Summer of ROCK

Summer of ROCK

Hey everyone! Sorry I have not blogged forever...

With the move to Austin I have been super busy. I hope everything is going well with you.

So as promised, here is my blog about the greatest summer of ROCK ever:

Around February I managed to convince the Eagles to run radio spots to advertise for our local Fri/Sat bands. What an impact 1 little light bulb idea can have.

Things went well for the first month, so we decided to run more ads in March. Just by pure luck I was unable to take the check to the radio station, so our account rep Penny picked it up at the bar.

Later that day Penny sends me a message that Big Ric from 103.1 "The Bear" wants to meet me at the club. I met them both there the next day to give them a tour of the club. They were looking for a suitable location to host a national comedy act.

We were sitting on the stage just chatting; when a profound idea was born...I will always remember how it went! I was explaining to Big Ric how our local bands were not bringing in the cash. Slightly joking, slightly hopeful I said "I'd love to get a big rock band in here." Without hesitation Big Ric looked at me and said "I can get you a band! Just give me a budget"

Well, less than three weeks later we had Black Stone Cherry booked for June. Less than two weeks after that Big Ric calls me and scored us Pop Evil for May.

I will always remember how excited I was when we sold out of our first rock show! We had all of our expenses paid for before the doors opened! That had NEVER happened for any other special event or function!

The day of the Pop Evil concert I was a nervous wreck though. So many people at my club wanted me to fail, which seems to be the situation I always find myself in. I don't know if it's my ambition, unique ideas, or what.

Meeting the guys from Pop Evil was great! They were all super nice guys. I was invited to hang out on the bus and listen to a few of their new songs...absolutely an awesome time!

Many lessons was learned for this first concert, the most important being "JR can NOT party like a rock star!" LOL…while I was giving the lead singer a tour of our club, he says "JR, I like you...let's get a shot!" I should have passed, but I was living in the moment. Needless to say, after that shot and a few beers I was wasted. I didn't even get to see the end of the show, but so what! I had worked very hard to make that day happen and I needed the stress relief!


The Pop Evil show was a huge success for my club. They did over $9,000 in bar sales!!! For a point of reference, they barely do that in two weeks!!! After all of this success, I was still on edge because now I had to focus on the next concert, and wonder if it was going to be as successful.

At the end of May I went up to Columbus to go to Rock on the Range. For those who have never heard of it, it's a two day rock concert. There were over 30 bands performing on three stages. I had a BLAST and will never miss another one! I was able to see my favorite bands Theory of Deadman and Puddle of Mudd. Also caught Three Days Grace, Rob Zombie, Godsmack, Five Finger Death Punch, and so many more! It was a rock music overload and I loved it!

Once I was back in the real world, the Black Stone Cherry was fast approaching. It sold out as well!!! I just could not believe the success that these concerts were having. This concert was on a Wednesday night and the bar still sold over $8,000!!! The guys from Black Stone Cherry were super nice, down to Earth, country boys from Kentucky. Everything about that concert was great!!!

Big Ric scored us the band RED for late July, but we were very fortunate to save another show at the end of June. With only 10 days until the concert date, we get offered Taproot. The bar they were scheduled to play at went up in flames, so to speak! LOL…Pun intended, the bar was called The Inferno and it went out of business. So with only 10 days, we were able to throw together another great rock show that brought Taproot, Anew Revolution, Destrophy, and Ice Nine Kills to Parkersburg.

The Taproot show sold out at the doors! It was another hugely successful concert that managed another $9,000 bar night! It was awesome to hang out with the guys from the bands, and they were so appreciative of our hospitality.

In between the Taproot show and the RED concert, Big Ric came through with an awesome opportunity. He scored back stage tickets to a concert in Cleveland. Sick Puppies was headlining, with Janus, My Darkest Days, and It’s Alive. What a thrill it was to meet the band members from Sick Puppies and Janus. I will never forget how down to Earth they were. It was also so great to enjoy a concert without having to worry about anything....you know, like fights, drinks spilled, making money, etc. I was just there to DRINK and enjoy the ROCK!!!

Then July came and we had RED to look forward to. Booking these guys was a huge pain…I had to take pictures of the stage, give the dimensions, let them speak with our sound/lighting guys. All in all, not a great experience and honestly, if they were our first band, I wouldn’t have booked anymore. But the show was great and everyone really seemed to enjoy the music.

The day after RED I had to pack up and move to Austin. It was a bittersweet move that I’ll cover later.

At the end of August I returned to Parkersburg for the biggest Rock concert that town has ever seen! Big Ric and I hatched the idea months before, and before I left I passed the torch to Brian. The headliner band was Saving Abel. Other acts included Nonpoint, Black Sunshine, Taddy Porter, Boboflex, and many more. It was 12 hours of great ROCK music!!! What a great success it turned out to be for our area. It proved that Parkersburg can and would support a music arena.

So that has been my Summer of ROCK. There has been more shows at the Eagles, but sadly I have had to miss them. The Sick Puppies tore it up in September and then Burn Halo rocked out in October. I’m glad to see Brian still has the strength to keep these shows going.

Eventually, I’m going to start catching a few rock shows down here in Austin! ;-)

Well, I hope all is well with you and yours! Take care everyone…thanks for reading!!!