The Rosewood, New Blood

Recently someone suggested that the Rosewood Theatre was hurting financially on one of our comment threads, and it seemed like a good time to discuss the bar. Last night "Christmas Magic" and I attended the incredibly packed Rasputina show and I began to see how this place could be a really cool setting if the right bands came out. Full house, a show that was appropriate to sit through, good beer and wine and Stoney's for the cheapsters, and the sound, to me at least, was decent.

So why have they been having financial issues? Why aren't all of their shows having lines that wrapped around BW-3 like last night. Well, I'm sure everyone's got their theories, but I'll give you mine. It seemed like Gary had been booking touring acts appealing to a narrow demographic of Morgantown's populace. That's just me seeing from the outside looking in. Given, that demographic is ignored by 123 for the most part, but it's tough to imagine them supporting an entire venue.

That said, Gary does seem to have opened up the booking to include a lot of differing styles and some local/area acts (the Emergency, 6'6" 240, the Recipe, the Argument) and I think that's going to be necessary. I see more local acts that would normally probably play at the Brewpub (Vern's Pot o' Chili) and I think that's a good thing for them. There is some overlap with 123 but I think Gary is getting a little bolder with it and I think there has to be a little bit of overlap or there's no room in town for them.

The other problem they may have had is that for whatever reason, they have had some pretty bad sound in the past and treated local acts playing there in ways that can be described as anything from frustrating to intolerable depending on who you ask. I myself have experienced this firsthand and for a long time expected to never perform at an event there. However, I'm told that a lot of the problems have been smoothed over and let's hope this is true.

The last thing I'd like to mention is that I've heard there no less than four new bands in the works. I've heard at least one passing by their house and I'm really excited to hear all of them. As I said at some point in time, we need some new blood in the scene badly. There are a lot of excellent bands in town that have good draws, but a lot of them are starting to play too often and it could be a detriment to them. A few new bands will fill in a lot of holes. Also I note that the Devolvers seem to be back and playing Saturday's opening slot for the Walkmen, which should be great [EDIT: Joe confirmed they're not playing the show, I guess it was a communications error. Hopefully they'll be playing some shows soon though]. COBRA are one of the bands I was referring to in the four, which is a more 'rock' sounding band that I'm told is essentially the same lineup as Drown Culture. Their debut show is Saturday week. Another new band will be opening up for the Emergency at their Rosewood show this Friday, and they haven't yet picked a name I think. But make sure to come out early, what I've heard was pretty awesome.