Downtown venues face ‘biggest challenge they have ever seen’

BY LYNN OLDSHUE

Before Veet’s reopened at 4 p.m. June 1, manager Gina Jo Previto was nervous. The three-month coronavirus shutdown was the first time the bar had closed in 22 years. Would customers return? Had they done all they could to keep people safe? When is the right time to bring back live music?

One of the first songs played on the jukebox was “Drinkin’ Problem” by Midland. Bartender Kim Marvel and a few customers sang along: “People say I’ve got a drinking problem, but I got no problem drinkin’ at all. They keep on talkin’. Drawing conclusions. They call it a problem, I call it a solution.”

“It feels good to be back,” Marvel said as she opened a beer and sliced limes.

The coronavirus arrived shortly after the 2020 Mardi Gras season ended, with the best weather and crowds in years.

“We were on a roll from Mardi Gras, then coronavirus slammed on the brakes,” Previto said. “Thank God, Mardi Gras gave us enough money to save for a rainy day. We just didn’t expect a storm to come so soon. We used the down time to rebuild bars, renovate restrooms and repaint walls and floors. I guess that is our rainbow.”

Veet’s is open and booking musicians again, but Previto is concerned about the cancellations of conventions that keep the bar busy during the summer.

“Everybody comes in for Mardi Gras, Senior Bowl or when we’re packed and think that is the crowd every night,” she said. “They don’t see the nights when only two people are sitting at the bar. We have good nights and bad nights. If we are lucky, they balance out.”

Brickyard is easing back into music with acoustic duos in June. Owner Noell Broughton is waiting for Gov. Kay Ivey’s expected announcement at the first of July about returning to normal before he brings back bands and dance floors.

“This has been tough,” he said. “I have taken care of my employees as much as I can and we have remodeled, cleaned and painted, but it has been harder for musicians because they have no places to play.”

Broughton owns six bars and restaurants in Mobile and Baldwin counties and has 121 employees. He said the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) helped keep his businesses afloat and employees working. The city of Mobile and the Downtown Mobile Alliance helped connect the bars and music venues and did what they could to get them through.

“This shutdown is the biggest challenge that we have all seen,” Broughton said. “The only thing that makes it easier is we’re all in the same boat. We are working together to figure it out and lift each other’s burdens.”

Brickyard’s 10th anniversary is Thanksgiving and Broughton is hoping for a full-capacity celebration. 

“I couldn’t be more blessed to have the people working with me,” he said. “That old saying that you’re only as good as the people you have is the truth. So many people have worked hard to get us where we are. We need to celebrate that.”

Soul Kitchen closed March 12 and hasn’t reopened. Since their employees are not full time and contracted for each show, Soul Kitchen didn’t qualify for PPP loans. Owners Maggie Smith Eynon and Brad Young used the renovation money they set aside from a couple of good years to keep the music hall afloat during COVID-19.

“We signed with an architect the week we had to close,” Eynon said. “It breaks my heart that we can’t make the renovations, but at least we are still here. We could open at 50 percent [capacity] but the problem is finding bands. The music industry is in a holding pattern right now and we are looking for creative ways to open. We had some good shows on the books for 2020 and it hurt to let them go.”

 Eynon hopes to reopen in July and predicts the first shows will be country bands.

“Everyone is afraid to be the first to tour and the first venue to open,” Eynon said. “The country music guys want to work and they are from the states that have been the first to lift restrictions. It will be later for bands on the East and West coasts.”

Eynon said there are problems to work through. Will employees return or stay home with unemployment? Will security have to take temperatures? Will masks be required? If the half-capacity requirement continues, will they have to do an early and late show to make one full crowd?

 “Concerts are supposed to be a place where you forget about your problems and escape for a while,” said Eynon, who calls the Soul Kitchen her artistic expression. “Being together in the moment is the point of live music. We need to get back to this.”

The three-month closing for the coronavirus came while the Saenger Theatre was still recovering from an unexpected four-month shutdown for mold removal during the fall of 2019. Dance recitals and an extended classic film series will return to the theater this summer, but there are no ticketed events until fall, with scheduled performances from Buddy Guy, Jason Isbell and comedian Nate Bargatze. More shows are on hold for October, November and December, but the obstacle is capacity, said Saenger Director of Booking Chris Penton.

“Capacity is currently 50 percent, but we can’t just take our seating chart with 1,921 seats and divide that by two,” Penton said. “Mapping out our seating chart with social distancing dropped capacity from 50 percent closer to 30 or 35 percent. No one can make money on selling just 670 seats.”

Penton has booked entertainment into the Saenger for 20 years, from the early days of “having to beg, borrow and steal, just to get any kind of talent here” to now bringing in acts like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Robert Plant and Jerry Seinfeld. For the first 12 or 13 years, Penton said the Saenger averaged two sellouts a year. Last year there were several months with three or four sold-out shows.

“Everything was selling well regardless of the entertainment and the audience,” Penton said. “We worked hard to get here, but no one has experienced anything like the coronavirus. All of  a sudden, someone hit the pause button and the music industry came to a screeching halt.”

Penton said not just the Saenger, but all of downtown had been on the rise.

“The downtown community, the bars, the restaurants, the hotels, the parking lots, the purple people that walk around and clean and plant the flowers, the police department that keeps everything safe … So many pushed Mobile into a serious upswing that has been a long time coming,” he said. “We have to give people a reason to start coming downtown again and create a sense of normalcy.”

Penton said people often tell them that “you don’t realize how great the Mobile music scene is until you go somewhere that doesn’t have one.” He hopes the shutdown’s silver lining is that Mobilians appreciate the music around them when it returns.

“Something special was happening in Mobile before COVID-19 closed us down,” Penton said. “We are working hard to get there again. I hope everyone comes back.”