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One
only has to look at the album charts to sense there's something strange afoot in
the rock 'n' roll arena. The Beatles' "1" has been No. 1 on most
charts since mid-November, a sign that the timeless quality of the Fab Four
endures.
Yet
the mere presence of The Beatles on the charts - after all, it's been 30 years
since they were performing together as a foursome - is a sign that there's a
sizable talent vacuum in rock 'n' roll.
And
that's a problem for concert promoters.
 "We
would like to increase our business by at least 15 percent," said Rich
Engler, CEO and president of DiCesare Engler/SFX Entertainment. "But that
becomes real difficult because of the lack of talent our industry is actually
producing. It's not coming up with many new acts other than this wave of Britney
Spears, Christina Aguilera, The Backstreet Boys and N Sync."
Marco
Cardamone, CEO of Merging Media, a next-generation independent music label and
entertainment company based in the South Side, agrees.
"If
you're looking at the music industry, it's in a state of turmoil and flux unlike
any other time in history, and that's not going to go away," he said.
"There's this huge fragmentation and emphasis on very young artists. ...
And within all that, there's a very short half-life for new acts. Even if you
get a new act and they hit superstar status, there's no guarantee that they will
become like those old acts that had much more staying power."
Engler
and Cardamone are on opposite ends of the local concert spectrum. Engler books
acts such as The Rolling Stones, Dave Matthews and Bruce Springsteen into the
area's largest venues. In contrast, Cardamone's organization books esoteric
acts, such as The Willard Grant Conspiracy and John Doe, into the 100-seat Club
Cafe in the South Side.
In
between, there are venues such as Rosebud in the Strip District and Club Laga in
Oakland that can accommodate between 600 and 1,000 customers. But there's no
real showcase venue in the area - like the former Syria Mosque and the Stanley
Theater - that caters to the rock 'n' roll crowd.
That
means promoters here often follow a national trend of packaging together groups
by genre. The strategy started with Lollapalozza in the early 1990s, and since
then, similar vehicles such as Lilith Fair and the Vans Warped Tour have been
successful at bundling musically similar artists.
"If
you put two or three decent classic rock bands together, or two or three
up-and-coming alternative bands together, package it and price it right, that
seems to stand out from the rest of the so-called normal fair," said Lance
Jones, executive director of SFX.
Despite
a perceived talent gap nationally, there does seem to be an increasing number of
gifted local performers, a combination of familiar and new faces. Engler is
optimistic about prospects for veteran rocker B.E. Taylor, whose Christmas shows
have sold out Heinz Hall the past three years. Karl Mullen, a musician who books
bands for Sports Rock Entertainment at Rosebud and Metropol (recently
rechristened M) and is the first artist on the Merging Media record label, cited
Crisis Car, New Invisible Joy, Rusted Root's Liz Berlin and The Boxsteps as
performers who have developed regional as well as local followings.
Better
than that, Mullen said, is the new spirit of cooperation among local musicians
and audiences.
"Among
the bands, it's no longer `What can I get out of this?' And there's not only a
scene and a community among the artists, but also a community of people who go
out and see all these bands," Mullen said. "There's a sense now that
there's a Pittsburgh audience for diverse types of music."
One
of Merging Media's missions is to promote local talent. Mullen's "Mercy Me
With Curses" was Merging Media's first release, and Cardamone anticipates a
slow-but-steady approach in developing local talent via The Club Cafe and new
technologies that include state-of-the-art recording facilities and live
broadcasting of events via the Internet.
"I
think we're trying to discover how to connect new artists to new audiences in
new ways, and build a viable and alternative marketing and promotion business in
the process," Cardamone said. "I think that's our biggest challenge
and focus and opportunity."
Despite
a lack of new groups that have the star power of the legendary rock bands,
Engler is cautiously optimistic about prospects for 2001 even as the economy
seems to be slowing down.
"I
think people have now cut back just like they did over the holidays, and
spending is down," he said. "But we consider our business to be a
cheap thrill. People might not buy the new car or go on vacation or buy a new
refrigerator, but to see Don Henley for an evening, that's pretty much a cheap
thrill, and doesn't affect our business."
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Regis Behe can be reached at (412) 320-7990 or rbehe@tribweb.com.
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