Music: New venue opening its doors Downtown
The State Room, owned by longtime local promoters, to open April 1.
Club owners Chris Mautz, left, and Darin Piccoli at their new live music venue, at 638 S. State St. in Salt Lake City, that will be called The State Room. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune)
Club owners Chris Mautz, left, and Darin Piccoli at their new club, The State Room. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune)
Club owner Chris Mautz looks over plans for the new live music venue, at 638 S. State St. in Salt Lake City, that will be called The State Room. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune)
by David Burger
The Salt Lake Tribune
The State Room, a new music venue, is scheduled to open April 1 on busy State Street in downtown Salt Lake City, a few doors down from the popular Bar Deluxe and a few blocks from the equally popular Burts Tiki Lounge.
Guess it makes sense that one anagram for the venue's name might be A Test Room.
After all, opening a 299-capacity, 3,500-square-foot venue at 638 S. State St., inside the former Children's Theatre of Salt Lake, might be considered a test in any economic climate, but even more so in a recession.
Co-owners Darin Piccoli and Chris Mautz, longtime local music promoters, think the market is ready for more live music, despite recent closures, such as the summer shuttering of west downtown's The Palladium. "Saturation is the last thing this town has," Piccoli said. Piccoli, 36, books talent for Snowbird's summer concert series and the Utah Arts Festival, while Mautz, 38, books musicians for Red Butte Garden's summer concert season.
If anyone has displayed a recent sensibility for knowing whom an audience will buy tickets to hear, it's this pair. Piccoli and Mautz booked Kingsbury Hall's successful shows of Los Lobos and Return to Forever in the past year, while Mautz booked last summer's calendar at Red Butte, where nine of the 14 shows sold out.
"The economic climate should give anyone pause," Mautz said. "We've very conscious of the economic picture. But the State Room has its place, for sure."
Mautz conceived leasing a concert space about a year ago, as he was walking out of a meeting at The Bayou, another club that offers live music directly across the street from the State Room. Mautz saw an available sign posted at the theater, which has been dormant since the winter of 2007.
Like Piccoli, his friend of 10 years, Mautz had thought about creating his own place for years. "I wasn't ready to do this five years ago," Mautz said.
After booking and promoting Utah shows since the 1990s, they believe they know what makes an audience-satisfying experience. The two have developed a business model geared toward busy adults who want to see live music but are loath to go to a show -- especially on weeknights -- where the artist goes onstage near midnight. Mautz and Piccoli say the musicians will start performing at the announced show time so that people can be home at a reasonable hour. "We find it difficult to rally people our age at 10:30 p.m. on a Tuesday," Piccoli said.
Cultivating an audience, much like what is happening at Red Butte, is the aim. Unlike some of its neighboring clubs, The State Room will only be open on show nights, and then only between September and May, with 60 to 80 shows a year. "We're not doing this six to seven days a week," Piccoli said. "We don't want to be bar owners," Mautz added.
Concessions will be available in the lobby, while inside the venue, concertgoers will have different seating options, ranging from pews to fixed seating to cabaret tables.
Mautz wouldn't say how much the pair has invested in the place, which they are leasing. "It's in the tens of thousands, but not the hundreds of thousands," he said.
Charlie Newman, booker of talent at Bar Deluxe, hadn't heard about the new business but speculated that audiences might lose with the competition of another local music venue. "I just hope bidding doesn't go out of control," he said. "I'm worried about ticket prices going through the roof."
The State Room
638 S. State St., Salt Lake City.
Tickets go on sale March 1 at 10 a.m. at www.thestateroomslc.com. For information, call 801-501-2885.
Upcoming concerts:
April 1 » Stanley Clarke, $38
April 8 » Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit with Justin Townes Earle, $17
April 18 » Brandi Carlisle with Angel Taylor, $35
April 30 » Richard Buckner, $15
May 17 » The Flatlanders, $35
.
Prev
Linear Mode
