The Post Dispatch has a couple of articles on the front page of the A&E section of the Sunday November 12 paper.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/enter ... Document
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The nightclub shuffle
By Kevin C. Johnson
POST-DISPATCH POP MUSIC CRITIC
Sunday, Nov. 12 2006
Venerable rock clubs Hi-Pointe Café and Frederick's Music Lounge: Rest in peace.
Vibrant Washington Avenue maverick Velvet: You've danced your last dance.
Urban meccas Seven and Formula/Isis: It was nice knowing you.
St. Louis' nightlife circuit has taken significant hits in the past year or so,
and many of the passings are significant enough to make scene watchers pause
and question what's happening.
"There have been a lot of really creative and positive venues that have come
and gone," says longtime Washington Avenue promoter Doug Hall, now with
Throttle/Feisty Bulldog on Laclede's Landing.
Still, he sees a lot that's encouraging, including continued growth in the area
known as the Grove on Manchester Avenue, mainly between Sarah Street and Tower
Grove Avenue. Atomic Cowboy, Amp, Freddie's and Novak's operate on that strip.
More promising signs: the arrival of several new, often pacesetting nightspots
in the past year. Upscale lounges/clubs such as Mandarin, Xes, Lucas School
House and Dolce are new; Nectar, Kyo, Copia, Loft Jazz Club, Boogaloo and
Monarch remain fresh. Dante returned, Creepy Crawl moved from downtown to Grand
Center and Bar Italia expanded from a restaurant to a dance destination.
Not to mention all the name and programming changes — Trainwreck becoming
Throttle/Feisty Bulldog, Kastle turning into Dreams, Churchill's morphing into
Posh, and Nik's Wine Bar transforming into Filter Bar.
To the casual observer, it all looks a little crazy. But "there's a very
healthy nightlife scene right now," says Amit Dhawan of venue-event marketing
company Synergy, who is working with Mandarin. "Clubs are getting more and more
packed, and there are more clubs."
The evolving scene is full of hope, excitement and diversity. And it simply may
be experiencing normal sign-of-the-times transitions.
But some people think the scene may not be as solid as it looks because of
inexperienced people stepping in and trying to run clubs and bars, says Munsok,
who recently opened Xes nightclub behind his Drunken Fish restaurant on
Laclede's Landing.
"Most of them just don't have enough money or marketing (savvy) or background
to do this," he says.
Hall says that when amateurs "open up quick places, it affects the market and
makes it hard for experienced operators to operate. There was a lot of that in
the '90s, a lot of carbon-copy Velvets."
That's something Sonja Branscomb may have experienced after the success of her
urban nightclub Isis. It paved the way for Seven, Toxic, Suite2Fifty, Loft Jazz
Club, Plush and Dreams — the former three are gone.
"A lot of the new club owners know it's not as easy as they think," says
Branscomb, whose Formula closed last month, not long after its first
anniversary.
She had reworked Isis into the more diverse, Miami-style Formula, which was the
victim of, among other things, the fickle nature of clubgoers.
"They're always going to go to what's new, and they don't like change,"
Branscomb says. "Some people just like things the way they are. When you start
changing, they start looking for other places. Look at Spruill's. Have they
ever changed anything? You got to cater to what people want."
Caviar to catfish
Andrew Mullins of the experimental marketing agency DJ and the Spark promoted
Washington Avenue clubs for years. He contends that the nightlife scene is a
reflection of what people want.
"They support what they want and walk away from what they don't need," says
Mullins, who is DJ at several clubs.
Cynde Castillo, columnist for the Pulse of the City section of the Evening
Whirl, says there's little loyalty in the St. Louis nightlife crowd. "They're
always looking for the BBD — the bigger, better deal," she says.
"Urban-geared nightclubs often falter by trying new ideas, going elite or
avant-garde — and falling flat," she says.
"They realize their idea was a little too big for St. Louis, and to maintain
the club they have to let the riff-raff in the backdoor," Castillo says. "Then
the club goes from caviar to catfish in no time."
Like Branscomb, Lisa Andris retired from the bar business after 20 years of
running Hi-Pointe Café.
"It's hard economically to sustain a place like this," Andris said at the time
of the closing. "It's an exhausting business, a real challenge keeping it
afloat, and it was time to change hands again. Nothing like this can last
forever."
Steve Pohlman, who with his wife, Kit Kellison, took over running Off Broadway
earlier this year, says: "I think it's sad to see any music venue go. But
there's always extenuating circumstances. We've had our ups and downs. We've
had some great, well-attended shows and some not particularly well-attended
shows. It's a challenge for every (concert club). How do you speak to that
audience that comes out to see a show? Because there's a lot going on in the
city right now."
Upping the wow factor
That includes the increasingly busy Lucas School House, owned by Dan Jameson
and his wife, Mia. He didn't let nearby club closings stop his plan. He did
some research before opening the venue, was told his vision wouldn't work and
went ahead anyway.
"We just did it our way, making up some of it as we go along," Jameson says.
"We had no preconceived notions of how it was supposed to be done, and we
weren't paying attention to what the competition was doing."
People are gravitating toward the smoke-free Lucas School House's upscale
approach to concertgoing. Nightclubbers are becoming more sophisticated about
their options, says Xes/Drunken Fish's Munsok, who ran Kaboom several years
ago.
Dhawan and others say St. Louis' nightclubs are in transition, making way for
the next generation of hot spots. Dhawan has noticed several evolutions over
the past decade. About 1997, he says, the scene was music-driven, focusing on
who was bringing in which DJ. After 9/11, people began steering away from
megaclubs, preferring smaller spaces with higher service that they could enjoy
with their friends.
The current trend is toward clubs that are architecturally fantastic, "clubs
taking it up a whole new level," says Dhawan. He's also seeing clubs attracting
black and white or straight and gay patrons, or having appeal outside of their
regular core.
Munsok says people also are looking for destinations where they can do more
than one thing, such as have dinner and party, at one locale. They're finding
it with Drunken Fish/Xes, Feisty Bulldog/Throttle and Pepper Lounge/Nectar.
Another factor: More people are experiencing the scenes in New York, Las
Vegas, Los Angeles and Miami and know nightlife's full potential.
"When they come back home, they want a taste of that here. They want the 'wow'
factor," Mullins says, whether through theatrics, atmosphere or service.
"If you don't wow them, you'll lose them," he says. "But the few who can
deliver it are successful. The bench mark has been elevated."
kjohnson@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8191
This is getting ridiculous.
