Once 'Scarlet' bar sees 'Green' through music

“ It’s really important to get a sense of the audience when…”

Boom. Boom. Boom.

“…the music…”

Boom. Boom. Boom.

“…brings it all together.”

DJ DOLO toggles the base slide on his soundboard. His head bobs in sync with each thumping beat, mirroring the fist pumping of the audience below. DOLO slides the synth bar up and the techno beat rises like a teakettle before transitioning into "6 foot, 7 foot" by Lil Wayne.

For just a moment, the crowd’s satisfied screams drown out the music.

Kevin Neal, a bartender at Scarlet, gives a “thumbs-up” to DOLO, while pouring a drink to a demanding drag queen.

“Ever since we brought DJ’s like DOLO to Scarlet...”, yells Neal from across the bar, “…we’ve really seen an increase in club-goers. But most of them come out for DOLO.”

Scarlet, a gay bar located on Halstead in the heart of Boystown, is known for its high-energy Techno/Top 40 atmosphere and 20-something music loving crowd. Yet Scarlet was not always the place to go to hear the best up-and-coming DJ’s on Chicago’s Northside.

“Before the fire, we played a lot of House music and drew an older crowd ”, said Neil. “Since we rebuilt, we changed our music from House to Techno mixed with Top 40 and all of a sudden, younger guys started coming in droves”.

House music was, in part, created in Chicago at a gay bar known as The Warehouse in the early 1980’s. Since then, most of the gay bars in the Boystown area play the genre, all up until Scarlet changed the scene.

Scarlet opened in 2007 after the former bar in the space, Gentry, closed. Gentry was known in Boystown as a “senior gay” bar, so when Scarlet opened shortly after Gentry closed, the bar’s crowd stayed within the same demographic.

“There was nothing wrong with it”, said Neil. “But we knew we could get more people through the door- so we hired new DJ’s”.

After a devastating fire that hollowed out the bar in 2009, Scarlet rebuilt and brought in a fresh new sound.

“Most of the bars on Halstead like Sidetrack play House music”, said DOLO. “It’s cool and all, but the younger people like to hear Top 40 mixed with Electro as dance music starts to claim its stake on radio- and that’s whose spending all the money”.

That’s exactly what Scarlet did. After changing the music up, the crowd changed almost over night.

“Within two weeks, our Thursday nights went from a few older guys drinking beer to hundreds of 20-somethings bumping to the music with a line out the door and around the corner- all thanks to the music of DOLO and our other DJ’s”, said Neil.

DOLO likes to mix music from the 80’s and 90’s with current hits with intermittent techno riffs (listen to one of his sets here) . He claims that his music is what brings the crowds in.

“What these other bars don’t understand is that the music has to cater to a crowd demographic”, says DOLO. “People want to come and dance, have a good time. Music choice is a big factor in what people, especially gay people, look for in a highly competitive bar scene like Boystown- and I am glad that I can provide that”.

DOLO fastens the beat once again, strobe lights in sync. The entranced crowd raises their arms back and forth to a modern techno mash-up of “Sweet Dreams” by Eurythmics and “End of Time” by Beyonce.

“It’s all in the mix”, says DOLO. “Top 40, techno riffs, old time classics- the mixes bring mixed crowds in to harmonize as one”.

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“Bruised” Theater Company gets a ‘Kickstart’ with Social Media

Nestled in an alleyway between a nail salon and a laundry mat in West Lakeview, a line of chatty 20-somethings wait to be admitted through a small unassuming metal door. “It’s better than crack!” one tattooed man says. “It really is the best in town- thank God for Facebook”, interjects another. What are they waiting for? Drugs? Nope, for them, something better.

Welcome to the Bruised Orange Theater Company.

“We try to strive for a small intimate setting to get in touch with our audience”, says Sam Bianchini, an actor in the theater company, “Well that, and because we are trying to keep the cost of space down”.

Just as the economy has hit many other areas of the Arts, the Theater is no exception. For small theater companies in Chicago like Bruised Orange, a redirected focus on marketing through social media is an important tool in keeping theatergoers coming though the door.

“It was pretty rough for awhile”, says Bianchini. “But once we got the word out on the social media sites, business really started picking up. That’s saying a lot in times like these”.

Bianchini knows what she is talking about. In the annual fiscal report on theaters in America, put out by Theatre Communications Group, total paid attendance of performances in 2010 has declined 5.8% from just one year prior in 2009.

“Those findings really represent what a lot of small theater companies in Chicago are going through right now”, says Bianchini. “In a city of over 200 theater troupes, you really need to find a creative edge to get ahead in the game”.

When Bruised Orange noticed a small drop in ticket sales, they began implementing a plan to claim back their patrons. First they started with 2 for 1 ticket sales. When that didn’t work, the theater company began “Pay What You Can Thursdays”. Still, there were too many open seats at shows.

“When we got on Facebook and Twitter, that’s we started to see a slow turn around”, says Bianchini.

But still faced with economic woes, the company needed funding for new projects. That’s when they discovered Kickstarter.

Kickstarter.com is a philanthropic website that allows visitors to the site to pledge money to projects that interest them. The website gives the artist a concrete time period in which they must reach their monetary goal. If they do not reach the goal, the artist does not get the money and pledges are refunded.

“Overall it’s been a Godsend for us”, says Bianchini. “We post a project on the site, explain what we are trying to do with a video, and people just start pledging money if they like it”.

But what is in it for those who pledge money?

“Each artist on the site does it differently but we like to have a ‘you scratch our back, we will scratch yours’ mentality” says Bianchini. “We tend to give out half priced tickets or signed memorabilia from our shows for those who help us out”.

Bianchini hopes that future creative projects will one day let her own her own theater company by getting support through Kickstarter, but for now, she is content with the turnaround of her Company.

"Bruised Orange is bruised no more!" laughs Bianchini. "I like that- I think I'll go tweet it".