The rise of concert culture in Phoenix has changed its identity from a layover town to a live music destination. In this episode, we’ll go inside the Crescent Ballroom and Last Exit Live with Lotus and the Dead Winter Carpenters for a look into the energetic triad between venue, musician and audience. Will Bruder, famed architect of Burton Barr Phoenix Central Library, will join us to offer insight into his connection to space and a wild story about fringed suede boots in the 60’s. And while 9 years have passed since these discussions, the the enchantment of music and venue is timeless…maybe everything hasn’t changed.
Speaker1: [00:00:02] Hey, I'm Kyle Lamont, and welcome to a bonus episode of Concert Cast. In this episode, I'm sharing some previously unreleased interviews from 2013 Travel Back in Time with me to Phoenix, Arizona to meet the people and [00:00:15] explore the places that have now defined the city's vibrant concert culture. We [00:00:30] all have a home away from home. A place that is so familiar. When you're enveloped in its distinct sights, smells and sounds, you momentarily forget that you've [00:00:45] ever been anywhere else. For me, that place is Phoenix, Arizona, the Valley of the Sun, where, as an eight year old, I vividly remember dancing on top of the seats at the Phoenix Coliseum to witness my first ever concert. M.c. Hammer and Salt-N-Pepa. I [00:01:00] was dazzled by the bright costumes, wild choreography, and, of course, the music. And even after my parents divorce, where I was shuffled between Maine and Arizona, to Arizona, to Maine, that experience is still deeply ingrained into my fondest [00:01:15] of musical memories. And to this day, I returned to the Phoenix Desert to escape the coastal Maine winters. Which makes me a snowbird. I come here to revitalize myself through meditation and swimming and tranquil blue pools. And even though [00:01:30] it's the fifth largest city in America, Phoenix has been forever considered a layover town.
Speaker1: [00:01:35] For the longest time, with the exceptions of historic venues like Rhythm Room, its music scene has been as desolate as the Sonoran Desert. So for most, there were few [00:01:45] reasons to even venture downtown. But that's completely changed, largely in part of a music venue and restaurant called Crescent Ballroom. Owner Charlie Levey repurposed an old auto repair garage into a jaw dropping locale. In [00:02:00] many ways, the Crescent Ballroom has been a catalyst for cultural change and a thriving music scene across downtown Phoenix by attracting the best touring musicians as they travel between L.A. and Austin. In this episode, I had the opportunity to talk [00:02:15] with Mike Rampell during his time with the band Lotus in the Crescent Ballroom's greenroom. I had a chat with the famed architect Wil Bruder, who shared his wisdom of what makes certain public places so magical. And I even got to take a deeper dive into the meaning of a home [00:02:30] away from home with the members of dead Winter Carpenters who were playing at a music venue off the beaten path called Last Exit Live.
Speaker2: [00:02:42] I left Phoenix. It's so nice to be outside at night [00:02:45] in such beautiful weather. We have been here at record highs, though, 120 degrees.
Speaker1: [00:02:49] That's Jenny Charles of the Dead Winter Carpenters commiserating over an especially hot stretch of Phoenix's well known summertime weather, which is significantly different from their home base [00:03:00] of Lake Tahoe.
Speaker2: [00:03:01] Sometimes when you have to travel through night to to miss the hot temperatures so your bus doesn't overheat and die on you, then you know, that's a little rough. But I do love Phoenix. I've grown more of an appreciation for it over the [00:03:15] years. I think at first is kind of like, you know, you have to really get to know a town before you can judge it. And it's hard to do on the first five times, even because we usually show up, go to the venue soundcheck and go get dinner somewhere. And then we [00:03:30] play, you know, and we drive all day. So we don't really get to experience the town. And there's so many things that Phoenix has to offer. And they have a great music scene, too. I think so, yeah. I love it.
Speaker1: [00:03:39] The manager of Crescent Ballroom knows a thing or two about why downtown Phoenix has become such a draw. Obviously, [00:03:45] being.
