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Brian Marshall & The ROCK 108 Morning Show - "Diane Smith from VenuWorks 8/28"

The Rock 108 Morning Show with Brian Marshall · Thu Aug 29, 2024

see there with remedy on the rock 108 morning show a band that has been around here several times including stops at the Alliance energy powerhouse the Cedar Rapids music census is going to be starting up here in September and somebody who is very familiar not only with the Cedar Rapids music census but bands going through the Alliance energy powerhouse Diane Smith director of marketing and sales from venue works welcome to the show

thank you for having me

so I have to know

A little bit of background first off.

You're heavily involved in the music scene around here.

And what is your particular role at VenueWorks?

So like you mentioned, I'm the director of marketing and sales.

So my team handles about 80% of the advertising for the shows that are coming through the Lion Energy Powerhouse, the McGrath Amphitheater, the Paramount Theater, and anytime we have events at the I'm on Ice Arena.

So you have to know.

Yes.

Favorite bands to work with

favorite bands to work with

in no particular

order You know in if we talk about like general genres Honestly the Generally the rock bands are actually there we go really great to work with Shinedown is fantastic.

They're super super nice

shocking Why was it Shindell what what did you like about Shindell?

They're just super low-key down-to-earth jelly roll.

Jelly Roll was great.

Oh my word, when I was bringing you guys backstage and we ran into him and I like put out my hand because I was like kind of a little starstruck and he just like gave me this big hug.

literally ran into him.

I don't know if you remember that.

I said jelly ethanol.

Yeah.

So.

And like I said, in general, rock bands, like I said, Shinedown really stands out to me.

We've always heard the country fans are difficult in Cedar Rapids.

Come on, spill it.

see it in your eyes.

They're

not

the worst.

They're not the worst.

They're

not the worst.

They're not the worst.

They're not the

worst.

They're not the worst.

They're not the

worst.

They're not the worst.

They're not the

No, he's super protected.

Yeah, you know, it's actually.

Comedians are kind of tend to be a little bit hard.

I can see that, especially the national, the big time that you put inside.

No,

Chelsea Handler was super nice.

Really?

Yeah, yeah, neighbor gotsy.

He was he's super nice guy.

How about Theo, you have Theo.

I wasn't here for that.

Oh, no.

Okay, that was before you.

Yeah, that was before me.

Okay.

Yeah, we actually...

Yeah, we had Theo before he was a huge thing.

Oh.

Yeah, he was 2020 or 2021.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was before me.

But yeah.

No, the big ones are down to earth.

Yeah?

Yeah.

Do you do anything with Bert Kreischer?

I was not there that night.

I think.

So we like to bring in some special stuff for backstage.

Yeah.

So actually for Burt Kreischer, we brought in a llama.

What?

Yeah.

The name of the llama is escaping my head right now.

But yeah.

And then actually for Nate Bergazzi, we brought in baby goats.

baby fainting goats.

Why?

Yeah,

it's just something, you know, like,

so we really

try to like give the experience.

And so we will try to do our best to go above and beyond in the backstage area.

So, you know, taking note of what they like, or like my department will will bring.

put together a welcoming basket of like local things or like if we see they like dogs or just kind of something out of the normal

and to like make them

remind, remember us.

So with the theory of a dead man show that's coming up, the unplugged show at the Paramount Theater, what are you going to give a bunch of Canadians?

No, that's a good question.

Can we come up with something for us?

Dead men, how about caskets?

Can we do that?

Will that work?

I mean, it's unplugged.

Could we have a bunch of electricians come on by and, you know, have some electricity?

husband's electrician.

See?

We've got something figured out.

We got to work on this.

Russ, this is free.

Actually, you know,

I was just thinking, I didn't even think about that.

I should get some syrup from Indian Creek Nature Center.

Don't you think they have enough of that, though?

We got to work.

Hmm.

You could get some because of Tyler's hair.

You could get him some nice pomade or something like that.

Yes, yes.

Because he's got that pompadour of his hair.

We do generally do a lot of things around the crunch berries.

Yes.

It's Crunch Berry Day every day.

Yes.

Oh, who was it?

What tour came through and they were absolutely obsessed with crunch berries?

