The Majestic: A Venue & A Vision by Alex White
Madison, Wisconsin loves live music. Our state's capitol is a tour stop for a multitude of nationally touring acts and also supports a flourishing community of local artists honing their original sound. With the onset of the information revolution, the music industry, in regards to the relationship between artist and audience, has been turned upside down. Everything from the way we purchase tickets to fan attendance at concerts to the methods for selling music and merchandise have changed radically in the last few years. In particular, Madison has seen concert attendance rise and fall in the last decade, but most industry vets who work in the city will tell you that Madison, as a secondary market on the national scene, is currently seeing an increase in ticket sales and support for live music. Madison, WI owes a lot of this recent spurt in the quality of the live music scene to two promoters/entrepreneurs that re-opened the doors of the historic Majestic Theatre in the Fall of 2007.
Located at 115 King St., Majestic Theatre is Madison's oldest theatre, opening on December 15, 1906. After a brief incarnation as a dance club, the Majestic Theatre has returned to its show business roots — this time as a world-class live performing arts venue. The idea behind the Majestic came from two music industry vets: Scott Leslie, a musician and promoter, and Matt Gerding, a booking agent and promoter. Scott would go on tour across the country and play in horrible venues, run by horrible people. He was regularly harassed for asking for water and towels and was continuously amazed at the lack of proper advertising done by the venue's promoters. Matt would regularly receive calls from his clients demanding to know why they were booked into such unpleasant situations. Scott and Matt happened to be friends transplanted from the midwest to the smoggy skies of Los Angeles. One night after a few too many beers, they decided to become business partners and open a venue that bands would love and agents wouldn’t hear about the next day.
Well, not only have Gerding and Leslie transformed the Majestic into a full service, world class venue, they've brought about 100-200 more shows to Madison annually (their Fall 2010 schedule is stacked with events nearly every day of the week). Additionally, the venue's owners promote concerts at outside venues like The Frequency and Orpheum Theatre when an artist may be better suited to a larger or smaller venue than Majestic. And due to an overwhelming demand for a sold-out Orpheum concert for dance music revolutionary Deadmau5, Gerding and Leslie's production company, Majestic Live, has moved the show to the collossal Alliant Energy Center on October 19th, 2010. WIJAM recently caught up with Majestic owner Scott Leslie for a few minutes to inquire about a wild ride that started in late 2007, when he and Matt Gerding "purchased a building with a bad reputation, in dire need of renovation, in a city we were unfamiliar with."
WIJAM: You have your history as a musician. Did you have prior experience with producing events as the actual promoter (prior to opening Majestic)?
Scott Leslie: I worked as the director of SCOPE Productions at the University of Iowa when I was in college. We were a real concert promoting entity, not a student organization with a blank check for bands. We co-promoted arena shows with major promoters like JAM Productions and SFX Entertainment which became Live Nation. Additionally, we were responsible for booking entertainment in a bunch of other venues on campus and that is where I cultivated many of the relationships I use today. We have a bunch of (University of Iowa) alums in the concert industry and we tend to stay in touch.
WIJAM: You are now producing more and more shows at venues other than Majestic, why is that?
SL: Lots of reasons. Some artists prefer a more intimate venue, some artists draw crowds that are too large for the Majestic. Sometimes we have two or more shows in the same day, and we need more than one venue to facilitate all the events. The goal of Majestic Live as a concert promoting entity is to bring more quality entertainment to the community as a whole, and we are afforded that flexibility by producing shows at multiple venues. Also, the goals outside of the venue can be different than inside the venue. Inside the venue we have a bar as a revenue source, so we might be a little more aggressive in going after a show if we think the crowd will be drinking. Outside venues, we don't have that luxury, so you have to be a lot more sure of the act.
WIJAM: Looking back, how does the current Madison music scene compare with the Madison music scene you predicted you'd be coming into when you re-opened Majestic's doors 3 years ago?