Speaker2: [00:03:45] So close to the light rail and having a restaurant that was linked so strongly with some of the other strong downtown people like Chris Bianco and Tucker Woodbury.
Speaker1: [00:03:53] Who are other local restaurateurs, really kind of.
Speaker2: [00:03:55] Helps create something where people really want to be here, and I think it [00:04:00] also makes them really want to go to other places. People are like, Where can we go next? We're not going to be the type of people that say, Oh, you should stay here. You know, it's always like, you know, let's head over to Bikini Lounge or Schamus or lastly, you know, we're creating murals around town and you can definitely tell that people [00:04:15] are creatively inspired much more than they used to be in the past. I mean, it definitely you know, there's definitely been a trend in the last five years for people wanting to be downtown. And this is obviously the creative nexus.
Speaker1: [00:04:25] Mike Rampell, the guitarist for Lotus, has a special place in his heart for Phoenix, too. [00:04:30]
Speaker3: [00:04:30] It's great. It's it's it's fun. It's different. It feels different. Every place feels different. Being in Phoenix, you know, like like we've said, I have roots here. So it's that part in particular. Yeah, it's a homecoming of sorts. [00:04:45] And my parents are going to be here tonight. And so that's a whole nother level of it being special. Like, you know, I'm super grateful to them. They've supported me so much over the years.
Speaker1: [00:04:55] And since he's accustomed to playing at much larger music festivals and venues, I wanted [00:05:00] to know what it was like for Mike to play at a more intimate spot, especially if it's for their first time. So what is the relationship like coming into a new room? It must be. There has to be some serious communication with your sound guy, right, to test out new spaces of sound. [00:05:15] So this is an important sound check that you can't miss.
Speaker3: [00:05:18] Yeah, for sure. I mean, Evan, our front of house engineer, he. He tunes the PA and messes with various EQ settings and whatnot to make sure it sounds good. So [00:05:30] that's really his department. And then we, we adjust our in-ear monitors with pads. He's our monitor engineer. So yeah, we usually spend at least an hour playing during soundcheck just to make sure everything's sound right.
Speaker1: [00:05:43] Over on the south side of town, [00:05:45] dead winter carpenters have just wrapped up their soundcheck at a hole in the wall venue called Last Exit Live. It's a destination for lovers of jam and improv rock, reggae, funk and bluegrass bands, and was originally located in Tempe, the nearby college [00:06:00] town. But owner Brendan Klein Hart moved it to the Warehouse District in 2013, where it has an intimate clubhouse vibe immediately making you feel welcome. They've got a sizable outdoor patio and the band's green room is actually a real Airstream [00:06:15] trailer. So it was dead. Winter Carpenter stopped by to perform and promote their newest EP, Dirt Nap. They give their tired tour van a rest and stretch out on the patio. And then, I mean, you guys are practically everywhere this spring and summer. It's out [00:06:30] of control. Like, how many miles have you put on the van?
Speaker4: [00:06:33] Well, I know we got this van that we have now with about 62,000 miles on. It now has 213. So we've put 150 in the last three years. Wow. So 50000 to 60000 [00:06:45] a year.
Speaker1: [00:06:45] That's Jesse, the guitarist. And for those keeping track, their mileage equates to going more than twice around the earth.
Speaker4: [00:06:52] There's a lot of big country out there, a lot of mountains and snow capped mountains and rivers and different wildlife and stuff. And I really enjoy all that stuff. [00:07:00] And I think, yeah, depending on what moment in the mind frame you're in. Anything can come from that. I always enjoy seeing the trains come by and trying to raise them while we're on the road, you know?
Speaker1: [00:07:09] And so I ask him if he writes his songs on the road.
Speaker4: [00:07:12] I think the the ideas are [00:07:15] formulated on the road. But for me personally, it's hard to sit down and write while I'm out on the road. I usually try to gather any ideas or quips that I've come up with on the road and and sit around when I'm at home and hash them out more. Maybe [00:07:30] after a couple of days of rest, you know.
