, a creation of Columbia transplants Richard King and Phil Costello. In its early days, The Blue Note earned a trendsetting reputation, booking eventual icons such as R.E.M., the Pixies and Hüsker Dü.
King grew The Blue Note, and what would come to be known as Rose Music Hall, into a Midwest music institution before selling the venues to Matt Gerding and Scott Leslie in 2014. FPC Live, the Wisconsin-based company they forged with Frank Productions, now holds the rights.
Nolan, who started at The Blue Note under King's watch, said his staff maintains an artist-friendly culture set by its founder. The tech team accepts its responsibilities as the first faces an artist sees; and rather than just tell an artist "no" if a request doesn't quite work, they seek creative solutions, he said.
Other venue staff naturally ask good questions, showing they care about artists as people, Nolan added.
As proof, he points to now-bonafide roots-music stars like Whiskey Myers and Tyler Childers, who have stuck with Columbia's venues at each stage in their careers. Childers first played the Rose patio on a barstool, Nolan said, before moving inside and eventually selling out both Rose and The Blue Note. Charting his latest tour, Childers worked with a booking arm of FPC Live.
Ultimately, the care shared by The Blue Note team resonates with artists and is returned by them, Nolan said.
Relationships loom large for Roach's work too. Picking up the phone or meeting artist representatives in person does wonders in a job mostly conducted over email, she said. Making one show work often means 10 shows come back to you, Roach added.
Despite her responsibilities, the luster of live music has yet to dim in Roach's eyes.
"No matter how stressful every week is ... then I go to a show and I’m like ‘OK. This is it. This is why we do it. This is worth it.’ And that’s what brings it all back for me," she said.
As someone who came here from St. Louis for college, then stayed for the small city feeling, Roach embodies what Nolan wants his staff to be and do.
"I just want to bring cool things to this cool town," she said.
Learn more about upcoming shows at https://thebluenote.com/ and https://rosemusichall.com/.
Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731. He's on Twitter @aarikdanielsen.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: How a full-strength staff gives The Blue Note confidence going forward
