AMPHITHEATERS TAKE A TOLL ON CONCERT CENTERS' ACTS

The popularity of amphitheaters since last summer has left the Show Me Center and other indoor venues with little to choose from in the way of contemporary bands and musicians.

But the center's coming fiscal year, starting in July, could start out on a better note.

Show Me Center Director David Ross said a multitude of amphitheaters have opened across the country. Last summer, the venues, among them the Riverport Amphitheater near St. Louis, had their first real "cut-throat season," he said.

As a result, Ross said, the centers, in competing against each other, threw out a lot of money to get whatever musicians they could to fill up their spring and summer calenders.

"If they could get rock 'n' roll, great; if they could get country, great," Ross said. In many instances the amphitheaters had different musicians playing every night, he said, and that left fewer musicians available.

"The bands had choices. They no longer needed to go to secondary markets to play. They could go to amphitheaters, and they were going to pay big money for them to play outdoors.

"What this has done is change the touring seasons of the bands. There's an evolution taking place."

Musicians now, he said, are going after the easy summer concert money and putting off winter tours. In the past the majority of bands toured through the winter, said Ross.

The Show Me center has hosted in its current fiscal year five country music shows and one contemporary Christian show, he said. Ross said one laser light show with rock music was also presented.

This season the amphitheaters are being a little more cautious, said Ross. Last summer, he said, some amphitheaters did well financially, while others did horribly.

"They're maturing, I guess you could say," he said. Prudence benefits places like the Show Me Center because it can host more bands and musicians.

Ross said rock concerts at the Show Me Center have definitely fallen off. The Warrant concert on June 21 was the center's last rock concert.

But he said the center isn't staying away from rock music by design. He cited several reasons for the drop off: country music, a lack of momentum-generating rock bands, the recession, and again, the amphitheaters.

"It's just a vicious cycle. Country music right now is the current flavor. It's the flavor of the year. Country has gotten hot," he said.

The competition between the amphitheaters, Ross said, pushed up the prices of rock bands and musicians so high that they pushed themselves out of 7,000-seat venues.

"The ones that are available, people are just fighting over the scraps," he said.

"If (the SIU Arena at) Carbondale (Ill.) got Van Halen and Carbondale got M.C. Hammer, and I believe they did Metallica, those acts are big draws. And anytime it gets down to a bidding war between us and Carbondale, they're going to win because they've got 3,000 more seats. They can generate more revenue than we can."

Last August, Ross said, panel members at a Kansas City meeting of the International Association of Auditorium Managers, of which he is a member, said that last June to August made for the worst year in the history of touring music. That, he said, went for the amphitheaters, as well as arenas and stadiums in general.

"I mean, it was bad, and so what we started out with this (fiscal) year this past July is really a continuing of that summer."

In all, the center will put on 18 entertainment events this fiscal year, excluding Southeast Missouri State University basketball games. One will be the Sleeping Beauty Children's Theater this Thursday. Two shows will be offered: one at 9:30 a.m. and one at 11:30 a.m. Tickets for both adults and children are $3.50.

The center also offered six sporting events, among them a rodeo, the American Gladiators Live Tour and the Harlem Globetrotters. This June the center will air a closed-circuit boxing match between Evander Holyfield and Larry Holmes.

Ross said the center will do a lot of similar events in the coming fiscal year. The center has some good fall business lined up, he said.

"I would be satisfied with 18 (events). If we could get more rock shows out of that and get 20, or get four and have 22, we would have a great year."

Discussions are being held with several rock bands, he said.