Speaker1: [00:07:31] Write Jenny, who happens to be Jesse's wife, knows exactly what he's talking about.
Speaker2: [00:07:37] One of my first songs that I wrote was I started in Virginia, and the first line of it is, Virginia is for lovers, [00:07:45] you know? So it's just it definitely inspires you to be be touring on the road and see different landscapes and have and mostly have different experiences that you can draw from to write material.
Speaker1: [00:07:56] And to Jenny performing and living on the road as a bluegrass musician, [00:08:00] especially as a female bluegrass musician, has a much deeper meaning. Bluegrass is pretty male heavy. Do you ever have like moments where you're just like, you look around, you're like, There's a lot of dudes here.
Speaker2: [00:08:14] It's always a sausage [00:08:15] fest. It really is. It's interesting because traditionally with our line of music, women were the ones that brought the music here from across seas because they were at home. And they they were the ones that carried the music and carried the [00:08:30] music tradition through. You know, when you listen to the Carter family and stuff, you know, and you're thinking about all the women that were such great, they all carry the traditions through.
Speaker1: [00:08:48] And [00:08:45] back at the Crescent Ballroom, the manager shares her stories of concert goers. First impressions of the Ballroom's architectural transformation. In 1917, the Crescent Ballroom's building was actually built as [00:09:00] a car garage on the coast to coast Dixie Overland Highway. Now it offers an outdoor performance patio, open rooftop, 7000 square feet of indoor performance space and an in-house restaurant serving some of the best Mexican food around.
Speaker2: [00:09:15] And [00:09:15] they're just astounded by how different it looks. And it's awesome for people to, like, look around and go, Oh, that's what you did with that. You know what I mean? Like we had an old architect that had come by and he's like, Oh, I took a look at the building a couple of times. I always wondered what you'd end up doing with it, and he was just so in love with [00:09:30] it and just like wandering around going, Huh, that that was a good decision. Like, you know, all those design aspects that you did are really, really cool. And I think with us having the ability to shut off the ballroom from the lounge, have lounge music as well as ballroom music is super important. [00:09:45] And also like part of the allure of Crescent is that you don't have to go in the ballroom to have a good time. You know, you can still hear the music, you can still have a band or a DJ out here. And it's it's it's also kind of shows the mixed use oddness of this facility. You know, we're not just a music venue, not just a restaurant, we're not [00:10:00] just a bar. We're a little bit of everything.
Speaker5: [00:10:02] It's a wonderful repurposing and it's a very nicely scaled concert venue that really brings the smallest to the largest venue and to the energy of the performers on the stage. And that's been a magical [00:10:15] addition to our community.
Speaker1: [00:10:16] That's well. Bruder He's the acclaimed architect of the Burton Bard Library in downtown Phoenix, a place I love to go to whenever I need to get some work done. The building is inspiring. The symmetry, the multitude of rooms and galleries [00:10:30] and a fun glass elevator are just some of the reasons why this place is a destination. Can you take me to the room where you first designed the Phoenix Library?
Speaker5: [00:10:40] Well, it's not about a room. It's about a journey. And the journey is about listening. [00:10:45]
Speaker1: [00:10:45] I'm meeting with Will at his studio, which was then off Camelback Road, just a 15 minute light rail ride from downtown Phoenix. His office overlooks a vast community garden and his apprentices are aglow in neon blue light, rendering new designs [00:11:00] on giant screens.
Speaker5: [00:11:01] My buildings are about light. They're about allowing you to plot the light of the day and the season, the time of day. And the building has an event at the solstice each summer where at solar noon, [00:11:15] on the first day of summer, we've had anywhere from 1000 to 2000 people from the community gather in the space. And as you look through the room to the north, you see the moment of solar noon precisely reflected in a dagger [00:11:30] of light above each candlestick column under these blue skylights.
