Huge indie-rock festival tonight

Seeds of 'destination' festival planted at Colorado's premier venue

Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 14, 2007 at midnight

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"We play festivals all the time," mused Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips. "Some of them become huge, some of them struggle along and never become anything. You think this one's really just as good as that one, but for some reason it doesn't become one of the destinations."

They sometimes take off - think of the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee or Coachella in Southern California. Or they tank - think of any of the attempts to establish yearly festivals up at Red Rocks, from the short-lived preview of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival to the costly Coors Mountain Jam a few years back.

So South Park Music Festival promoter Matt Fecher, with the city's blessing and backed with the clout of AEGLive, is giving it another run with the Monolith Festival, a huge indie-rock fest set at Red Rocks tonight and Saturday, headlined by acts such as Flaming Lips, Cake, the Decemberists, Spoon and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

More than 50 other bands, a mix of up-and-comers along with local artists, will fill out five stages scattered around the legendary venue.

"I spent a lot of my summer at different events, trying to pick out the best ideas from the people who are really doing it well - Sasquatch, Coachella, obviously Bonnaroo," Fecher said. "We want to grow an event that we can be proud of. We're just trying to provide a really great event, starting off with a bang this year and hopefully make something that's a Colorado institution."

Fecher and partner Josh Baker know what they're up against. The biggest and best festivals take years to get off the ground and the failure rate is high.

"I love starting it from scratch, the buildup," Baker said. "There's a lot that goes into building a regional profile, a national profile. A lot of people backed this festival from the beginning."

Seeking the right formula

Promoters have started by pairing some of the biggest buzz bands on the indie scene with one of the world's most renowned concert venues - but will that be enough?

Even the Flaming Lips' Coyne can't say for sure.

"I sympathize with all these people putting on these shows. 'How do we do this? What's the reason the audience should care?' I don't know why Bonnaroo works, to tell you the truth. It's out in the middle of nowhere. It's not convenient to get there," Coyne said.

On the upside, he noted, "Red Rocks has that appeal, even to bands. Everyone wants to play there. Royal Albert Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, it's one of those."

Even what looks brilliant on paper often falls apart. The Coors Mountain Jam had big money, a nationally known sponsor and featured everyone from 50 Cent to The Doors to Nickelback and Kid Rock. It lasted two years in '03 and '04 before disappearing for good.

"Sometimes booking that widely of an eclectic lineup doesn't appeal to people. They may see something on there they like and something else they don't like," said Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar, the concert-industry trade magazine.

"The problem with Red Rocks may be that it's Red Rocks and it's readily accessible to the people in Denver," Bongiovanni said. "And 9,000 seats kind of limits the scale of what you can put up there. That said, I don't understand why there aren't more things there like Reggae on the Rocks . . . which could develop a national following."

That's exactly the plan.

"We felt that what the Monolith guys came up with was a really unique and viable idea that was really worth pursuing," said Don Strasburg of the Denver office of AEGLive. "The idea of bringing a little bit more of an indie culture to Red Rocks felt like a good time."

He disagrees that crowds here find Red Rocks to be old hat: "People in Colorado aren't jaded to Red Rocks. They love to go to Red Rocks. Why not try to come up with a new angle and a new idea?"

By using the main stage and putting up temporary ones everywhere from the visitors center to merchandise booths, organizers realized they could "use the nooks and crannies and spaces the venue offers to offer a wider array of talent for a very reasonable price," Strasburg said. "The ticket price is incredible. It comes out to something like a dollar a band."

Besides local marketing, Monolith organizers got word out in Nashville, Cheyenne, Las Vegas and other cities with the "goal of having a national destination festival," Baker said.

Leaping from South Park

The show's roots can be traced back to Indiana, where Baker runs the Midwest Music Summit in Indianapolis and had partnered with Fecher on local events before Fecher moved to Colorado and started the South Park Music Festival four years ago.

The Fairplay event turned the mountain town into indie rock heaven, an annual stopping spot for young bands looking to stake a larger claim, industry insiders searching for new talent and as many as 6,000 fans who traveled to hear more than 100 bands at 9,000 feet.

Then Denver arenas marketing chief Erik Dyce "came down to South Park last year and suggested we move the concept to Red Rocks," said Fecher.

This summer would have marked South Park's fourth year but it was put on hold to put the focus entirely on Monolith.

"Once we decided to do it, it was do or die," said Fecher, who brought Baker on board to help.

They reserved the two Red Rocks dates last October, "and we've been working around the clock for the past nine months," he said.

AEGLive has provided Monolith with the clout and marketing firepower, but Strasburg says the concept was key.

"It was their idea that they brought to us," Strasburg said. "The component they were missing was a larger concert promoter partner to get the A-level talent."

"We needed a partner with history in the market to pull it off," Baker said.

Have they succeeded? Organizers will have a better idea after this weekend, when they say they'll make an announcement about what to expect next summer.

Monolith timeline

A festival doesn't develop overnight. How this weekend's Red Rocks gathering came to be:

• Summer 2004: Matt Fecher holds the first of three South Park Music Festivals in Fairplay, focusing on indie and local bands and industry speakers.

• August 2006: Fecher is approached by Erik Dyce of Denver's theaters and arenas to consider expanding and moving the 2007 festival to Red Rocks. He pulls partner Josh Baker on board and they approach larger Denver promoters for partnerships.

• October 2006: Dates are reserved for the festival.

• December 2006: Full-time work begins on the festival, with The Decemberists becoming one of the first major acts to sign on.

• February 2007: AEGLive signs on as a partner after months of talks.

• April 2007: AEG promoter Don Strasburg signs headliners The Flaming Lips and Cake stageside at the Coachella Festival in Indio, Calif.

On stage

Today: Starts at 3 p.m. Line-up includes Cake, The Decemberists, Kings of Leon, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Editors, Das EFX, Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band, The Broken West, The Dirty Novels, De Novo Dahl, Flosstradamus, Born in the Flood and others.

Saturday: Starts at 2 p.m. Line-up includes The Flaming Lips, Spoon, Art Brut, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Margot& the Nuclear So&So's, The Little Ones, A Verse Unsung, Cloud Cult, Earl Greyhound,Lords of the Underground, Yacht, Au Revoir Simone, Hot IQs, The Swayback, White Rabbits and others.

Cost: $42.50 a day, $63.60 for both

Information: monolithfestival.com and ticketmaster.com

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