SL: I think the scene has grown by leaps and bounds and I do think that the Majestic is largely responsible for that. Not Matt & I as individuals, but just the building. It is a major entertainment destination that is an easy walk from almost every on campus and off campus housing option in town. So in its previous incarnations, it just didn't have the inventory of shows to be so heavily considered by the student body, but now we are doing 150 shows a year here, and we advertise really heavily. By having such a high inventory of entertainment downtown, I think it has also drawn attention to shows at other venues, and has made Madison a town that really supports live music in much greater numbers.
WIJAM: You're bringing Deadmau5 to Alliant Energy Center. Alliant hosting this type of show is unprecedented, and is a big deal for the Madison scene. Do you see more shows like this coming to town in the future? And what do you see for the future of the Madison music scene compared to the midwest regional and even national music scenes over time?
SL: We would love to bring more huge shows to town. When big shows come to town that are real tastemaker type shows and do well, people take notice. The better Madison venues and promoters do, the bigger the shows that come here will become. I would say that Madison as a secondary market is really starting to make a name for itself, and we're really excited for what the future holds here as a result.
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Matt Gerding and Scott Leslie point to their theatre's downtown location as attributing to the increasing success of live music in Madison. But modest as they are, it takes more than a great location to make a venue superb. You really need the right people with the right intentions running the show if you're going to meet the needs of both audience and performer - and Gerding and Leslie are indeed the right people for the job. Not only do they bring the most talented touring artists to the Madison stage, they support the local scene as well, pairing artists like Steez with Canada's The New Deal (appearing October 14th @ Majestic), and hosting the annual "Summer Jam" series, a string of free concerts every Thursday of the summer featuring local and regional bands.
In the past, Madison has been scrutinized for not being an "Austin" or a "Portland," and quickly passed off as being too small to support live music in large numbers. But the Majestic's owners, and the rest of the concert promoters in Madison, are living proof that that's simply not the case. We all grow together and succeed together. What Scott Leslie says about the high inventory of entertainment in Madison drawing attention to more shows at other venues is 100% correct. If there are a lot of events happening, that brings people out to experience live entertainment, and they check out more things in greater numbers. They spread the word to their friends and they visit Madison, attend our concerts, eat at our restaurants, and shop in our stores, stimulating our local economy, and making the city more successfull as a whole.
For a complete listing of Majestic's Fall Lineup and more, visit http://www.majesticmadison.com. There are many good things happening right now in Wisconsin and many more great things to come for the music scene, and it's all due to people like you, concert goer. Thank you for supporting live music everywhere and we'll see you at the next show.
Located at 115 King St., Majestic Theatre is Madison's oldest theatre, opening on December 15, 1906. After a brief incarnation as a dance club, the Majestic Theatre has returned to its show business roots — this time as a world-class live performing arts venue. The idea behind the Majestic came from two music industry vets: Scott Leslie, a musician and promoter, and Matt Gerding, a booking agent and promoter. Scott would go on tour across the country and play in horrible venues, run by horrible people. He was regularly harassed for asking for water and towels and was continuously amazed at the lack of proper advertising done by the venue's promoters. Matt would regularly receive calls from his clients demanding to know why they were booked into such unpleasant situations. Scott and Matt happened to be friends transplanted from the midwest to the smoggy skies of Los Angeles. One night after a few too many beers, they decided to become business partners and open a venue that bands would love and agents wouldn’t hear about the next day.
Well, not only have Gerding and Leslie transformed the Majestic into a full service, world class venue, they've brought about 100-200 more shows to Madison annually (their Fall 2010 schedule is stacked with events nearly every day of the week). Additionally, the venue's owners promote concerts at outside venues like The Frequency and Orpheum Theatre when an artist may be better suited to a larger or smaller venue than Majestic. And due to an overwhelming demand for a sold-out Orpheum concert for dance music revolutionary Deadmau5, Gerding and Leslie's production company, Majestic Live, has moved the show to the collossal Alliant Energy Center on October 19th, 2010. WIJAM recently caught up with Majestic owner Scott Leslie for a few minutes to inquire about a wild ride that started in late 2007, when he and Matt Gerding "purchased a building with a bad reputation, in dire need of renovation, in a city we were unfamiliar with."
