Independent concert promoter Soda Jerk Presents has forged a new partnership with the team at the EXDO Event Center, Managing partner Andrew Feinstein and his crew, which involves Soda Jerk Presents exclusive concert booking rights for the 22,000 square foot building at 1399 35th Street in RiNo. "It's a part of their business that was lacking," says Soda Jerk Presents founder Mike Barsch, "and it's a part of our business that was missing or lacking in that we needed a space that we could sell two thousand tickets in."
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"The room is great," notes Barsch, whose other venues include Marquis Theater and the Summit Music Hall. "It's kind of more my taste when it comes to a venue. It's more of a club atmosphere or a pimped out warehouse versus a theater setting. I think we'll be able to do a lot of cool things there."
The partnership, adds Barsch, who says he initiated talks with the folks at EXDO, represents no change in ownership. While EXDO has enlisted Soda Jerk to book the room, which is located in the historic Goldberg Brothers building, and has previously hosted an array of high profile performers and private parties, the EXDO staff will continue handle all of their own private parties and corporate events.
The first show is slated for Tuesday, June 4, featuring the Alkaline Trio, which is being moved over from the Summit Music Hall, where it was getting close to selling out at the venue, whose capacity is 1000, and the next show after that is the Dirty Heads with the Expendables on Friday, July 12.
While Soda may reconfigure the lighting a bit so that it's more geared toward concerts, everything else about the venue is already well suited to hosting live music, says Barsch, from the JBL Vertec Inline array sound system to the video capabilities to the overall staging. Barsch says one benefit he'll be able to offer the artists is the ability to cater specifically to their individual needs.
"It's kind of cool in a way," says Barsch. "Obviously with my venues and most venues, they just have the house rig, and it kind of is what it is. But this way, we can go to our vendor per the band whatever they want and we can bring it in."
Coming in," says Barsch, "it's kind of a blank slate. They already have a lot of production hanging in there. So it seems like it will be a good spot to throw some great shows.
"It's been something that I've been looking for for a while," Barsch concludes. "It was just matter of finding that space. It's hard. Obviously, the larger the room, the harder they are to find. That's a lot of real estate. There's not a lot of those kinds of spaces in the city."
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