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Keeva Kristal, a partner of Bill Graham in FM Productions, tries the nightclub Tuesdays
The first two weeks: Linda Ronstadt, Quicksilver, Jo Jo Gunne, and Dr. John.
On the weekends most of San Diego's downtown section from Broadway to Market is deserted. The warehouses and the wholesale buildings and the truck parks stand alone and quiet. All the entertainment spots are miles away — with one exception.
Tuesdays, a direct descendant of Funky Quarters, which burned down two year ago, and J.J.s, which stopped having big name groups about six weeks ago, is unlike any other club in San Diego now. It is not really a nightclub nor is it a quick-change sports palace. What used to be Monty's roller skating rink at Front and G Streets is now a place that showcases people like Linda Ronstadt and Dan Hicks every Friday and Saturday night. There are no huge crowds, no pushing, no scrambles for seats.
Keeva Kristal owns Tuesdays. Since October 18, Kristal, a promoter from the days of Fillmore east and west, (he was a partner of Bill Graham in FM Productions), has been struggling with what should be a simple concept: putting on the best rock/folk music in town for the right price. The line-up of acts in the first two weeks has been incredible — Linda Ronstadt, Quicksilver, Jo Jo Gunne, and Dr. John. An audience can sit anywhere and see two or three big-name acts for $5. Everything has been running smoothly so far, but no one is showing up.
"I expected that a San Diego audience would want to see a good show under the best possible circumstances. We only had a couple of hundred people Friday night (the night they has Sons of Champlin). We've had three good shows — good shows. Maybe they could have sold the place out. The crowds were certainly a lot less than we expected."
Although a lack of attendance has been a problem, those who have attended have been treated to a friendly, warm environment: With a peak capacity of 3100, Tuesdays is far more intimate than the Sports Arena, for example. The ceiling is low and it is paneled with acoustical tile to hold the sound better.
"We haven't had a group of performers which hasn't come up to us and told us how much they liked this place. Linda Ronstadt, for example. She was great. She sounded so good; she knew it and the crowd knew it.... This is a concert hall, not a basketball court that someone puts seats and a sound system into. People are getting tired of going to a concert, sitting 300 feet away from the stage and not setting what is happening. That's not a concert, it's a scene.
"Right now people still save their money for the big acts. In the long run, I think they shortchange themselves. They would have a lot better music scene and get a lot more diversified music in a place of this type."
Kristal claims that starting the Fillmore West was the catalyst in starting the whole San Francisco music scene. He says that after they opened the Fillmore, Columbia opened offices in San Francisco local groups began to get better known, and you had the "San Francisco sound." He obviously thinks the same can eb started in San Diego if Tuesday is as successful as the Fillmore.
Tuesday's location may seem out of the way to a lot of people. You have to come south on Kettner or First or 10th or West on Market or F Street and cross downtown, with the spectre of Redevelopment hanging over it, a federal courthouse and prison going up nearby, is so quiet, it's even ominous in the daytime. Except for a few "hip" small businesses in renovated warehouses down the street, the Spaghetti factory down on 5th and K, and the new offices being made in the old independent building, the area is a ghost town. Yet Kristal considers the location perfect.
"The location offers a lot. There are no traffic problems, no parking problems, no noise problems. No one's down here at night, so no one can complain about the notice. There are 10 empty parking lots in this neighborhood. (Tuesdays is bounded by three of them.)
Another advantage Kristal feels his club offers is the open seating. One can wander right up to the stage and watch without being bothered.
"Open seating allows the freedom to get up and walk around. There's more excitement. You're not locked into sitting next to someone you don't like. You can get up and shake yourself."
Kristal, a thin, dark-haired world-weary looking man, says he got the idea for the club when he would come down to San Diego for visits. He thought it would be a good place to live and see what he had been doing before.... He obviously has hopes that Tuesdays, like the Fillmore West, will be more than a mere concert hall.
"If Tuesdays is successful, it has no limitations as far as the community is concerned. If the rent is paid, it allows for community projects. It can be offered to local artists, filmmakers, and musicians. We shows films between acts at the Fillmore and a half dozen of them won awards. Some of those filmmakers got into the film business because they had a place to show their films."
Those plans, if they are carried out, are still far in the future. Now, Tuesdays will have problems staying afloat unless the crowds begin to come.
"I think that if people supported this place rather than spend $7.50 or $8.50 in larger facilities not ideally suited for watching the show, that sooner or later, acts would have to accommodate themselves to the situations. There'd be bigger and better groups playing this kind of place.
"If no one is interested in a place like this, I might stay here a year and lose a million dollars. But would it pay to lose a million dollars to prove a point? It's just based on a gut feeling whether people in this city are interested in something happening, in having a music hall. It's not really down to dollars and cents. You get to the point were you say to yourself that you're being stubborn and you've got your head in the sand.
"I haven't really stopped to evaluate what I'm going to do, but I'm going to have to start thinking about it very shortly — whether there will be an active music hall in San Diego or an empty building."
Delaney Barnlett, formerly of Delaney and Bonnie, now of Delaney and Friends, was the supporting act of the night Sons of Champlin played at Tuesdays.
"I think it's great. It's just too bad they didn't have more people down here. It's one of the best places I've played. Those big places — all you do is get up and wail. It sounds like that and it feels like that. This is smaller, but not big enough to be a nightclub.... This is a nice place. i just hope the owner doesn't get angry about the whole thing and stop it."
Here's something you might be interested in.
