Cool Cleveland Commentary
A Festivus for the Rest of Us: CMJ Rock Hall MusicFest 2005
By Peter Chakerian

I love Austin, Texas. Really. I have a weak-in-the-knees, toys-in-the-attic, "swooning with love" feeling about that faith-restoring town with the *people-first* ethos. I love where everything is located and how accessible it is. I love Sixth Street and their Warehouse District, the “Tropical Fish Bowl” beverage at Treasure Island, Coyote Ugly, Shiner Bock, Hoek’s hand-tossed pizza, the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue, La Zona Rosa, Mexican Martinis and Antone’s. I love all of it.

But perhaps most of all, I love South by Southwest (SXSW), a three-ring-circus music/film festival and industry extravaganza known the world over. This isn’t any old “Lollapalooza,” “Vans Warped Tour” (or “World Series of Rock,” for some of you “old-timers”). It’s where unsigned artists get noticed, signed and often ride the slingshot to The Big Time.

During SXSW, Austin spills over with electricity and revelry. The city shuts down a part of the neighborhood, so that all the hardcore devotees, tastemakers and industry pilgrims can wander the streets amongst celebrity royalty and hopeful rock stars. The buzz is deafening; your dance card, burgeoning.

Some of the locals and regulars will tell you, “It ain’t what it used to be.” But you’ll see them next year just the same – cheering on the last moments of an unknown band’s anonymity. There’s just no question: those folks will be there.

SXSW has been called “an event of grand musical schizophrenia,” catering to (and challenging) every taste. Grammy winner Norah Jones and the British rock band The Darkness broke big after performing at showcases in 2002 and 2003, respectively; the White Stripes and the Strokes had similar successes after touching down in Austin and joined an equally impressive charter.

It’s not uncommon to sit down the bar from Elijah Wood, stroll by Robert Plant or Nick Lowe on Congress Avenue, bump into Mary Lou Lord busking in an ATM machine alcove, or brush past Janeane Garofalo or Shawn Colvin between showcase acts at Maggie Mae’s. Surreal doesn’t even begin to describe it.

When SXSW is over, I’m back on the plane with that dreaded Cleveland malaise. You know the one: it scurries across the floor, attaches itself to your skull (like those face-hugger creatures from “Alien”) and attempts to suffocate you again.

In those moments as a life-long resident, I can’t help but wonder: “Why can’t this happen back home? We’ve got the goods, too. The infrastructure, brilliant minds and talent! Give us a crack at it!”

This inevitably leads to questioning our “Home of Rock and Roll” status. And justly so, I might add: Austin really *is* the “Live Music Capital of the World.”

No, this isn’t a commercial for the Texas Department of Travel and Recreation. And no, don’t go booking your tickets to “Longhorn Country” just yet.

Wanna know why? Because, I happen to love Cleveland more. And I’m happy.

See, all of you in “e-land” have a chance this summer to give Austin (and several other music showcase cities) a run for their money, when Cleveland hosts a joint musical conference venture between the College Music Journal (CMJ) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, June 8-11.

Too good to be true? Read on, true believers, and I will tell you of…

A Festivus for the Rest of Us

The “CMJ Rock Hall MusicFest” kicks off Wednesday, June 8, with an opening-night concert at the Rock Hall. Over the next three days, a huge lineup of live performances will take place at Cleveland’s best live venues – including House of Blues, the Odeon, Beachland Ballroom, the Agora, Peabody's and the Grog Shop. The Rock Hall will feature educational programs, panel discussions and workshops focusing on artistic and economic aspects of today’s music scene.

Back-to-back daytime concerts will also be scheduled on three stages at the Festival Village at the Nautica/Scene Pavilion complex on the West Bank of the Flats, peaking with the seminal alternative rock act, the Pixies (yes, the Pixies). Some of the other acts are not only confirmed, but are equally exciting.

For me, this is a lifelong wish come true. I grew up reading Jane Scott’s columns and reveling in the passion that can be rock and roll. It’s the main reason why I started writing about rock and roll almost 15 years ago. But something’s been missing lately...until now. The world will converge on our fair city again, but this time in a much different way than they did for the classic rock kickoff party that was “The Concert for the Hall of Fame” at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

But I digress. This really isn’t about me. This is about our hometown and our moment to show the world a great time and prove that Clevelanders are willing to support more than just winners and mainstream events for the bragging rights.

So, where do we begin?

Well, I’d like to say on a concert stage, but we’re actually headed over to the skate park halfpipe first. I traded in my skateboard for a keyboard a long time ago, but feel free to grab your knee pads and helmet and follow me anyway.

Ollies, Griptape and Fighting ‘Gravity’

In the first year of a three-year partnership, the Gravity Games had more than a fighting chance at success. There was the “it” factor, summer staging on Cleveland’s lakefront and the cross-generational appeal of sports and music.