WIJAM: You have your history as a musician. Did you have prior experience with producing events as the actual promoter (prior to opening Majestic)?
Scott Leslie: I worked as the director of SCOPE Productions at the University of Iowa when I was in college. We were a real concert promoting entity, not a student organization with a blank check for bands. We co-promoted arena shows with major promoters like JAM Productions and SFX Entertainment which became Live Nation. Additionally, we were responsible for booking entertainment in a bunch of other venues on campus and that is where I cultivated many of the relationships I use today. We have a bunch of (University of Iowa) alums in the concert industry and we tend to stay in touch.
WIJAM: You are now producing more and more shows at venues other than Majestic, why is that?
SL: Lots of reasons. Some artists prefer a more intimate venue, some artists draw crowds that are too large for the Majestic. Sometimes we have two or more shows in the same day, and we need more than one venue to facilitate all the events. The goal of Majestic Live as a concert promoting entity is to bring more quality entertainment to the community as a whole, and we are afforded that flexibility by producing shows at multiple venues. Also, the goals outside of the venue can be different than inside the venue. Inside the venue we have a bar as a revenue source, so we might be a little more aggressive in going after a show if we think the crowd will be drinking. Outside venues, we don't have that luxury, so you have to be a lot more sure of the act.
WIJAM: Looking back, how does the current Madison music scene compare with the Madison music scene you predicted you'd be coming into when you re-opened Majestic's doors 3 years ago?
SL: I think the scene has grown by leaps and bounds and I do think that the Majestic is largely responsible for that. Not Matt & I as individuals, but just the building. It is a major entertainment destination that is an easy walk from almost every on campus and off campus housing option in town. So in its previous incarnations, it just didn't have the inventory of shows to be so heavily considered by the student body, but now we are doing 150 shows a year here, and we advertise really heavily. By having such a high inventory of entertainment downtown, I think it has also drawn attention to shows at other venues, and has made Madison a town that really supports live music in much greater numbers.
WIJAM: You're bringing Deadmau5 to Alliant Energy Center. Alliant hosting this type of show is unprecedented, and is a big deal for the Madison scene. Do you see more shows like this coming to town in the future? And what do you see for the future of the Madison music scene compared to the midwest regional and even national music scenes over time?
SL: We would love to bring more huge shows to town. When big shows come to town that are real tastemaker type shows and do well, people take notice. The better Madison venues and promoters do, the bigger the shows that come here will become. I would say that Madison as a secondary market is really starting to make a name for itself, and we're really excited for what the future holds here as a result.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matt Gerding and Scott Leslie point to their theatre's downtown location as attributing to the increasing success of live music in Madison. But modest as they are, it takes more than a great location to make a venue superb. You really need the right people with the right intentions running the show if you're going to meet the needs of both audience and performer - and Gerding and Leslie are indeed the right people for the job. Not only do they bring the most talented touring artists to the Madison stage, they support the local scene as well, pairing artists like Steez with Canada's The New Deal (appearing October 14th @ Majestic), and hosting the annual "Summer Jam" series, a string of free concerts every Thursday of the summer featuring local and regional bands.
In the past, Madison has been scrutinized for not being an "Austin" or a "Portland," and quickly passed off as being too small to support live music in large numbers. But the Majestic's owners, and the rest of the concert promoters in Madison, are living proof that that's simply not the case. We all grow together and succeed together. What Scott Leslie says about the high inventory of entertainment in Madison drawing attention to more shows at other venues is 100% correct. If there are a lot of events happening, that brings people out to experience live entertainment, and they check out more things in greater numbers. They spread the word to their friends and they visit Madison, attend our concerts, eat at our restaurants, and shop in our stores, stimulating our local economy, and making the city more successfull as a whole.
For a complete listing of Majestic's Fall Lineup and more, visit http://www.majesticmadison.com. There are many good things happening right now in Wisconsin and many more great things to come for the music scene, and it's all due to people like you, concert goer. Thank you for supporting live music everywhere and we'll see you at the next show.
