By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal music writer
POSTED: 12:08 p.m. EST, Jan 13, 2010
The still-new year has the potential to be a banner one for downtown Akron entertainment.
Between the University of Akron's E.J. Thomas Hall getting big-name national acts as well as opening the smaller Stage Door, downtown nightspot Musica bringing in a few national names such as Dinosaur Jr. and David Cook (oh, yeah, and the Black Keys) and the Akron Civic Theatre quickly filling its 2010 schedule, there should be plenty of reasons for folks to come to Akron.
The Civic in particular is gearing up for a busy year after a surprisingly full fall 2009 slate that included a variety of national acts such as rocker Rob Zombie, country hunk Gary Allan and hip, indie Americana act the Avett Brothers.
The folks behind the Civic have a couple of goals for the new year:
• Make as much money as possible, which is kind of obvious and is many people's goal for every year.
• Continue the venue's upward trajectory in terms of events happening in the building, which means they would like to build on 2009's total of 117 acts, a considerable jump from the 2008 total of 82 events.
• And increase or at least maintain the number of national events. To that end, Civic officials have been cultivating mutually beneficial relationships with several area promoters, including Live Nation, to help build the national-act slate.
As for giving folks more reasons to come to the Civic, they have already held a series of benefit concerts in the Grand Lobby. At the end of the month, there will be another series of concerts dubbed AkroNites, featuring performances by local musicians and works by visual artists.
The small-room shows, tickets for which are $25 for each show, include Chris Allen, former lead singer of Cleveland Rust Belt rockers Rosavelt (Jan. 28); respected young jazz guitarist Dan Wilson (Jan. 31); singer/songwriter Zach (Feb. 25) and singer/songwriter Robin Stone (March 25).
Realistically, the folks at the Civic don't expect these small, intimate shows to put them in the black financially, but it is yet another way to use the building and keep the theater in the minds of folks in the community.
Besides giving local artists another place to play, the Civic schedule is also trying to keep the building busy with three tribute bands that were popular at Lock 3 Park. Tickets for the tribute band shows are $14.
First up Jan. 23 will be Draw the Line, a tribute to Aerosmith.
If you're an Aerosmith fan, then you probably already know that in the past month or so, Steven Tyler apparently quit the band to go solo, angering his bandmates. Then Tyler showed up unannounced at a Joe Perry Project show in New York to announce that he hadn't quit the band and to take a subtle dig at bandmate Perry by saying ''Joe Perry, you are a man of many colors but I [matriarch fornicator] am the Rainbow!'' before ripping into Walk This Way.
Wait, what was I talking about?
Oh, yeah, so who knows if the old guys will get it together long enough to record a few more sappy Diane Warren power ballads (that are all huge hits that Aerosmith members admit they don't particularly like, by the way).
So perhaps seeing Draw the Line, which got an endorsement from Tyler himself back in the late 1990s and has been listed on the official Aerosmith Web site, is your best chance to see a reasonable Aerosmith facsimile.
Civic Theatre Executive Director Howard Parr said bringing in popular tribute bands is one more way to keep the doors open and folks coming into the theater.
''Last year, we had ZOSO [a Led Zeppelin tribute band] in here and it did really, really well,'' Parr said. ''And, the tribute stuff at Lock 3 in the summer has gone so well we thought maybe we'll try it and see if folks will come in the winter time when they're looking for something to do and it's a relatively slow time for the building and it was consistent with our overall plan of program building.''
Parr added that booking events such as tribute bands allows the Civic to keep prices at a decent level while hopefully giving folks something they are willing to brave the cold to experience.
After Draw the Line, Hotel California (Do I need to tell you to whom they are a tribute?) will perform on Jan. 30 and ZOSO will return to the Civic stage Feb. 6.
Tickets for the Winter Rocks shows are $14, but hardcore tribute band connoisseurs can see all three shows with a MEGA ticket that costs $29.75.
''You've got these national acts, those are shows that are the backbone of what we do in terms of drawing in the largest groups of people, but there are two things about them, even if we tripled the number of them we do it wouldn't keep the building open,'' Parr said. ''Number two, they tend to be the shows that are very expensive and have the highest ticket prices and are accessible to the folks who have the ability to pay for them.
''The model is putting out stuff that is across the board in terms of price point and across the board in terms of types of entertainment keeping the building active and whenever we can, bringing in those national acts.''
I'll admit to a certain professional selfishness when it comes to more big national acts coming to Akron (''Ha! Now [big-name artist] has to talk to me!'') but it's also good for the city to dispel the still lingering stereotype of downtown Akron as some kind of dangerous, scary place.
Unless you're scared of being accosted by drunken co-eds stumbling from one bar to the next, there isn't much to fear from downtown Akron on a weekend night.
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
Details
• What: Draw the Line and Blissful Tension
• When: 8 p.m. Jan. 23
• Where: The Akron Civic Theatre,182 S. Main St.
• Tickets: $14
• Information: 330-535-3179, http://www.akroncivic.com, http://www.drawtheline.net
