Slipping Local Bands Through the Stage Door at the Coach House

To hear some local rock musicians and band managers talk, the chances of getting a gig at the Coach House aren’t much better than the odds of hitting a lottery jackpot.

But over the past few weeks, the county’s top concert club has had an unusual run of nights when Orange County acts have taken over from the Coach House’s usual national touring attractions.

Hard rockers A.M.X. headlined on a recent Friday night, followed 2 nights later by Slim Beat, which played in place of a canceled national attraction, Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers.

The Chant and Black Daphne shared a bill Saturday (as replacements for a canceled touring act), and the Movement--mainstream rockers from San Clemente--continued their recent tradition of playing at the Coach House on Halloween.

It can’t be said, though, that the Coach House doors are opening wide for local bands.

“The way our schedule fell, we had five or six local (bands) in a 2-week period,” club owner Gary Folgner said this week. “But as far as changing our policy, no, we haven’t.”

Although Folgner and Nikki Sweet, the Coach House assistant who handles local band bookings, are both interested in helping local bands, they say opportunities, either as headliners or as opening acts, figure to be limited to two or three slots per month.

Folgner said the 380-seat club’s high overhead costs discourage bookings that don’t promise to pull in at least 300 customers--a tall order for a local act. Many emerging bands would just as soon open for a national act. With the headliner serving as main drawing card, it is an effective way for a good unknown band to expand its base and build a following.

Folgner said the Coach House doesn’t always have control over who gets to open shows. Sometimes the headliner or its booking agent chooses the opener. Elaborate stage setups by a headliner can also make it hard to fit in an opening band for technical or logistical reasons, he said.

Still, the Coach House is enough of a plum booking that the locals are in there pitching for gigs despite stacked odds.

“It’s a very nice club and it’s well-respected in the industry,” said Jim Palmer, who books shows for emerging bands on the local Dr. Dream record label. “It does something to a band to be able to play in a room like that.”

There are more than morale benefits to playing a showcase club. Four opening slots at the Coach House over the past 5 months have helped Los Angeles band One Day raise its profile and win recognition and radio airplay it otherwise might not have received, according to the band’s manager, Staci Slater.

Folgner said that One Day is one of the area groups the Coach House has picked to help along. “We know they’re a good band, and we think they’re going to go someplace. As far as some of the bands we’ve brought in, we haven’t seen that consistency.”

There are other promising acts in the area, and the more the Coach House can do to develop them, the better. In the long run, cultivating the locals makes good business sense: There is no hero like a hometown hero, and, with the right breaks and nourishment, the little-known local bands of today may become the big draws of tomorrow--with attendant benefits for the clubs that helped them on the way up.

There is also the philosophic question of what a club’s function should be. Although the presentation of top touring bands is certainly essential to success, the most significant pop music venues have also played a patron’s role, seeking out and fostering the best performers in their area.

The Whisky and the Troubadour in Los Angeles became famous in the ‘60s as breeding grounds for new acts, not merely as importers of established talent. The same goes for CBGB in New York, the late-’70s launching pad for Talking Heads, Blondie and the American new wave, as well as for the Stone Pony in New Jersey, famed as Bruce Springsteen’s home club.

Perhaps no Orange County band has what it takes to reach that stature--it’s a rare band that does. Still, as long as local bands are willing to try, local clubs should do all they can to help. As the county’s highest-profile club, the Coach House is in a position to help the most.

LOCALS, PART II: One promising development for local rock groups and their fans is the “Rock City Rumble,” a new series of band battles at Bogart’s in Long Beach that will be inaugurated Friday night. Starting at 8:30 p.m., Gherkin Raucous, Gypsy Trash, Circadian Rhythm, Incomplete Monday and Eggplant will duel in 30-minute sets. In determining the winner, equal weight will be given to fan balloting and to the vote of a panel of judges, according to Bogart’s booking agent, David Swinson. The winner gets 70% of the night’s box office receipts, plus a chance to open for a national act. Second- and third-place finishers also will collect a share of the gate. A second “Rumble” is set for Dec. 2. Admission is $5.

HEAR YE, HEAR YE: Another development for local musicians in a variety of genres is a decision by KSBR, the Saddleback College radio station, to integrate local music fully into its regular programming.

KSBR, at 88.5 FM, primarily plays contemporary jazz, but program director Terry Wedel said the station also is seeking local music that would fit into special segments devoted to folk, reggae, rock, blues, salsa and ragtime music. Interested musicians should send a cassette of their work to KSBR “Untapped Talent,” P.O. Box 3420, Mission Viejo, Calif., 92690.