They’re back, but for Buffalo's concert clubs, the struggle continues

After a summer that sparked some optimism in the live music industry, many concert clubs in Western New York entered the fall season with fully packed schedules and high hopes. 

But as has so often been the case throughout the pandemic, the landscape shifted, with new protocols arriving in Erie County, the discovery of the Omicron variant heightening public anxiety, the number of Covid-19 cases in the region rising and hospitals beginning to fill to capacity. 

Amid this air of uncertainty, area concert clubs have been attempting to carry on, most of them eagerly embracing masking and proof of vaccination/negative Covid-19 test entry protocols and doing their best to battle a lingering hesitancy among their customer base. 

“We get these little moments where we think people are starting to feel good, things are turning around and then you string together four or five days of not feeling that way at all,” said Jason Hall of the Sportsmen’s Tavern and the Cave. “It’s still very up and down. The strangest thing has been that I can’t really get a sense of the pulse of the music-supporting community right now. That was something I could always do and something I relied on, but every single day is just a guess right now. It’s weird, it’s different and it’s inconsistent.”

Reimagining a space

From the beginning of the pandemic, Town Ballroom owners Donny Kutzbach and Artie Kwitchoff said they’d open again only if and when it was safe to do so, and they could operate at full capacity. After staying dark for more than 18 months, the Town Ballroom finally reopened in September.

“I don't think we had much choice,” Kutzbach said when asked how he and Kwitchoff managed to stick to their guns throughout this period. “We didn't expect to take 18 months off, but there we were. Public safety being paramount, we weren't going to take any chances before vaccination was fully in the picture.

“Artists actually touring was the other key. Without the kind of acts that sell tickets, it didn't make sense to open. The business model couldn't work for anyone at lower capacities. 

“Being closed gave us a moment to rethink things. We started to ask ourselves questions. What did we want to do once we came back? What did we want to change? How could we be better? How could we reclaim space that either hadn't been properly utilized or had been completely wasted? The answers turned out to be way more than we had expected.”

Kutzbach and Kwitchoff took the opportunity to reimagine and reconfigure, launching a redesign in February that included an overhaul of the main stage, an upgraded lighting system and the creation of what Kutzbach called “a brand new stage and a second venue within the venue” on the Main Street-facing side. The new venue space will accommodate 450 patrons and is outfitted with state-of-the-art sound and lighting systems.

In addition, the side room formerly known as the Leopard Lounge is now part of an expanded entryway, new flooring has been installed throughout the front of the venue and another side-room that formerly housed a pizza window during events has been reimagined as the TC Lounge, another venue within a venue that Kutzbach said “celebrates the history and era of the Town Casino, with nods to guests and artists from Miles Davis to Marilyn Monroe.” 

Expansion and redesign aside, Kutzbach and Kwitchoff are still adjusting to the altered landscape of the live music industry, an adjustment complicated by the need to alter admission policies and restrict access to only those who’ve been fully vaccinated or can prove negative results to a Covid-19 test 48 hours before the event in question. 

“It's been kind of a roller coaster,” Kutzbach said. “I'd say it's better than 90% positive, in terms of people at least accepting the policy. I took to answering the phones here and I'm not going to lie – I've hung up on people that wanted to argue and scream at us because they don't want to get vaccinated, or saying that we are somehow taking away some perceived freedom of theirs. I’m looking at what we do in a very new way now that we’re back.”

Tentative rebirth

Like the Town Ballroom, Buffalo Iron Works closed at the beginning of the pandemic, and remained dark until late summer of this year. For owner Josh Holtzman, despite the challenges, the return has made all the sacrifice worthwhile.

“Things have been going well,” Holtzman said. “It felt as though the venue was frozen in time, and then all of a sudden, the gears were turning again and we were back in the flow of it. The response from the fans has been positive.

“It’s been like a giant family reunion. Nothing beats that feeling of seeing all your favorite people back for a sold-out show – something I wasn't sure I'd see again in the near future. We feel a sense of rebirth, that we're truly living the comeback story that we've always preached.”

Venues such as the Town Ballroom and Iron Works are largely dependent on the availability of touring acts that fit their general demographic. Surely, the reappearance of touring activity over the summer offered a good omen?

“I would not call this past summer a success,” Kutzbach said. “That's not to say that I wasn't glad to be back at shows, or that they weren't sometimes fantastic, but it was a struggle. Talking to friends and colleagues out there, it was extra confusing and could be genuinely scary.

“Financially, it was not great for anyone, because sales were way down and expenses were up. The only victory that I see was that we actually made it. We got back to it and I know we did it as safely as we possibly could.”

Though it was one of the few concert clubs to spend the majority of the pandemic open for business, the Sportstmen's Tavern did shut down twice – for a three-month period, beginning in March 2020, and then again when Erie County faced "orange zone" restrictions from mid-November 2020 to mid-January 2021.

“We were behaving more like a restaurant for most of 2020 and the first half of 2021 – that’s how we were able to fight to stay open,” Hall said, citing the multiple licenses the business holds – restaurant, cabaret and live-music venue – as a saving grace during the darkest days.

“Not that it was easy – it was insane, actually. But we had to open. We had to do something.”

A path forward

Though the Town Ballroom, Iron Works and Sportsmen's Tavern are markedly different venues in terms of size and clientele, Kutzbach, Holtzman and Hall share a largely optimistic view of the future – for both the industry in general, and their respective clubs.

“Looking to the summer of 2022, I think things will be unprecedentedly busy, because everyone is planning on touring,” Kutzbach said. “Think about it – we have acts that canceled 2020 tours and they would be on a new tour cycle this year. No one is sitting it out. They can’t.”

For Hall, this potential burst of activity can't be taken for granted. Reaffirming the relationship between venue and music-lover is paramount to future success.

“I think that over the course of all of this, people found other things to do,” he said. “We need to remind them that we’re here – all of us, as a music scene and a music community. It’s up to us to remind them all what they’re missing.”