Musical Chairs

Two of the Salt City’s best known weekly music and beer events—Party in the Plaza, which has operated under the direction of the UpDownTowners, and the Inner Harbor Block Party, which has been one of the primary focal points of promoter Stacey Waterman’s DMR Booking Agency since 2006—have shuffled venues. At the same time, a new event run by local radio conglomerate Galaxy Communications, the Hump Day Concert Series, has emerged amid the turnovers.

Bill Cooper, president of the UpDownTowners, claims that Party In the Plaza has served as a model for other series, such as the Inner Harbor Block Party, since the non-profit was founded in 1980 and began running that event traditionally held at the Federal Building. Yet even while imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Cooper notes that the competition has splintered the audience and made it difficult to maintain adequate alcohol sales, the financial heart that drove the series.

“If you go back and look at what everyone has done, it’s that everyone has copied us,” Cooper opines about Party In the Plaza. “Everybody wants a piece of the pie, and it’s hard for any one group to be successful.”

Due to an especially rough 2008 for Party in the Plaza (during which time the UpDownTowners operated on a budget of about $40,000, as opposed to as much as $200,000 in previous decades, according to Cooper), the prez and his organization decided to push for a new summer event. Consequently Cooper and his executive board approached the Results Group, a local marketing company owned by Tom Tarry and Dave Thompson, to draft a new idea.

The result of that brainstorming session was Obcityan, an upscale, deejayed event, partnered with the Lava Lounge at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona. Although the marketing partners have not yet finalized a location, they do intend to host it on the rooftop of an undisclosed downtown building. Tarry and Thompson say they have indeed scheduled the inaugural run for Thursday, June 18, regardless of its mystery venue; the premiere event of the weekly series will be free, while on all other nights it will cost $5 to get in. The end date for the series is not yet known.

As for why the UpDownTowners decided to go with a more high-brow series, one requiring a dress code and upscale catering, Tarry says he and his partner think that bringing a New York City-like club atmosphere to Syracuse will attract an untapped market. “Bands and beer have been done to death in this town,” Tarry says. “This event has evolved into an in-the-air nightclub and dance club.”

Party Hearty

Yet the decision to hold Obcityan on Thursday nights conflicts with the scheduling of the newly created Regional Market Block Party, which got a jump on the other series by starting May 14 with the band that has helped Waterman pay the rent for years, Under the Gun. For the past four summers Waterman and her partner Mike Banks’ event was dubbed the Inner Harbor Block Party due to its situation at the Syracuse Inner Harbor Amphitheatre, and was held on Thursdays, which is when it will still be held, from 6 to 11 p.m., at the Central New York Regional Market, 2100 Park St. Admission is free.

Waterman says the move had a lot to do with the fact that she had to hire a security force consisting of Syracuse police officers as part of her agreement with the Lakefront Development Corporation, which is in charge of managing the Inner Harbor, and is now led by executive director Joseph LaGuardia. Simply put, the cost of hiring city police got too expensive, she says. 

Waterman notes that the change in venue had little to do with the LDC’s change in leadership, which came in February 2008 after LaGuardia “retired” from his marketing and band-booking position at the New York State Fair, a job he held for about 30 years.

“I’m sorry that when we started this thing Joe LaGuardia wasn’t there,” Waterman says. “It took me a while to come around to that, but I hate to leave there when Joe had just started, because I didn’t want to make him look bad, and I didn’t want to make it look like that was the reason we were moving.”

Three Thursdays in, the Regional Market Block Party series has been successful, attracting a few thousand people at its first run. Threats of rain likely kept the crowd away on May 28. And while there’s not much to be done about the fact that the Regional Market is, in fact, a large, somewhat uninviting parking lot, Waterman has high hopes for the Block Party’s success, even planning to bring in portable basketball hoops and the like to liven up the lot.

As for the answer to the most frequently asked question in Syracuse regarding Waterman’s dealings—Why book Under the Gun so often?—she remains resolute in claiming that the band simply draws a crowd like no other. “Until this band called Under the Gun, there were no rock bands at those events. The popularity of that band has opened up a whole new door to a certain demographic: people who are 30 years old and who grew up in the 1980s,” Waterman says. “People want to hear familiar music.”

Pam Levine, whose primary duties at Galaxy Communications include organizing events such as the Taste of Syracuse, realized in the midst of all the switch-ups that Galaxy had an opportunity to take over the venue that once hosted the Waterbanks event. And so was born the Hump Day Concert Series, which will start on Wednesday, June 10, at 5:30 p.m., with the Georgia Satellites. Admission is free for that series as well.

As the newcomer, the Hump Day series is yet to be tested, and as such many members of the local music community have fixed their gaze in its direction, anxiously pondering its potential. Yet, having used a weekly Wednesday slot, it is avoiding the Thursday crunch.

Levine, wife to Galaxy owner Ed Levine, sticks by the company line when discussing the Hump Day series, divulging little more than common business ambitions as Galaxy’s motivation. “There aren’t too many great events in Syracuse. Winter is long and summer is short, so let’s get out and enjoy the weather!” Levine gleefully suggested at the March 24 press conference that divulged the news of the event.

Marc Albert, owner of Showtimes, a concessions business, has partnered with Galaxy for the event. Albert has for decades organized beer and food sales in the area, including for Waterman, and says there is no bad blood between Waterman and Galaxy regarding the switch-up. In fact, Galaxy still hires her to organize bands for other Galaxy-run events, such as the Taste of Syracuse, Dysfunctional Family BBQ, Krockathon and Hottest Chick N Wing Festival, among others. 

“I know Stacey really well. Her event is a different event,” Albert says. “We work a lot with Stacey. Stacey does all the booking for bigger events. She has her thing on Thursdays. That’s where we’ve been very careful about what we do.”

When asked how she feels a local promoter could bring in national bands on an affordable level, Waterman says that the only cure is a new, larger venue that would replace the Landmark Theatre. “We’re in the middle of SPAC {the Saratoga Performing Arts Center}, the Finger Lakes and Darien Lake. We’re going to get passed over for everything. We don’t have a viable venue in that 15,000 to 16,000 {maximum capacity} range. Time for a new venue.”      

Banks on it: Mike Banks, partner of Stacey Waterman, appeals to the fans.

Dynamo hump: Having organized the Hump Day series, Pam Levine poses at the Syracuse Inner Harbor Ampitheatre. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTOS

A rose by any other name: Jimmy Falco, guitarist for Dead Rose, rocks out at the Regional Market Block party on May 28.