Club Owner Finds Himself Stretching His Talent

Gary Folgner, who controls the club-level concert market in Orange County, is in expansion mode again with the opening of a new venue in Santa Barbara.

But on the home turf where he built his business, the owner of the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano and the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana is trying to avoid having to retrench from two clubs to one.

The opening of the 299-seat Coach House Santa Barbara is tentatively scheduled for Friday, although Folgner said there might be a week’s delay if he can’t complete remodeling in time at the 1920s-vintage building a block from the ocean.

But in Orange County, where Folgner has hosted established and rising national talent since 1985, he is concerned that there simply aren’t enough solid touring acts to stock both of his venues.

“I think there’s enough acts for one club but not enough for two,” said Folgner, who began booking big-name talent at the Coach House in 1985 and added the Galaxy three years ago. Folgner’s benchmark for success is 15 shows monthly at each venue by national touring acts. Both clubs fill out their schedules with several shows a month by local bands.

“It’s a rough thing to do,” he said. “Two clubs makes it a tough situation.”

Folgner took over the 550-capacity Galaxy after a booking war in which the 492-seat Coach House routed competing operators who briefly ran the venue as the Rhythm Cafe. But the challenge was credible enough to prompt Folgner to preempt any others. The Galaxy, a former dinner theater, is an exceptionally spacious, well-appointed venue that is a far more comfortable, consumer-friendly facility than L.A.’s gamut of herd-’em-in, standing-room-only sweatboxes.

His strategy for next year is to try to boost bookings by catering private parties at the Galaxy--corporate events, high-school graduations and the like. Folgner says he has 50 such bookings lined up for 1998, far more than in the Galaxy’s three previous years of operation combined.

If that strategy doesn’t work, and if the ailing record industry doesn’t reverse its recent inability to foster a steady stream of acts capable of drawing well in clubs, Folgner said, he will have to consider shutting down the Coach House and consolidating his O.C. business at the Galaxy.

“I’m fairly sure that’s not going to happen,” Folgner said, confident his plan to stock the Galaxy with more private functions will work.

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Folgner said the Coach House and the Galaxy are both profitable, “but it’s too much work for the money you make.”

Under previous operators, Folgner’s Santa Barbara club was called Emerald City and booked mainly punk and alternative music. Now it will follow the dinner-and-concert format of Folgner’s O.C. venues and book the same diverse spread of talent. Leon Russell, Dada, Lovemongers, Foghat, Dokken and Great White are among the first attractions; all have upcoming shows in Folgner’s O.C. clubs as well.

Folgner’s previous ventures outside Orange County have included short-lived venues in San Diego and Pasadena, and a long-running but ultimately unsuccessful venture at the Ventura Theatre.

Ken Phebus, who books Folgner’s venues, thinks the Santa Barbara club can help him land some of the buzzed-about modern-rock acts that now routinely bypass Orange County. Though it’s a much smaller market, Santa Barbara has what Orange County lacks: a modern-rock radio station that serves as a talent magnet.

“KTYD, the alternative radio station up there, is really vibrant,” Phebus said. He expects alternative acts to flock to Santa Barbara mainly for the chance at career-enhancing radio exposure--and not primarily to make money from concert-ticket sales.

The huge O.C. concert market has always been hamstrung by its lack of a significant radio station; rock and pop listeners here tune in to L.A. or San Diego stations, and bands only play Orange County if they’re looking for an extra payday or subscribe to the now largely abandoned “tour till you drop” philosophy that in the ‘80s helped build careers for acts such as R.E.M. and Violent Femmes.

Now that Phebus will be dealing regularly with radio-conscious acts presumably eager to play the Coach House Santa Barbara, he hopes to lure more of them to Orange County by flashing a big bankroll at their agents and cutting a package deal.

HELPING “HAND”: A special 100,000-copy edition of the new Sublime CD, “Second-Hand Smoke,” is being packaged with souvenir T-shirts. Part of the proceeds will go to the Musicians’ Assistance Program, which offers treatment and support for drug-addicted musicians.

Troy Nowell, widow of Sublime’s singer, Brad Nowell, works for recording-industry-supported program and has devoted herself to the drug-treatment cause since her husband’s 1996 death by heroin overdose. The special edition, which is available in most record stores, has a list price of $22.98, $6 more than the standard CD.

HELPING HAND, PART II: Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys will use a talented pinch-hitter Wednesday for their pre-Thanksgiving benefit show at Linda’s Doll Hut. Russell Scott, a notable roots-music singer and bandleader in his own right, will sit in for bassist Wally Hersom, who is out of town for the holiday. Southpaw Johnny & His Right Hand Men open. Proceeds go to the Orange County Food Bank. 107 S. Adams St., Anaheim. 8 p.m. $8. (714) 533-1286.