RSSCan an all-ages club work in Yakima?
ON Magazine
ANDY SAWYER/Yakima Herald-Republic Escape the Caberet performs at The Zone Friday, March 31, 2007.
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Tucked in an old downtown Yakima hotel building is the long-forgotten Jade Room, the lounge portion of the long-gone Dragon Inn restaurant.
Tommy Tutone once played there (they had the 1982 hit "867-5309/Jenny"), as did longtime local favorites The Shreds.
This past summer, though, the space reopened, and a whole new generation of bands has been rolling in. The new Jade Room reflects the latest attempt to give Yakima teens a place to hang and rock out.
Dimly lit, with worn floors, kitschy Chinese pagoda decor (remnants of the past occupant), a newly built stage and a large, open floor space, it's the perfect spot for rock shows.
"I'm doing this because the community needed this," says 18-year-old Tyler Brittain. "And most of the time it's fun."
In July, Brittain, a recent East Valley High School graduate, began renting the space at 104 E. Chestnut Ave. after founding his company, On Scene Productions, with $65 in his pocket and the determination to run an all-ages venue.
The Jade Room hosts local, regional and touring bands, mostly of the metal variety, as well as a couple of DJ club nights. On its best day -- the first DJ night -- 350 people ventured in and out of the alcohol-free, volunteer-run venue.
On its worst: "We had 23 people throughout the entire night," Brittain says about one of last month's shows.
That's not enough to sustain any kind of business, especially one that keeps the doors open through "a combination of luck, persistence and determination," he says with a sly smile.
"We don't make money," Brittain says, "but we survive."
Exactly how, though, he's not divulging. But for now, The Jade Room seems to be staying put.
Tonight's show features Northwest horror-punk band Schoolyard Heroes, who in 2003 came in second in the Experience Music Project's Sound Off! battle of the bands competition. Also on tonight's bill are Kane Hodder, Girl on Fire and Kill Your Ex.
"It will most likely be our biggest show," says Brittain.
The Jade Room fills the void left by The Zone, the former all-ages rock 'n' roll hole in the wall on Yakima Avenue where Brittain, like plenty of teens in Yakima, remembers seeing his first concert.
Operated by Chuck and Sue Smith, it was a place for tattooed and pierced kids in black hoodies to hang out, and where a lot of local bands cut their musical teeth.
Despite ups and downs in audience attendance, The Zone was successful, solely in terms of longevity. It lasted eight years, before a new owner bought the building and shut down the club in April 2007.
But while The Zone lasted longer than other similar ventures, it was open only sporadically at times, and for most of the last 18 months of its existence the landlord was letting the Smiths slide on the rent.
Still, turning an all-ages venue in Yakima into a profitable business seems nearly impossible.
There are plenty of explanations, theories and rants about why: Teens would rather just sit at home playing "Guitar Hero"; they're not interested in cultivating a local music scene; they'd rather be out causing trouble.
While that may pertain to a small group of teens, plenty of people on the business side of the local music and club scene -- including Brittain -- agree on a couple of more practical reasons why it's such a challenge.
First, there simply aren't enough teens in Yakima to support all-ages venues on a regular basis. And that explanation doesn't just pertain to rock joints.
Raquel Cervantes and her sister, Silvia Rosas, opened Club 509 in April 2004. The venue, housed in an old warehouse on North Second Avenue, catered to Yakima's teen Latino and hip-hop community. It hosted rap battles, concerts by teen music producer M Status and his crew, and was just a place to hang out and play X-Box.
But after the first year of operation, the sisters switched their business plan from teen club to renting out the space for quinceañeras, weddings and other functions. That operation, they say, was much more financially successful.
"I sometimes think Yakima's not a big enough city to sustain (a teen club)," says the 28-year-old Rosas.
Technically, of course, there are more than enough teens to fill a club or two, but that doesn't mean they want to go to one, have the money to pay the cover charge, or that their parents will let them.
Collecting a cover charge -- which around here usually ranges from $5 to $12 per person -- isn't enough to pay the bills.
Which is the second big reason that all-ages venues struggle.
"Kids don't buy anything," says Chris Malland, an owner of the revamped Yakima Sports Center, which experimented with all-ages music shows when it opened in spring 2006.
"Their parents give them enough money for admission and a soda pop," Malland says of local teenagers. "And most of the money that comes through the door goes directly to the band. ... So what's paying the light bill?"
The answer: the people buying food and running up a bar tab.
So why not have both -- all-ages and the bar crowd?
"There are just too many nooks and crannies in this place," Malland, 39, says about keeping an eye on the under 21 crowd.
On weekdays, those under 21 can stay until 11 p.m. at the Sports Center, except for the partitioned-off bar area, which is always off limits to those too young to buy alcohol. But Friday and Saturday nights, when there are a couple hundred people filling the joint, to make sure everyone with a drink in hand is of legal age would require extra staff and perhaps even a wristband system.
And if you're barely breaking even on a band as it is -- "We hardly ever do," says Malland -- it's hard to justify the expense, not to mention the potential liability problems, of opening a show up to all ages.
A few places like Ray's Golden Lion in the Tri-Cities do make it work, though.
Ray's, a Chinese restaurant by day, is home to a popular all-ages venue that also has a 21-and-over bar area. Security is positioned at the venue door and at the entrance to the bar; anyone drinking has to show ID and wear a wristband.
"It seems like the solution is to have mixed shows," says 28-year-old Danille Wiemers, a hard-core all-ages supporter who helped book bands at Ray's from 2005-07. "But if you can't afford to do that, then it makes sense to have it just 21-and-over."
Local booking agent Dan Craig, who has a 15-year-old son, thinks that instead of just mixed-ages shows, the answer for Yakima may lie in a mixed-use facility similar to Seattle's Vera Project, which recently moved to new digs in the Seattle Center.
Founded in 2000, the Vera Project is a nonprofit, smoke- and alcohol-free music-arts center run by and for youth. It hosts all-ages shows but also educational classes on sound engineering and event organizing. It gets partial funding from the city and relies on volunteers, grants and donations.
"Rather than thinking in terms of why doesn't it work, think how would it work," the 43-year-old Craig says of the possibilities for Yakima.
And just maybe, it'll take someone a little naive, a little green, but also a little more in-tune with what Yakima teens want, to make an all-ages venue work.
"It's one of those jobs that's thankless," The Jade Room's Brittain says while sitting in the empty space waiting for someone to come buy a pre-sale ticket for tonight's show.
"But when I overhear someone say, 'That was an awesome show,' that gets me through the next show."
If you go
WHO: Schoolyard Heroes, Kane Hodder,
Girl on Fire, Kill Your Ex.
WHAT: Punk, metal.
WHEN: 7 tonight.
WHERE: The Jade Room at 104 E. Chestnut Ave. (It's downtown in the same building that housed the former Besame Mucho Mexican Grill and, more recently, the now-closed
Mercedes and Family expansion.)
HOW MUCH: $10 in advance, $12 at the door.
INFO: www.myspace.com/onsceneproductions.
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