Speaker1: [00:11:34] Originally from Milwaukee, will find inspiration from the land and culture surrounding his projects, which include internationally recognized libraries, art museums and breathtaking [00:11:45] private residences. And talk about breathtaking. The Burton Bar Library's Grand Reading Room has the best view of Phoenix. Hands down.
Speaker5: [00:11:54] It's an acre of space. It was designed to give the public of our community [00:12:00] the top of a building, the top of a mesa that they can look out from those windows beautifully proportioned and look across their city. And it's a quite special thing to give that to the common man. And I see the people [00:12:15] using the space, I see its simplicity, I see the ever changing light and has an interesting balance with what I aspire in architecture to be about.
Speaker1: [00:12:24] And when I feel the emotions evoked by his buildings, patterns and overall vibe, I can't help [00:12:30] but wonder about the relationship between music and architecture.
Speaker5: [00:12:33] But, you know, architecture really is frozen music. I had the privilege as a younger man of being in one of my buildings with John Cage.
Speaker1: [00:12:42] Among many things, John Cage was an avant garde [00:12:45] music composer and theorist.
Speaker5: [00:12:47] And he read the building in a more sensitized way than even the one of the great architectural critics that was with him at the time. He just read it. He felt it, he touched it. He [00:13:00] engaged it totally with his whole energy. And so it is music. I mean, architecture has made this reference and I aspire to that in my work. And I think that light is the music of our lives, how we perceive light.
Speaker1: [00:13:18] Though [00:13:15] Broder admits he didn't take much time to go to concerts during the rock revolution of the sixties. There was a day when the revolution came to him.
Speaker5: [00:13:26] It was March of 68, and I was sitting in the drafting room [00:13:30] as an apprentice to Paulo Solari, and everybody was saying, It's him, it's him. And I looked to my right out the circular window and I saw some strange fringe boots of suede at the ground level. And as I looked up to the round window above me, smiling at me was Jimi Hendrix. [00:13:45] He had just performed a game, which I had no idea who he was. That was before he burned his first guitar.
Speaker1: [00:13:50] But you'll never catch Jenny from Dead Winter Carpenters burning her fiddle. Which reminds me to ask her, what is the difference between a violin and a fiddle?
Speaker2: [00:14:00] You [00:14:00] can spill more beer on a fiddle. There's really no difference. Back in the day, they used to shave the bridge down a little bit where the the strings rest. They used to shave it down and give it kind of a warmer, kind of deeper [00:14:15] tone. And they had a lot of different tunings and stuff for the fiddle songs. But nowadays it's pretty much kind of, you know, if you play country and bluegrass music, then you call it a fiddle. And if you play classical, you call it a violin. [00:14:30]
Speaker1: [00:14:30] And while I had Mike's ear, I needed to ask him what it's like to play for so many people.
Speaker3: [00:14:36] Oh, yeah, I love it. It's. It's the ultimate entertainment. So watch people and where they're at and within their [00:14:45] own musical experience. Like, it's pure. It's pure entertainment and it's awesome. It's a pure joy. I mean.
Speaker2: [00:14:51] That's so funny. So they're.
Speaker1: [00:14:53] Getting entertained by.
Speaker3: [00:14:54] The music.
Speaker1: [00:14:55] Wearside Mutiny is, like, entertaining you with our antics.
Speaker3: [00:14:58] Oh, yeah, yeah. It's definitely [00:15:00] a cyclical, energetic thing. It builds and builds, you know? I mean, for me, it's just a I mean, it's just a joyful experience to see someone. To see someone. Sometimes I look down and maybe there's a particular person who's looking [00:15:15] right at me and they're smiling. And it's my innate, my instinctual response. When someone smiles at me, I smile back, so I'm smiling. But then I realise, like, just spreads across the audience, you know?
Speaker1: [00:15:26] And as I look around the Crescent's green room, which is in fact completely [00:15:30] green, with a nice leather couch and completely stocked refrigerator, I ask Mike of the hundreds of green rooms that he's been in, if there are any, that stand out.