Keeva Kristal, a partner of Bill Graham in FM Productions, tries the nightclub Tuesdays
The first two weeks: Linda Ronstadt, Quicksilver, Jo Jo Gunne, and Dr. John.
Keeva Kristal, a partner of Bill Graham in FM Productions, tries the nightclub Tuesdays
The first two weeks: Linda Ronstadt, Quicksilver, Jo Jo Gunne, and Dr. John.
On the weekends most of San Diego's downtown section from Broadway to Market is deserted. The warehouses and the wholesale buildings and the truck parks stand alone and quiet. All the entertainment spots are miles away — with one exception.
Tuesdays, a direct descendant of Funky Quarters, which burned down two year ago, and J.J.s, which stopped having big name groups about six weeks ago, is unlike any other club in San Diego now. It is not really a nightclub nor is it a quick-change sports palace. What used to be Monty's roller skating rink at Front and G Streets is now a place that showcases people like Linda Ronstadt and Dan Hicks every Friday and Saturday night. There are no huge crowds, no pushing, no scrambles for seats.
Keeva Kristal owns Tuesdays. Since October 18, Kristal, a promoter from the days of Fillmore east and west, (he was a partner of Bill Graham in FM Productions), has been struggling with what should be a simple concept: putting on the best rock/folk music in town for the right price. The line-up of acts in the first two weeks has been incredible — Linda Ronstadt, Quicksilver, Jo Jo Gunne, and Dr. John. An audience can sit anywhere and see two or three big-name acts for $5. Everything has been running smoothly so far, but no one is showing up.
"I expected that a San Diego audience would want to see a good show under the best possible circumstances. We only had a couple of hundred people Friday night (the night they has Sons of Champlin). We've had three good shows — good shows. Maybe they could have sold the place out. The crowds were certainly a lot less than we expected."
Although a lack of attendance has been a problem, those who have attended have been treated to a friendly, warm environment: With a peak capacity of 3100, Tuesdays is far more intimate than the Sports Arena, for example. The ceiling is low and it is paneled with acoustical tile to hold the sound better.
"We haven't had a group of performers which hasn't come up to us and told us how much they liked this place. Linda Ronstadt, for example. She was great. She sounded so good; she knew it and the crowd knew it.... This is a concert hall, not a basketball court that someone puts seats and a sound system into. People are getting tired of going to a concert, sitting 300 feet away from the stage and not setting what is happening. That's not a concert, it's a scene.
"Right now people still save their money for the big acts. In the long run, I think they shortchange themselves. They would have a lot better music scene and get a lot more diversified music in a place of this type."
Kristal claims that starting the Fillmore West was the catalyst in starting the whole San Francisco music scene. He says that after they opened the Fillmore, Columbia opened offices in San Francisco local groups began to get better known, and you had the "San Francisco sound." He obviously thinks the same can eb started in San Diego if Tuesday is as successful as the Fillmore.
Tuesday's location may seem out of the way to a lot of people. You have to come south on Kettner or First or 10th or West on Market or F Street and cross downtown, with the spectre of Redevelopment hanging over it, a federal courthouse and prison going up nearby, is so quiet, it's even ominous in the daytime. Except for a few "hip" small businesses in renovated warehouses down the street, the Spaghetti factory down on 5th and K, and the new offices being made in the old independent building, the area is a ghost town. Yet Kristal considers the location perfect.
"The location offers a lot. There are no traffic problems, no parking problems, no noise problems. No one's down here at night, so no one can complain about the notice. There are 10 empty parking lots in this neighborhood. (Tuesdays is bounded by three of them.)
Another advantage Kristal feels his club offers is the open seating. One can wander right up to the stage and watch without being bothered.
"Open seating allows the freedom to get up and walk around. There's more excitement. You're not locked into sitting next to someone you don't like. You can get up and shake yourself."
Kristal, a thin, dark-haired world-weary looking man, says he got the idea for the club when he would come down to San Diego for visits. He thought it would be a good place to live and see what he had been doing before.... He obviously has hopes that Tuesdays, like the Fillmore West, will be more than a mere concert hall.
"If Tuesdays is successful, it has no limitations as far as the community is concerned. If the rent is paid, it allows for community projects. It can be offered to local artists, filmmakers, and musicians. We shows films between acts at the Fillmore and a half dozen of them won awards. Some of those filmmakers got into the film business because they had a place to show their films."
Those plans, if they are carried out, are still far in the future. Now, Tuesdays will have problems staying afloat unless the crowds begin to come.
"I think that if people supported this place rather than spend $7.50 or $8.50 in larger facilities not ideally suited for watching the show, that sooner or later, acts would have to accommodate themselves to the situations. There'd be bigger and better groups playing this kind of place.
"If no one is interested in a place like this, I might stay here a year and lose a million dollars. But would it pay to lose a million dollars to prove a point? It's just based on a gut feeling whether people in this city are interested in something happening, in having a music hall. It's not really down to dollars and cents. You get to the point were you say to yourself that you're being stubborn and you've got your head in the sand.
"I haven't really stopped to evaluate what I'm going to do, but I'm going to have to start thinking about it very shortly — whether there will be an active music hall in San Diego or an empty building."
Delaney Barnlett, formerly of Delaney and Bonnie, now of Delaney and Friends, was the supporting act of the night Sons of Champlin played at Tuesdays.
"I think it's great. It's just too bad they didn't have more people down here. It's one of the best places I've played. Those big places — all you do is get up and wail. It sounds like that and it feels like that. This is smaller, but not big enough to be a nightclub.... This is a nice place. i just hope the owner doesn't get angry about the whole thing and stop it."
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