Syracuse Ska Forum

ok so who checked this place out yesterday during their "grand opening"?? I refused to pay the cover charge but ducked in for ~30 sec to check out the space. I was impressed for the most part- its a huge space, good sized stage, nice bar, nice "ambiance"...
but something about it still irks me.

so the grand opening yesterday was a real stupid move on his part. i would have had an "open house" w/ no cover for the entire duration of the street fair. he would have made far more off the bar than he probably did charging $5 bucks at the door. i would have dropped in to get a beer and check out the spot- instead i looked around and left real fast. if he did the same band lineup on a friday night as the grand opening and charged $5 he would have done much better as well, i would have gladly paid that cover to see some bands and get a few beers- oh well.

some other things i noticed about the space. there was a lack of seating/ tables to set your drink on/ sit down and talk etc etc. that is needed pretty badly- the hard part is the slanted floor- its gonna be hard to put proper seating in there- it'd be cool if he followed the "brew-vie theater" model that are popping up all over the place- show old movies, have seating w/ tables so you can hang out drink beer and watch old movies- thats what i do at home half the time, but it could be fun to go out and do something like that.

so whats this place going to be like as a venue? what kind of shows is he going to bring in? hollerback has brought in some rather good acts in the past- now he has a better venue in a better location (mezzonote was a poor venue out of the way)- there's a lot of potential here- but what's he going to charge for cover? don't expect me to shell out $30 for anything but the most top notch show- even $20 is pushing it. this is syracuse not brooklyn. and is the place available for other promoters to put on shows- i'm guessing danny has spoken w/ them about this- i wonder if it is an affordable venue- its a good space in a great location- i'm interested in seeing how it pans out....

I really want to go in and check it out, it sounds pretty cool.

Also, it was nice meeting you.

maybe i'm being a total space cadet right now, but i don't recall meeting you- did we talk after the show yesterday? maybe i blocked it out of my memory....

Sunday was a "sneak preview" -- the actual grand opening is in early October. Dan recognized me on the street and invited me to come inside and look around all I want. Now mind you, I'd been in there last March, "but its changed a lot since then". Not really -- all I noticed that was very new since March was the expanded bathrooms the city wanted back then.

But I brought Brendan with me who had never seen it before and he was frankly underwhelmed and this being my 2nd visit, I was too. Its only impressive if you remember when it was a movie theater. Don't get me wrong, its a good space as re-configured this way, but honestly, the Ukrainian National Home is fancier and The Palace in Eastwood is far more impressive then either of those. And yet, Dan has been quoting me Palace prices so far, which he's justified on the location.

Between the old Planet 505 and UCF Underground, I've done a ton of shows on that same block and its not as golden as he thinks. It was never as good for drawing SU kids as Funk'n Waffles is now, sorry. I recall SU kids regularly riding cabs to Planet 505, because a high percentage of them consider this pretty far to walk and it is from the dorms. Of course, its easy walking distance from Euclid and all the upperclassmen in that area, but most of those kids have cars, so they don't care so much if its a 5 minute versus 10 minute drive -- and these were the kids helping keep Mezzanotte afloat.

Dan emailed me last week to come see him about doing shows now that he's actually opened and he repeated that on Sunday when I saw him. And I'll talk to him for the 4th time about this, sure. But those previous times, he was quoting rental rates double or triple those of Lost Horizon, which we already don't use because its so much higher than any other space we rent around town now. It'd be a LOT cheaper if we just rented a limo service for the night then to rent the place for what Dan has been quoting me, honestly. And thats how Adam got great turnouts of SU underclassmen for the Funk'n Waffles parties at Mezzanotte Lounge (which was a precursor to actually owning a place).

BTW, the reason you see no furniture is so they can maximize legal occupancy, which is supposedly 700 people.

From those previous conversations, I get the distinct impression that Dan and his partner Sam signed a very expensive lease for this space and now they're going to be pressured to charge top dollar to make those payments -- let alone make up for the lack of income for 10 months after signing it. Dan honestly seems to think he can do his old Mezzanotte shows in this new space and not only get significantly higher turnouts (which I don't see myself), but also get people to pay significantly higher cover charges (which I really, REALLY don't see).

I really hope they pull this venture off, but I doubt we'll be doing shows there anytime soon. If anything, I might encourage Dan to book some big ska shows there -- he's expressed interest in the past -- and let him roll the dice, instead of us.

oof. I thought adam posted this hah.

i don't like to wish doom and gloom on anyone promoting live music, but i'm wary of his whole affair. i grew up here with 25 years of that being my local movie theater. in my youth it was pornos and then rocky horror. it went from art house to second run back to art house. walking in there and seeing it gutted was sad. eeven if they put in some folding chairs to watch a film how comfy is that for 2 hours?

i know it will be good for acts like maceo parker etc.. but how many mid size name acts like that can come to cuse? also its hard enuff to park w/ the restaurants and rentals properties in that hood where will 500 funk fans park?

i could see big hardcore matinee's there, but don't know if he wants to go there since some kids like to grafitti
and screw things up.

i think smaller local bands wont draw enough to make the large room a big empty vibe.

its a tough gamble... i wish them well.
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I saw 'The History Boys' there, theater was sweet and before the movie the owner(?) even came out and was talking to everyone about it and explaining stuff.
it was a cool experience.

Well, the lack of a suitable venue for acts like that for many years has kept them away -- Hungry Charleys and Club Atlantis were both this same size and did okay for awhile. But it'll be a long process to bring acts this size back again and it'll mean losing some money along the way. The market for live music is also a lot less friendly then it was back then. But I wish them well.


The bigger issue seems to be they plan to make most of their money off the bar, so they have almost zero interest in all ages shows. I understand that, but it still hurts. Skalloween there would be killer, but they had no interest whatsoever, even with it being early on a Sunday. I'm sure if you paid a crazy rental fee they'd do it, but how much sense does that make?


My concern as well. I guess they've already booked Giant Panda with Sophistifunk, but that'll draw 300, tops. And they're rated for 700, so it'll still be mostly empty. Basically, this room is the same size as Polski, except square instead of rectangular and with much better acoustics. But a big empty room sucks in general -- its very hard to create any atmosphere under those conditions.


My sentiments as well.

why wouldn't any club owner take a dead day like sunday and take some all ages matinee money which would be more than the zero they'd be pulling in?? i dont get that at all. not only could you sell
soda bottled water and caffeine crack drinks. you would be getting young people to know your space as potential future concert goers.
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