Speaker3: [00:15:39] Well, yeah, we were just in Richmond, Virginia, at the National, and they have [00:15:45] what would be considered an epic green room. It has a sauna, a hot tub, a pool table. There's several lounges up there. I don't know. It's kind of ridiculous. A little over the top, but it's nice.
Speaker1: [00:16:00] When [00:16:00] Lotus takes the stage at Crescent, I'm standing in the back of the house on top of wooden bleachers, just like the ones at a high school gymnasium. From there, I'd like to scan the room like I'm a camera lens, starting with a wide view. And then throughout the night I slowly zoom in [00:16:15] to the front of the stage. Tonight they open their set with brake, build, burn. And when the beat drops. The room lights up and the crowd is. It feels like the room is levitating. I take this all in from up high [00:16:30] and then start to squeeze my way into the front. Just in time for them to play. Livingston Storm. The [00:16:45] bassist and keyboardist who are twin brothers, Jesse and Luke Miller, are silhouetted with purple and blue light. The drummers, Chuck Morse and Mike Greenfield, wear soft smiles. Their eyes are closed and hands are a blur. I can tell the [00:17:00] band is loving the proximity to the fans, and Mike's got a euphoric look on his face as he plays goosebump, inducing guitar. You [00:17:15] exude so much emotion, man, when you play the guitar. What goes through your head when you hit those beautiful chords?
Speaker3: [00:17:27] Well, I mean, that gets into [00:17:30] an interesting area where you're talking about being when you're most purely in the moment, playing music. There's there's not an intellectual process happening. It's not like I'm thinking [00:17:45] about, you know, the beautiful sunset or something. I mean, sometimes that can certainly serve as inspiration or even even a beautiful face in the audience can serve as an inspiration. But the ultimate musical [00:18:00] experience is one where it's just pure music and it's just sound and it's just happening. And you're like, You're one with the outpouring. So it's not an intellectual thing. It's not something that's going through my head. It's just a [00:18:15] very powerful unfolding of spontaneity. It's just happening. And that's that's the ideal place. I feel like that's where, you know, any any art form is becomes the most powerful when it's just a sort of [00:18:30] a channeling, a natural unfolding.
Speaker1: [00:18:43] Back over at last exit live. [00:18:45] The lights go down and dead. Winter carpenters take the stage. They open up their set with their song Cabin Fever, a foot stomper. People are hooting and hollering, hopping around. It's not stranded on this lonely road.
Speaker3: [00:18:58] A few drops of rain [00:19:00] cooped up in these cat walls will drive the man insane. Everywhere that we go, people see the name was strange. Being drawn in by. Everything looks the same.
[00:19:12] Welcome home, my new. [00:19:15] We've come such a long, long way. Oh, my. And it's.
Speaker3: [00:19:38] Cabin [00:19:30] fever.
Speaker4: [00:19:40] So cabin fever.
Speaker3: [00:19:42] Is.
Speaker4: [00:19:43] A little bit self explanatory [00:19:45] about feelings that you get during the wintertime. The idea came to my head about kind of a scene I had seen at the local pizza shop the night before, and just everybody hanging outside and it's dumping snow. And, you know, you want to get outside and enjoy the outdoors [00:20:00] as much as possible, but you're kind of buried in there and then you become more insular. And maybe some of those feelings that come from that.
[00:20:06] We've come such a long, long way. My.
Speaker4: [00:20:14] And it's really [00:20:15] bad news.
Speaker1: [00:20:28] Cabin fever. It's [00:20:30] wild to think that Lotus's first gig was at a 50 person venue in Indiana. They've since toured the entire US playing at some of the most historic [00:20:45] spots imaginable and even across Europe and Japan. So I've got to ask, Mike, when it comes to the performance, does the venue make a difference?
