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Richard Byford has booked acts at Coachella Valley venues including Spotlight 29 and the Spa Resort Casino for 25 years. And in that time, Byford, who runs Byways Entertainment, has seen a noticeable change in the type of entertainment available.
"The casinos are changing the face of the whole of Southern California," Byford said. "If you want to see a concert, there's always somewhere at a casino where you can go and see a show. These shows wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the casinos."
That's because casinos have traditionally been willing to lose money on showroom acts because of the people they bring in to gamble.
But Coachella Valley bookers have one other advantage over other parts of Southern California.
Most venues stipulate in booking contracts that a performer can't work within 90 miles of its venue within a certain length of time, so the valley is just far enough away from Los Angeles and San Diego to allow acts to play here under those terms.
Growing audiences
Randy Phillips, CEO of concert promoter AEG Live, said the abundance of artists and the rapid growth in the Inland Empire and the Coachella Valley are giving the company two new markets.
Phillips says a new 12,000-seat arena is going up on I-10 in Ontario and he sees that as another opportunity for artists and fans.
"There are enough major artists to play either the Inland Empire or the Coachella Valley since both markets are inextricably linked by geography, demography and growth," said Phillips. "Over time, it is AEG Live's belief that both will develop into vibrant performance locations for headline entertainment as an additional stop in their routing into Los Angeles, Long Beach, Orange County, Phoenix and Las Vegas."
The McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert has used its island-in-the-Southwest status for years to get discounts on acts looking for an extra date to or from L.A.
The additional Coachella Valley and Inland Empire venues would seemingly reduce opportunities for such late scheduling additions.
But the McCallum began presenting more contemporary acts two years ago, and its attendance records indicate the available talent pool is satisfying its patrons.
McCallum Director of Presentations & Theater Operations Mitch Gershenfeld said the venue just experienced its highest-grossing season, "so obviously the competition has not hurt our business."
"The more entertainment we have in the Coachella Valley, the more people will become conditioned to want to experience live entertainment," he said. "As long as the market does not become oversaturated like some markets - San Diego, for example - there will be enough audience for the various venues in the valley."
Most local casinos offer broad programming. A casino could feature Wayne Newton, a country act and a punk band all within a couple of months.
Spotlight 29 Casino in Coachella has found country "fits our brand and our customer better," says its Las Vegas-based publicist, Paul Speirs. Kenny Rogers, Wynonna Judd and Brad Paisley have been among the country singers to grace its stage.
Meanwhile, Morongo Casino in Cabazon has done well with big-name alternative bands, such as Nine Inch Nails, Kid Rock and Social Distortion, at its Key Club, which is affiliated with a Hollywood nightclub by the same name.
Donovan Clayton, 26, of Desert Hot Springs, bought a $1,500 one-year, all-access VIP membership to see the bands at the Key Club in Morongo.
"I ran in to all sorts of celebrities at those shows," he said. "All people from L.A."
The Key Club also has featured veteran acts such as B.B. King, Styx and Clayton's favorite band of the year, the Irish pub rock band, Flogging Molly.
General Manager Ron Kerere says, "We hit every genre of music you can imagine." But that's just to figure out what the audience likes. Seven months after converting from Desert Rain, Kerere says, he still hasn't found out.
"We're still learning," he says. "We learn every day what shows work and what don't."
Becoming like Vegas
Speirs says there are few limits to the types of shows that could play in the desert.
"My experience in Las Vegas and what I've noticed in the Coachella Valley so far is, the more there is the more it attracts," Speirs said. " The competition is so great for that market so far, I see that trend continuing where everyone is building on each other's success."
Vice President of Marketing Linda Powers came to Fantasy Springs Casino from the Trump Taj Majal in Atlantic City 10 weeks ago and she sees the Coachella Valley as a similar entertainment destination.
She thinks she can fill Fantasy Springs' 4,500-seat Special Events Center with the type of big-name contemporary acts she brought to the Taj Majal.
"We had Britney Spears, (Andrea) Bocelli, Destiny's Child, and we were able to do it successfully" in a similarly sized venue, she said.
"When I started doing the concerts at Spotlight 29," said Byford, "the general manager explained to me that a casino is a big wheel with a hub in the middle, and all the spokes are the various money-generating outlets. Entertainment is just one of those money-generating outlets that leads to the hub, which is gambling. But Fantasy Springs and Spotlight have taken it a little further. Fantasy, with its big exhibition center, can now book major, major acts that will stand alone and make money."
Robert Enriquez, vice president of sales and marketing for the Palm Springs Desert Resorts Convention and Visitors Authority, says he doesn't think the success of the valley's entertainment venues "will ever change the complexion that this destination has as the resort and relaxation getaway."
But others say it's already having a ripple effect.
"Entertainment will become a selling point for tourists," said McCallum's Gershenfeld.
"Local residents will not have to travel to Los Angeles to see top artists."
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