Oh,

man.

That's funny.

They had been was it?

Nate Bargassi's crew.

I don't know like we literally got your manager a basket of everything.

it ever hard on you that you have to work all day and then all night when the shows come in?

Do you take the next morning off?

So we are pretty flexible on that.

So yes.

Okay, good.

Or like, you know, we have OAR coming up on a weeknight and actually I would rather.

work weeknights for concerts?

I guess you still have your weekends off.

Yeah.

Although that's the bane of our existence that shows come through in the middle of the week.

Yeah,

absolutely.

But no, it can be exhausting.

We're looking at a very busy fall at the powerhouse.

is there stuff coming that we don't know about yet?

Possibly oh look at that Diane Smith director of marketing and sales at venue works, but it's not just about the shows that are upcoming It's about the Cedar Rapids music census.

We'll find out more about that and what's going on with it coming up skillet monster right now Helmet with unsung on the rock 108 morning show Russ Can you think of any other pages in the world of rock besides page Hamilton from helmet GB page?

Oh, yeah

First name though?

No other first names.

Yeah.

Diane, anybody?

I've got

nothing.

Diane Smith, Director of Marketing and Sales at VenueWorks joining us.

We're talking about the Cedar Rapids Music Census and I saw this and I wanted to know more because it looks absolutely fascinating and interesting for what we were trying to do here in the market with music, right?

Yeah.

So tell me a little bit more.

Yeah, so the Cedar Rapids Music Census is a collaborative effort between the city of Cedar Rapids, the Cedar Rapids Tourism, and the Economic Alliance, and then Venue Works.

And it's really, we just want to understand what is called the music ecosystem.

And that is...

the live music scene or the bars, the venues.

I'm not talking about like the Seven Dust bands

anything like that.

I'm talking about local bands.

Seven Dust is almost a local

band.

You're right.

But really to try to understand what that looks like right now because from the outside it seems very fragmented.

And then what can we do to make it better?

to make Cedar Rapids a little bit more of a live music scene on the smaller level.

We don't have many local bands.

No.

In the rock world, the bands we have are almost exclusively either cover bands or metal bands.

Yeah.

And the metal bands just don't draw from that big an audience.

Cover bands are okay.

We have some really good cover bands.

So I don't know how...

Can a huge corporation like yours or our big local corporation seed a scene and develop a scene and make it better?

So the census, which is the survey basically, is going to go out and it's for the musicians.

It's for the small venues.

It's for anyone that's...

in the music industry.

It's not for venue works by any means.

It's really about the community and understanding what's lacking so that

you know, the city or whether it is a community-led initiative can create, I don't know if you've ever heard of the Des Moines Coalition, Music Coalition, where it's really there to support and bring together everybody in the music, the local music scene, and make it stronger.

Yeah, if there were a couple venues in one in Waterloo, one in Cedar Rapids that held five to seven hundred people,

There's so much more we could do.

Yes 100% that

wasn't unionized Does

the

census itself identify the venues or is it more about the bands itself

all of the above

okay,

so really what is What is gonna we just actually walk through the questions yesterday on a call with

the company that is coming in from out of town to help us do this because they did this in Austin, Texas to help create the live music scene.

Wow.

Yeah.

So they've got all this data in all of these questions and then fine-tuning it to our area to ask, you know, it does, it breaks it down by promoters, by venues, musicians.

Are you a lawyer on the music scene?

Are you a stagehand?

And then depending on where you are in that, it kind of funnels the questions down of, you know, like...

Are you make can you make enough money to stand on your own or no?

yeah, it's it's we want information and answers from everybody because we truly want to understand

and bring it together because I think everybody knows how important music plays in our life.

You know, it can change our mood or it can wreck our mood.

So, Brian and I both signed up.

Are we gonna get questionnaires?

Is that how it works?

So you lovely people are community partners.

Right

here

on the page too.

Yeah, you're on the page.

So what that

means right now is in the community partner period of time is we're just asking for

help to put the information out when it comes time.

So we're gonna be releasing the census, September 6th.

So we're gonna be sending you guys information to share and get out there.

Oh, like every local musician is on our... Yes.

...is friends of us on social media.

Yes.

Gotcha.