Speaker3: [00:20:54] I would say yeah. There are certain venues that do have a sort of [00:21:00] magical feeling about them. Let's take the Fillmore in San Francisco, for example, the legendary room. I've read about it in books. Write about particular shows like Grateful Dead and whatnot. It used to play there. And I think Tipitina's [00:21:15] in New Orleans is another example where you sort of like feel some kind of like mojo within those walls. It's it's hard to put words to it, but I think whatever that is expresses itself. [00:21:30] Like in the moment that the music is happening, the energy of a place definitely contributes to what unfolds in the music.
Speaker1: [00:21:38] And I asked Jenny if there were any venues that mean a lot to her.
Speaker2: [00:21:42] The Fillmore always has a special place in my [00:21:45] heart forever. I grew up going to see shows there, and that was the first time I decided that I wanted to be a touring musician when I was in eighth grade watching Silverchair on the stage. And I was I just love the Fillmore. So every time I go back, I [00:22:00] it's kind of nostalgic for me.
Speaker1: [00:22:01] Certain places have a kind of built in timelessness that resonate with performers and audiences alike and perhaps even transform the performance. I asked Wil Bruder what it's like to be the one designing a place that can have this kind of [00:22:15] influence on those who gather within it.
Speaker5: [00:22:17] I've had the privilege of creating in my own hometown, iconic landmark. It's a building that has a natural quality of it's a comfortable, modern building, which is [00:22:30] against people's expectation of what modern is about. It's a very central building. It's a very organized building. It's both rational, it's both pragmatic, and it's poetic. And that is why it sort of has this energy. It's very one can't one sets [00:22:45] out to aspire to create something of timeless nature. But you never can know in your own life to have this building as cherished by my community that I actually experience it. It's a very strange reality.
Speaker1: [00:22:59] So [00:23:00] let's hear it. For all the designers, venue owners and architects who create these sacred spaces for us to gather and experience the timeless force of the live music performance. And as time passes, it seems that everyone and everything evolves. [00:23:15] Mike Rempel is no longer with Lotus, but he's still making music now under the name of Rempel. In addition, he works as a personal coach, hosts guided meditation classes and teaches courses in mindfulness. Architect Will Bridgers Studio [00:23:30] has since moved to Portland, Oregon, but his current work in progress is the highly anticipated Palm Court tower, a 29 story multi-use building in downtown Phoenix, which will give its new tenants a fantastic view of the skyline. Jenny [00:23:45] and Jesse are raising their new baby while they play music on the road with dead winter carpenters. Crescent Ballroom has added a new dining balcony to their patio, and both Crescent and Last Exit have weathered the pandemic storm and continue to enrich the local music scene. [00:24:00] Downtown Phoenix now boasts two more music venues opened by Charlie Levy called Van Buren and Valley Bar. And in general, there's just so many more new bars and restaurants to check out here.
Speaker1: [00:24:11] As for me, Phoenix is still my home away from home. [00:24:15] And since that MC Hammer concert, I've been able to build so many more new music memories at these venues. I've always known that Phoenix is more than just a layover town, and I'm excited that people are making Phoenix the Valley of the Sun a live music destination. [00:24:30] This has been a good to go studios production created and hosted by me Kyle Lamont and made on the coast of Maine. Subscribe to concert casts wherever you listen to podcasts and find us online at Concert Cast Live and make sure to tell your favorite concert [00:24:45] buddy about our show. Our writer in this episode is Jim Piccolo and our editor. An engineer is Pete McGill from Dead Winter Carpenters. The music heard in this episode is Find Your Home and Cabin Fever from their album Ain't It Strange and [00:25:00] from Lotus Nugs.net recorded their live song, Brake Build, Burn off their album Build and also Livingston Storm from their album Nomad. Special thanks to Crescent Ballroom, Last Exit Live Will Bruder, Mike, Rumble, Lotus, [00:25:15] Jenny and Jesse of Dead Winter Carpenters. And thank you for listening.