New management and an updated name — the Space Ballroom — will allow one of the state’s best alternative music venues to thrive in 2018 and beyond, according to Premier Concerts president Keith Mahler and Premier/Manic Presents senior talent buyer Mark Nussbaum.
On Jan. 19, Backstage Hamden LLC, whose management also operates College Street Music Hall in New Haven, signed a lease on the property.
It now runs the Hamden venue, formerly known as the Ballroom at the Outer Space, which was previously owned and operated by Steve and Jesse Rodgers.
“There was a lot of interaction already with the former owner-operator with what we were doing in the building,” Mahler says. “That’s what makes this so synergistic. When Steve [Rodgers] said he was closing down, this was a natural situation.”
Manic Presents becomes the venue’s sole booking agent, with some room left in the calendar for outside rentals.
“All the shows on the press release were on the books and confirmed before this came up,” Nussbaum says. “I had 40-50 shows confirmed, and it was, ‘Oh, this place is closing.’ It was either going to close and not exist or we could come in and try to do something.”
Extensive renovations have begun on the venue’s bars and backstage area, which will be geared toward making musicians more comfortable. The lighting and sound system will also be completely overhauled.
And with total control of the venue’s calendar, Mahler says, future music programming at the Space Ballroom is going to be “supercharged.”
The Space, an all-ages venue housed in a separate building from the Ballroom (in the center of the parking lot) that opened in 2003, is not part of the new venture. The Outer Space and Ballroom launched in 2011 and 2013 respectively.
For several years, without alcohol sales to prop it up, the all-ages Space struggled to stay afloat. In summer 2015, Rodgers started a crowdfunding campaign intended to raise $25,000.
On Dec. 22, 2017 Rodgers announced the closing of the Space in a Facebook post.
“We opened The (original) Space to bring people together, give the local bands a place to grow and to build a community,” Rodgers wrote. “We hope and pray that was accomplished.” The Space held its final concert on Dec. 22.
Whereas most all-ages shows on the property were housed at the Space, the Ballroom has been mixing them in since April 2016. Going forward, Nussbaum says, the majority of shows at the Space Ballroom will be all-ages.
Starting in February, expect two to three shows a week at the Space Ballroom, including buzzed-about gigs by nothing,nowhere. (March 3), the Dean Ween Group (March 28) and Built to Spill (April 17).
There are additional plans for a monthly local regional comedy event and a local band night, with “newer, rising local bands,” Nussbaum says.
“We’ll keep doing what we do with local bands, trying to get them on national spots. This will be a chance for younger and newer acts to spotlight what they’re doing.”
