COLUMN
Concert Biz CHAOS!
Shakedown may loom for Portland's promoter caste.

by ZACH DUNDAS
zdundas@wweek.com

If evidence were needed to bust Portland for a wicked live-music addiction, Pollstar's Dec. 31 issue provided it.

At the end of each year, the concert industry trade rag ranks the country's top 40 production companies. Three Portland-based outfits made the cut for 2000: Double Tee Promotions, Showman Inc. and Monqui Presents. All ranked in the bottom half of the standings, but total the troika's sales and the haul would rank 14th in the nation.

Throughout the '90s, national conglomerates SFX and House of Blues swallowed independent local and regional promoters by the fistful. The giants account for roughly 60 percent of the total sales by Pollstar's top 40. Small markets with several locally owned, national-caliber promoters are becoming rare beasts.

"It's getting crazier by the day," says Double Tee owner David Leiken. "Most of the decisions and negotiations are taking place nationally, not locally."

Still, Portland is hardly immune to the national industry's tremors. Change is coming. At least one significant shift has already occurred: Showman is no more. The company, long focused on shows at the Aladdin Theater in addition to the popular concert series at the Oregon Zoo and other projects, was quietly shuttered at the end of a difficult 2000. Ex-owner Steve Reischman says he'll continue to operate the Aladdin and the Zoo shows.

Rumors of a potential merger uniting Double Tee, Showman and Monqui as a Portland super-promoter swirled for months; obviously, such a three-way marriage is now impossible. In any case, a deal satisfying the divergent styles of the companies--not to mention their respective owners--proved elusive.

"With Steve, David and I, you have three entrepreneurial guys who haven't worked for anyone else in a long time," notes Monqui's Mike Quinn. The threesome did cooperate on numerous shows over the last two years, an amity driven largely by national consolidation.

"We're all thinking that it's time to circle the wagons," Quinn says. Monqui and Double Tee frequently team up to promote shows at Double Tee's Roseland Theater.

Meanwhile, Leiken acknowledges ongoing discussions about Double Tee's future with both SFX and House of Blues. He characterizes the parley with HOB as more serious than that with SFX.

House of Blues, by far the smaller of the two conglomerates, is in the process of assembling a national club network. The Roseland might fit nicely into such a scheme. Leiken says he doesn't know enough about the club-network project to be particularly interested, but adds that a major move is possible in the next month or two.

Or perhaps not.

Acquisitive habits aside, neither SFX nor HOB is particularly successful--at least if you adhere to the ol'-fashioned notion that businesses should turn a profit. SFX, in particular, hemorrhages red ink. Leiken says that, unlike many of the small promoters bought out by the big guys in recent years, Double Tee has very little debt and significant property and equipment on its books.

"Buying our company would involve coming up with real cash, and neither SFX nor House of Blues are wallowing in cash right now," Leiken says.

In the midst of all this would-be-maybe dealing, yet another Portland promoter, Thrasher Presents, has made significant strides. Mike Thrasher's company, which originally specialized in punk and alternative, has lately branched into some of the folk and world-music territory Showman plied its trade in.

Thrasher now also books a circuit of venues in Seattle, Eugene and Spokane and works frequently with the McMenamins' Crystal Ballroom. The company continues to book lots of rock shows in smaller clubs and the Pine Street Theater, the venue it manages. When Pollstar ranks next year's top 40, Thrasher is likely to make the cut.

The state of flux clearly concerns those who work in the industry locally. But the concert field is strewn with the remains of fallen companies. The success and survival of Portland's local promoters--transitory as it may yet prove to be--is remarkable in itself.

"I've been in this business in this town for nearly 30 years," Leiken says. "I just feel fortunate to have survived. Right now, we're in a decent position to continue to compete. Three months from now, I could be singing the blues. You never know."