Legend of the Fox
A Decade Later, Boulder's Scrappy Concert Venue Emerges as a Top-Grossing National Powerhouse

By G. Brown, Denver Post Popular Music Writer, Friday, March 01, 2002

People looked at the hippies and shook their heads. The Fox Theatre was a struggling movie house, and these guys wanted to turn it into a concert venue?

Turned out those hippies had an attention to detail, and it powered the Fox's reputation past the stereotypes. It's emerged not only as one of the most popular clubs in Boulder, but one of the most renowned in the country, boosted into the ranks of top-grossing clubs in industry trade journals Pollstar and now-defunct Performance, right there with some of the country's major venues, such as the Irving Plaza in New York and the Fillmore in San Francisco.

And the 700-seat Fox Theatre is nearly half their size.

It's a testament to the original vision for the Fox. It was built to satisfy the bands and the crowds with superb acoustics and an audience-friendly decor.

Now the Fox is celebrating its 10th anniversary, and 20 artists are visiting in March to mark the Theatre's milestone. (See the box at right.)

"You look from Robert Randolph to the Disco Biscuits, from Steve Earle to John Scofield, from Maceo Parker to William Topley," Don Strasburg said recently. "It shows a real diversity that we've tried to bring the music community for the last 10 years."

The Fox, at 1135 13th St. in Boulder's historic Hill district, was the idea of three partners. Strasburg spent his time at Colorado College in Colorado Springs promoting such bands as Phish, acts off radio's radar that could sell out clubs in a drumbeat. Jon O'Leary had worked with bands as a roadie and had a talent for construction. The project's elder statesman, Dicke Sidman, was a fixture of the Boulder music scene, having worked in nearly every club that mattered during the '70s and '80s.

"We felt there was a void, and we felt an obligation to do something about it," Strasburg said.
"I was 23, so I hadn't been around, but there was a long history of Boulder having the major live music presence, from Tulagi to the Blue Note to Boulder's Coast to the Boulder Theater.

"We made every attempt to empower people from a production level, to give the best people room to run, whether it was allowing (Denver expert) Bret Dowlen complete freedom with the sound or letting Dan Sherman put his best foot forward with lighting."

Strasburg concentrated on filling the room. When the Fox opened on March 6, 1992, it was with New Orleans funk kings the Meters, who quickly sold out.

Strasburg wasn't always as lucky. Costly acts quickly took their toll, as did the venue's reputation as only booking hippie-ish music.

But Strasburg changed his strategy, finding that diversity also sold. He booked punk and all-ages shows alongside the jam fests, and the Fox also became one of the most consistent places in the state to book hip-hop acts.

Along the way, the Fox helped launch the careers of such soon-to-be arena-sized groups as Live, Hootie & the Blowfish and White Zombie.

And the Dave Matthews Band chose to film the video for "What Would You Say," the group's first smash, at the Fox.

"It was just a way of saying thanks," Matthews said. "Everything just fell together there - the synchronicity, the fact that we'd always had a vibe there."

The sound system became one of the Fox's selling points. In its first few years of existence, Leo Kottke recorded an album, and four songs on a Cowboy Junkies release were done there. Local bands from Hazel Miller to Leftover Salmon used the club as a recording studio with a guaranteed audience.

"When we opened, we put together a list of bands we thought we could bring in - Blues Traveler, Little Feat. People were going, "There's no way you're going to get them to play a 700-seat club in Boulder, Colorado.' They did," Strasburg said.

"Dicke put Bonnie Raitt on the list. I thought he was pulling my leg. He said, "Trust me, it's going to happen.'
"Seven years later, she played the Fox Theatre."

Raitt's performance was part of the Gavin Triple A Summit, an adult-rock radio convention that has descended on the Fox every year. Counting Crows played their first gig outside California at the Fox as part of the first Gavin. A showcase with Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris and Daniel Lanois has become the stuff of legend. So has John Fogerty's set.

Behind the scenes, many people have known the potential of the Fox. But none was bigger than Sidman. In April 1995, the Fox's spiritual leader died of cancer at age 47. The group has carried on Sidman's driving philosophy.

"He understood the big picture, how to put the best players together for a team," Strasburg said.
"I think he was able to move on once he knew that it was perfect: "I got it right, now it's a machine.' "

Sidman's spirit still permeates the place. "Don't panic" cards are taped to every phone. "That was Dicke's way of keeping everyone calm when agents were on the phone," current general manager Rob Thomas said.

Acts such as Karl Denson's Tiny Universe and Galactic are now packing Denver's Fillmore Auditorium, but they got their start at the Fox. And the club soldiers on. One night it's rapper Ludacris encouraging enthusiastic young women to express their gratitude by, well, showing themselves off from the waist up. The next night, it's neo-hippies Sound Tribe Sector 9 nodding in telepathic agreement with their tie-dyed, saucer-eyed brethren in mufti.

While other Hill merchants admit that they still haven't recovered from the stigma of the 1997 riots, music fans continue to frequent the Fox.

When the Fox opened in '92, Thomas was finishing his senior year at CU.

"I remember the energy. I'd be looking in the window, bugging them to unlock the door," Thomas said.
After graduating, Thomas managed several local bands. Now he's back at the Fox, not as a patron, but on the other side of the desk as general manager.

His days - and nights - are filled with the realities of the ephemeral club business.

"The bar side of it is what it always has been. On the booking side, chains like House of Blues clubs have become a trend. We're in the middle. We're not corporate, we're locally owned and operated, but we're bringing in national acts.

"I can't believe we're using computers now," Thomas added with a laugh. "But we look at the place as a legitimate business. The frivolous stuff has been done away with for the long-term."

Thomas and talent buyer Eric Pirritt have experimented with such non-musical events as "Fight Night," trying to keep the place filled seven nights a week. "Disco Inferno" evenings have been popular.

"It's tough getting people off the couch," Thomas said. "It's a lot of different things now, everything from streaming video for concerts to the lack of parking on the Hill."

"We're always dealing with the economy in a college market," Pirritt said. "After 9/11, we had seven free shows in a month, with local bands and cheap beer until 11. But people still want to be entertained.
"We're in a niche. If we throw out a wide net, get the spectrum of entertainment, the Fox can survive anything now. It's being proactive and keeping an eye on talent, bringing it in and holding on to it. The Fox will exist for 10 more years and beyond."

Mountain West Music 2002