Gwyn Roberts wants you to see it first at the . The newly appointed GM is aiming to blend prime-night gigs for local artists with bands that will eventually go on to sell out the Commodore. If those happened to be one and the same, even better.
Roberts is setting a lofty direction for the 11-year-old live music venue.
I see the Media Club returning to the Town Pump days. So bands coming to town all come through the Media Club at one point in their career; when they eventually sell out the Commodore, everyone will remember their Media Club show.
The Town Pump, for those born after grunge, was a venerated Gastown live-music venue that served as a springboard for acts such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam and No Doubt, along with local bands such as Matthew Good, over its 15-year history. It re-opened as Sonar in 1997.
Magic, however, is merely an illusion when it can be repeated, and working with a different time period and talent pool, the calendar man will have to have more than just tricks up his sleeve to create those memorable moments.
Drawing on 10 years of development experience with the Vogue Theatre and his work as a board member of the Seven Tyrants Theatre Society and the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival Leaders Council, Roberts will count on his long-standing relationship with the music industry for his new project.
He is also thrilled about their extended hours.
Open until 3am Fridays and Saturdays, a rarity in the residentially dense downtown, the new hours offer not only late-night live music, but after-party possibilities.
His excitement is casually tempered, though, by the looming eye of a housing development going up one parking lot over. Having witnessed the condo closures of Richards on Richards and The Starfish Room, and the noise challenges he personally tackled on the Vogues Seymour Street side, Roberts is a realist when it comes to working with future neighbours.
Theyre probably going to be filling up in about six months so its wait and see. I think people buy condos without looking at the environment around them; residents move in and try and bend the environment to them rather than adapting to it.
Looking to mentor Vancouvers musicians, the industry veteran has seen enough of the soft-skills of artists eyeing the Media Club stage to offer some kindly weighted words.
From the emails that I receive from bands and what Ive seen in the last three months from bands coming in, there seems to be room for [them] to learn how to approach a venue of this size, or how to book a show properly and promote the show, he says slowly and with a laugh.
Roberts is positioning the intimate,150-standees scale of the Media Club as an opportunity to educate fledgling bands on the industry. But after you cross playing the Media Club off your bucket list, dont write your Wikipedia page quite yet. According to Roberts, there are two painfully obvious career killers that can derail a good band. First, show up on time and second, be nice to the sound guy. Be nice to everybody, for that matter.
Follow those steps, and you could be the next or , who get the Roberts nod of approval as local bands to watch.
Its really all about relationships that you build, he emphasized. If youre talented, thats great. But if youre a jerk, youre just a really talented jerk.
Busy foreseeing the future, Roberts made it very clear on the phone with WE that he has no time for jerks.
You can follow Kelsey Klassen on @kelseyklassen.