Okay.

That's exactly why.

And then come September 6th, if you want.

You are more than welcome to...

Take the survey.

Yeah, I'm busy that night.

Well, good for you.

It's going to go on for a couple of weeks.

Oh, see?

Cedar Rapids Music Census.

More with Diane Smith, the director of marketing and sales at VenueWorks.

And what's going on with the Cedar Rapids Music Census?

And maybe we can find out a little bit more.

Maybe.

Maybe you can tell us some of the inside dirt on this upcoming theory of a dead man show.

You

didn't

give her a nickname.

Diane Smith, the woman.

Oh.

Did I know that?

That's what we call you around the building.

The woman.

Where did that come from?

I'm really

curious.

I'll let you guys take this one off the air.

Hail Storm is up next.

That's with my own worst enemy on the Rock 108 morning show.

Diane Smith joining us on the show today, director of marketing and sales from venue works.

Do you ever look around the powerhouse and realize how much history has come through?

the venue that has changed names a few times?

You know, it's more so we have a master list of every show that's come through.

Do you

now?

Not only the powerhouse, but

other venues too.

And so when I can go back to like 1979 at the five season center.

Yeah.

And you can see the numbers, how many people came out.

Yeah, we've got like

the attendance and so it really is, I'll be like, oh.

they came through, or we had a prod, we did a project where we made posters of old stage passes,

backstage

passes.

And old posters to put up by the artist rooms.

And it was really like, well, we had Dolly Parton, like, well, we had this, wait,

what?

It's cool how the venue has such a history to it.

And then after the renovation that happened in the mid-2000s,

Do any of the orange or brown seeds still exist anymore?

No, they do not.

They got all thrown away?

don't know where they went, but they're not in our

home.

That's sadness, because there were many of them.

I don't know what you're talking about.

So the five season center in the original production.

Yeah.

Had orange, yellowish.

Brown, it was all that 70.

What's

disgusting

colors,

why?

Oh, 70s, like 70s.

Like it was the color of a Shag rug.

Yes, there you go.

That's perfect.

Yeah, I'll try to sense the pictures.

We've got some old pictures.

Oh my God.

It's

very interesting.

Yeah, yeah.

But then you get to a place like the Paramount, right?

And the Paramount, beautiful.

What a beautiful venue.

One of the greatest places I've ever seen shows.

And to come back from the flood the way that it did.

Yes.

you know, in 2008, if I remember correctly, wasn't it the organ itself that had special ties and it had to be restored by one very specific person?

Is that right?

Yes.

So there's the organ and then there's a whirlitzer.

So the organ, unfortunately, is not original anymore.

But yeah, it's there's some really special unique.

history to it when I got to do my first tour and we went into the basement of the basement and I saw old Joe is what he and it was the old it was the air conditioner basically but it was this giant kind of turbine that would put air up into the tubes and to the floor of the paramount and that's how it gets just crazy.

Yeah did you hear that?

A basement of a basement.

That's the wild piece.

That's where

we want to get.

We want to do an archeological dig into the paramount.

You're kind of doing a dig into the music scene with the Cedar Rapids music census.

And that's the reason that you're here today.

This isn't just Cedar Rapids.

It's a couple of different counties, right?

Correct.

So we're looking at, you know, Lynn County, Benton County.

Other counties can take

it.

How about Bremer?

Is it Bremer or Bremer?

Bremer, yeah.

Bremer.

Because look.

A national band playing a bar in, is it Center Point?

Center Point would still be Lynn County, though.

Yeah.

Oh, that's Lynn County?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Bremer County would be Waverly.

Okay.

Yes, my hometown.

Is it really?

Yeah, Waverly,

Shawrock.

I think I think it's great that some of these bar owners are taking you know shots at booking national talent.

Yeah, this is where the bliss coming to MJ's doghouse and center point.

So this is kind of one of the reasons why you guys as the Cedar Rapids music senses are doing this is to do something like that, right?

Correct.

So it's really you know it's we're working with the local bars who are booking.

local music outside of local music, helping them out, helping the local musicians, helping the local promoters out.

So kind of all of the above.

Awesome.

Well, we'll get more with Diane and Lincoln Park one step closer is up next.