The Gravity Games became one of the largest events on the Cleveland calendar. With a $25M annual economic impact, 300,000 fans in attendance, a large national audience on NBC and national acts like Jane’s Addiction and Filter headlining, the Games rivaled the Grand Prix of Cleveland for local media coverage.

That’s impressive enough, by any account...but multiply that over three years and swelling interest in “alternative” sports and you have a magical combination.

The key is in understanding (and getting the word out to) every corner of your target audience, according to David Gilbert, CEO of the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission. Gilbert feels very strongly about perception, having been a key player in bringing the Gravity Games and many other sports-related events into the Cleveland market.

“As a sports city, Cleveland has deep roots, but music is also a vital part of what Cleveland is identified by and has to offer,” Gilbert told Cool Cleveland recently. “If the perception and awareness is there, a lot of exciting things can happen.”

To Gilbert, the CMJ Rock Hall MusicFest should be a very important event, one that might benefit from the Gravity Games’ success – “particularly if it becomes an established brand name.” Gilbert himself is working on bringing some form of the National Skateboarding Championships to Cleveland in the near future, based largely on the success of the Gravity Games.

“A lot of the success in any high profile event comes from doing a good marketing job – starting early, having the major media sponsors, all of the clubs aligned and marketing strategy in place alongside the grass roots,” Gilbert says.

“By-and-large, the CMJ is not a ‘known brand’ in Cleveland. But people who might be on the fence who believe and understand what the event is, how it functions and how it can benefit the city are much more likely to support it.

“I think that’s what happened with the Gravity Games and the International Children’s Games. It’s the ‘bread and butter first’ philosophy – giving people the information, the chance to be there and to understand, get behind and support it.

“As an organization, we have pushed in establishing Cleveland as a Midwest hub for action sports. That’s one thing. But when you add what the Rock Hall’s doing – and not just the brick-and-mortar hall and museum we have – to what that CMJ partnership is doing, it will lead to other big things one way or the other. There will be a hefty, positive impact on the local economy; I hope it is a huge success.”

Music as a “Heelflip” (a.k.a. Vital Civic Catalyst)

Music, live entertainment and the performing arts are more than just impressive cornerstones in any city’s unique cultural landscape. And they’re more than just a fancy card trick. They’re the very handshake/hug that welcomes you to a city. But for the folks of Austin, SXSW has also become an active civic image manager, an international power broker, a calling card and a bountiful fiscal catalyst.

Last year, the Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau reported that SXSW and the rootsy “Austin City Limits Music Festival” had a total combined impact of $31M on the city’s economy for 2004. Both conferences accounted for some to 24,000 rooms booked in local hotels; participants from around the world spent an average of $264 a day in the Austin metropolitan area. We’re talkin’ big money.

Then there’s that “passport” factor: SXSW may have been founded in 1987 with the purpose of providing a venue for independent musicians and industry professionals to network. Who would have guessed it would account for networking Austin into international government relationships with 17 countries and counting? The words “high profile” don’t even begin to scratch the surface.

“South By Southwest is more than just a significant event for us,” says Gary Bond of the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We see stories and features about the community all over the world – and not just with industry media outlets. And there’s that ‘sparkle factor’ to consider. At that moment, Austin is the center of the universe – the place for the savvy and creative music, film and technology communities. New York and Los Angeles basically shut down when things gear up down here. And, as Martha Stewart always says, ‘That is a good thing!’ ”

Our friends in Toronto, Ontario would unreservedly agree – outlandish SARS outbreaks notwithstanding. If music conferences are a happy family, well, then the North By Northeast Music Festival and Industry Conference (NXNE) is SXSW’s financially healthy, keg-standing “little sib.”

NXNE lights up Toronto with its eleventh installment this June; similar economic impacts abound and studies on them are pending. Not only does the CMJ MusicFest model compliment NXNE, in terms of a spread out event map and eclecticism, it also happens to share the exact same weekend as NXNE.

“Fancy that! Well, we wish you good luck down there,” NXNE Managing Director Andy McLean tells Cool Cleveland. “We’ve worked really hard to build [NXNE] from the street level up, with great success. As the music industry has changed, we have really become more relevant than ever before. It’s not a ‘top-down industry’ anymore: Music is returning to that indie-entrepreneurial base and is very much dependent on networking to find the right deals and partners.

“As a musician, I remember just how confusing those issues were and how difficult it was to get good advice,” adds McLean. “We bring it together in one location – all the components necessary to being successful in the business. Our panels are geared towards empowering artists and helping them make smart business decisions. People behind the scenes are just as important to an artists' career as the person standing on the stage.”

“Is it the Don Vito Corleone or is it Memorex?”

Let us not forget New York City, the world epicenter of cultural activity and home to the “Godfather” of music conferences, the “CMJ Music Marathon” itself. As a co-sponsor of Cleveland’s first serious foray into the world of music conferences, CMJ celebrates the silver anniversary of its “Music Marathon” this September, just as it helps celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Rock Hall in June.

