WHAT TO DO AFTER DARK : SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Coach House Hangs on With Eclectic Mix

If you think making a hit record is hard, try running a successful concert club business in Orange County.

Clubs booking mainstream name talent in the county number exactly one. Open 13 years, the Coach House has survived where so many others have failed, although no one has figured out why.

The South County club isn’t within 10 miles of a city with more than 100,000 population. Buried in an industrial park, there isn’t any drive-by business.

“I had no idea that I would be around this long, particularly as a (mainstream) club,” said owner Gary Folgner, who opened the Coach House as a country-Western club in 1980.

Even in Los Angeles, recent years have been tough for small-club owners. Big names such as the Roxy, the Whiskey and others have scaled down the booking of well-known acts, relying instead on local talent.

And if times have been hard in Los Angeles, Orange County has become a concert club graveyard.

Several attempts to open a small concert venue in the Orange County market have failed. The most recent effort was the Rhythm Cafe in Santa Ana, which opened in late 1992.

A few months later, the club shut its doors permanently.

So why is Folgner thriving in San Juan Capistrano while so many would-be competitors have closed down?

The 500-seat club is comfortable. The interior has a wood plank, country-Western feel and a good sound system, and there’s not a bad sight line in the place.

But Folgner credits the club’s success to more intangible qualities. “It takes a feel for music” to run a good concert hall, he said. “You have to have a sense of what is hot and when it’s hot.”

Folgner has brought an eclectic spectrum of performers to the Coach House stage. Over the past 30 days, Folgner and booking agent Ken Phebus have spotlighted acts as diverse as the Jim Rose Circus, which features a man who lies face down on broken glass, and rhythm and blues artist Delbert McClinton.

The art of booking talent requires knowing how well certain acts will draw crowds, Folgner said. A performer such as Todd Rundgren, who could sell out four dates a few years ago, might only fill the house two nights these days.

About the only kind of performers who won’t be seen at the Coach House are hard-core rap and heavy metal bands, because, “I don’t like the violence so often associated with the music and the people who listen to it,” Folgner said.