Booking at The Vernon

Booking in Louisville Ky

Tuesday, 19 January 2010 21:36 Written by robeysan

The Vernon is a relatively large venue in Louisville that compares its size and event structure to Headliners or Bogart’s in Cincinnati. The Vernon has been owned and operated by Dale McCall since 2006 and is also the oldest bowling alley in the area. Since The Vernon started booking music in 2006 it has had a great effect on the Louisville Music scene. With state of the art music equipment and a stage that truly doesn’t have a bad seat. So I sat down with General Manager Eric Widmayer to get the details of The Vernon and how you can get booked there.

The stage area is newly remodeled, in a large rectangular room with a beer bar across from the stage. The PA is an impressive set up installed and maintained by Downtown Recording Studio, a local national recording studio. Their PA set-up includes an Allen and Heath 32 channel board with full recording capabilities, 32 channels from stage via two 16 channel snakes and an 8 channel snake. EB Sounds mid range, High EB, JBL Subs, Peavey monitors all in house. System is sitting about halfway back on the stage to accommodate the shape of the room. There is a sound engineer from Downtown Recording Studio at each event to ensure that the artist sound like rock stars.

Booking at The Vernon is handled via their website at www.vernonclub.com Artist looking to get booked should send links to their web site, EPK, or Mypace. They also must include two links to songs. All submissions are then forwarded to Downtown Recording Studio (DTR) for review. DTR reviews the bands web pages for professionalism and popularity. Recordings are reviewed for professionalism and skill. In some cases you may be able to stop in and talk with Eric Widmayer about your music and music in general but this may not increase your chances of getting booked at The Vernon. Realistically, a band wanting to get booked at The Vernon should be able to draw at least 30 people.

So what if you have no affiliation with Downtown Recording or you want to put on your own event? In most cases your best bet would be to partner with an independent production company such as Production Simple, Pro Sound etc. However The Vernon is always available for rent. Rental fees are $300 per hour with a four hour minimum, $150 equipment fee that gives you access to the PA equipment and a sound engineer from DTR. Vernon rentals include a doorman and a staffed bar as well.

In most cases bands booked at The Vernon can expect to get paid according to what Eric calls “The Standard Deal”. The club takes the first $300; the artist makes the next $700 and then a 50/50 split beyond $1000 dollars. However this could be different depending on the circumstances of your show and what deal is worked out between your band and the event coordinator.

The Vernon is generally a 21 and over venue but is capable of having 18 and over shows as well as all age’s events. The most successful events have been blues genres and indie rock genres of music.