CMJ’s “25th Anniversary Gala” includes the usual spate of live music showcases and musicians' clinics, as well as a film festival and Lincoln Center fashion show.

In no uncertain terms, CMJ events are watermarks by which other music industry conferences are measured. Over the last 25 years, CMJ has helped to break some of today’s most accomplished musicians: U2, Beastie Boys, R.E.M., Green Day, Eminem and Foo Fighters are just a few of the acts who cut their industry teeth with the blessings of the CMJ.

So, level with us: Will we find the “Next Big Thing” in Cleveland?

“Well, Pete, you always go into it hoping,” says Bobby Haber, the CEO of CMJ who started publishing the College Music Journal out of his parents’ basement in 1979. “Some years are just extraordinary; others are just good. And sometimes, a band just sneaks under the radar and made to be the darling of the weekend.

“You hope someone comes out, rises up to the top and establishes their career here. That’s our goal at CMJ, one of many, to make this a yearly success.”

Umm, yearly? Really? So, is that another goal – to make this an annual event?

“We certainly hope so,” Haber volleys. “We definitely want this to be an annual event. You know, the first year of anything is the toughest of all, but we have a lot of enthusiasm here. This has been two-and-a-half-years in the making, all in hopes that this can grace Cleveland late in the spring every year.

“We’re really psyched, but when [you’re] here the midst of planning two events, you can lose some of that perspective,” Haber adds. “But we have an amazing team here and at the Rock Hall and these are very exciting times for all of us. To my New York brain, Cleveland really is an amazing music town and we have a lot of expectations to live up to… and *then* some.

Haber is very much on-point on what will make CMJ Rock Hall MusicFest a successful event and what will draw skeptical Clevelanders to connect.

“Without simplifying it too much, you have to give people their money’s worth. These are things without an exact science, believe it or not. It’s about intuition,” he offers. “When people have great expectations, don’t just give them a good experience, give them a great experience. You want a unique, once-in-a-lifetime event, not to be too dramatic. Content is more than important, it’s critical.

“The reality is, that we are producing a couple of large events now,” Haber adds. “Everything we’re feeling is [muted], only because our hardest work is still ahead. But I am over the top about it! We love the support we have received to date.”

And what about the coup of seminal post-punk heroes the Pixies as headliners?

“Well, they’re as good as anything we have ever seen. Our canvas has many colors and the fact that they would grace us with their presence is just marvelous. It feels like the right mixture, and it’s great that you recognize that as a [coup] and we think it’s good for Cleveland.”

If you still really need the “Why we should care?” speech…

C’mon, Cleveland. At the end of the day, a well-attended and supported CMJ Rock Hall MusicFest should be nothing short of a rousing success.

Save the penmanship exercise about how “this is not a magic bullet that will solve every single one of Cleveland’s ills.” That’s obvious to all of us. But the MusicFest is as much about anchoring Cleveland’s perceived identity with the “Next Big Idea,” as much as it is about finding “Next Big Thing” in rock itself.

“The [big] idea is one thing, but how it is interpreted it is another,” added Terry Stewart, President and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. “This event has lots of moving parts and a fragile nature… and we feel that it drives home our message and our mission that we’ve had from the beginning.

“This has been bubbling up since the museum opened...We’ve had a lot of people come to the museum, all with the same comment: ‘You should have a music festival.’ We figured we had a better story to tell with something like that.

“One of the things that is hard for people to understand, is that non-profits have to stick to their mission, and regardless of whether it is ‘music’ and it might look like something we should do, it might not hit that ‘sweet spot,’ so to speak.

Stewart added that the MusicFest “reinforces that rock and roll is not an art form that has stopped growing and shows us the role that we need to continue to play in the future. Look at rap and hip-hop now. It’s like the early days of rock and roll… and it just keeps accelerating.

“There’s an obvious economic impact this [has] on the rock hall, but there’s more to it than that. We believe that we can define the mission of the museum better and identify what role we play in the city with something that is easy, affordable, accessible and educational,” Stewart finalized. “And we hope everyone comes here and engages in it the way we suspect Clevelanders will.”

Success of the MusicFest would go a long way towards affirming that civic “Home of Rock and Roll” character – one that began long before the Hall’s design was a glint in I.M. Pei’s eye. It could also open the door for worldwide exposure for Cleveland, some much needed economic growth in the tourism area and in knowledge sharing/best practices for larger scale arts events planning for Cleveland’s future. And who knows? Maybe another MusicFest next year…?

As for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame itself, it really is an “economic engine” – one that continues to draw support and tourists from around the world. There’s over $1B in revenue supporting the mission to educate people about rock and roll since the Rock Hall opened its doors 10 years ago. And if the MusicFest isn’t the next logical step in their evolution, well, then I don’t know what is.

By Cool Cleveland contributor Peter Chakerian peter_chakerian@yahoo.com (:divend:)