As the concert touring industry heads back out on the road—pent up after almost two years of the pandemic—a new need emerges: a place to rehearse. Just recently a number of mega-studios with multi-acre campuses have been announced, set to emerge on the landscape within the next two years. PLSN wanted to explore the reasons behind this surging boom in touring rehearsal spaces, starting with some of those experiencing the explosive growth in their current businesses first-hand.
The Steel Mill
The Steel Mill, just 10 minutes north of downtown Nashville, is experiencing the explosion in rehearsal bookings. “We have bands reserved for 2023 already,” says Scott Scovill. The president/owner of Moo TV bought the Steel Mill around 2014 as a headquarters for his video production/projection company in Nashville. It was already functioning as a rehearsal facility—by a non-industry owner—before he purchased it, so it offered a natural extension of what his own company needed in prepping their own gear for touring shows.
“It is actually an old steel mill and as such, the building was designed to support that heavy load and move that steel around,” Scovill explains. “It’s easily capable of lifting every show that comes in. The building is built like a tank.”
Its high load bearing ceilings accommodate an entire arena rehearsal, including the hanging/flying of large video screens to tech them for tours. Their main room is 200’ long with 50’ ceilings and 38’ to load trim, “which works for about everybody,” Scovill notes. “We can easily fit the needs of 90 to 95 percent of the touring needs, but at a more reasonable cost than other rehearsal studios. That works because Moo TV helps cover the overhead and because we didn’t build the building to operate it solely as a rehearsal studio.”
Their main production room is also used for TV and film production, along with special events. The client list is “everybody,” he says, citing Chris Stapleton, Garth Brooks, Brad Paisley, Jason Aldean, Thomas Rhett, Maren Morris, Luke Combs, the CMA and even a few competing vendors in town. “Kenny Chesney rehearsed his stadium show here—they loaded in sideways, and it fit, 70,000 pounds,” he notes.
The schedule stays booked from January to June, with a bit of quiet time in November before the rush of holiday shows. “You have to book a year ahead of time,” he advises. During the pandemic he created an in-house XR studio and shot several extended reality videos to keep business going. “I’ve disassembled it,” he says. “We put the $100,000 servers that were driving it out on the road. But I may be opening up another XR studio soon,” he says. However, he advises that tours using a lot of automation are better off going somewhere else.
www.thesteelmill.com
Rock Lititz
The need to accommodate more tour rehearsals is already underway at Rock Lititz, with Studio 2 under development at the Lititz, PA complex. Brent Dannen, general manager of Rock Lititz Studios, says, “We are fortunate to host dozens of live event rehearsals at Rock Lititz every year. Especially after the pandemic-driven break, and with events continuing to increase their technological needs, it is important to provide a safe space for crews to work and develop their tours.”
Dannen says Studio 2 will open for business in spring 2022. “Studio 2 will offer the same arena and stadium size support and services as our original Studio 1. Rock Lititz also has several smaller studio rooms, expanding our capacity for smaller band, theater and club rehearsals, to support all of our clients.”
“The strength of our local community vendors, our access to a wide variety of industry related services, and our unique approach to crew care keeps our clients eager to come back through Lititz,” Dannen notes.
A number of vendors are involved in the production community including 4Wall Entertainment, Atomic, Clair, design firm Nimblist, Pyrotek, Rock-it Cargo, Stageco, TAIT, Tour Supply Inc., as well as The Event Safety Alliance, among others.
www.rocklititz.com
to open in the first quarter of 2023 in the St. Louis, MO area. Image courtesy GSPS.
Gateway Studios & Production Services
Groundbreaking took place Nov. 11 for the 32-acre, $130 million Gateway Studios campus in the St. Louis metro area of Chesterfield, MO. The 330,000-sq.-ft. complex will launch global touring artists as well as service the production industry. It’s expected to open for business in the first quarter of 2023.
In the meantime, Gateway Studios & Production Services (GSPS) offers audio, lighting, video production services, and live event management. In recent months, GSPS has gear and touring crew out with Daryl Hall & John Oates, Black Pumas, and Phish, to name a few, and supplied the recent ATLive festival in Atlanta, GA, and Governor’s Ball festival in New York City. They’re currently operating in two buildings: a 77,000 sq. ft. warehouse and a 25,000 sq. ft. office space.
The campus will be an extension of that, says CEO Trey Kerr. “This isn’t just us building a studio, this is a full-fledged 360 operation. The vendor side of this has been up and running and fully functional. Our clients are happy, and we’ve had a great year in terms of 2021.”
Kerr, who serves as video director for Phish and has worked with them for 20 years—among other bands—through his company 201 Productions, says the pandemic was the catalyst for the studio complex. “Once our industry was shut, we had a great deal of time on our hands and instead of sitting on the couch and waiting to get back out on the road, I reached out to friends who became our executive leadership team,” he explains. “We started looking at ways we could design a world class campus and facility for our industry when things returned.”
That team now consists of Chief Operating Officer Andy Gerber, formerly with Screenworks, with 20 years of experience in LED, projection and video; President of Business Development David Haskell, former president of Morris Light & Sound, and with more than 40 years in the industry; and President of Studio Operations Jesse Sandler, an experienced stage manager, tour manager, production manager and tour accountant for Bon Jovi, Phish, Eagles, Michael Jackson and others.
Their expertise was instrumental when designing their rehearsal studios. “We intentionally designed our main Studio 80 for stadium tours,” Kerr says, “with dimensions specifically built for an NFL football field, with grid height at 80’. We also have Studio 75, Studio 65 and Studio 55 with grid heights matching their names. Arenas and amphitheater shows can fit in those rooms.”
Its central U.S. location, adjacent to the Spirit of St. Louis Airport and Interstate 64, was chosen for easy access and logistics. It’s also near hotels, restaurants, and other essential services.
Investor information is not being revealed, however. “We have local ownership from outside the industry who doesn’t want press or recognition,” Kerr notes. “At this time, we are lucky to have an ownership group that is very much committed to this whole thing. Especially now while construction is being affected by inflation, shortages, and rising steel prices. We are fortunate enough that we can push forward.”
www.gsps.com
Elevation Studios
Groundbreaking is targeted for the first quarter of 2022 for the $100 million Elevation Studios, a 26-acre campus offering large-scale tour rehearsal spaces and production facilities in Fairview, TN, 20 miles southwest of Nashville. The plan calls for sound stages, offices, conference rooms, fabrication workshops, rehearsal studios, and creative spaces.
Founder/CEO Eric Elwell comes from a 30-year background as a sound mixer, production, and tour manager, with many years handling U.S. sales and business development for Harman Professional (Samsung). Also on his team is Nashville-based consultant Scott Welch, who has managed the careers of artists such as Alanis Morissette, LeAnn Rimes, Steve Perry, Paula Abdul and more.
As the driving force behind the vision, Elwell says the need for new rehearsal spaces has been a long time coming. “This is to meet the technical demands of today’s immersive shows—being able to hang thousands of square feet of a video wall and having multi-tiered staging,” he notes. While older civic arenas used to be spaces where tours could set up and rehearse, those spaces just can’t handle the enormous productions. “Now we are up against weight limits of most arenas, whose structural designs are from the 1950s and 1960s,” he says, adding that productions have grown year-by-year to where many tours in the last 10 years have been challenged by the structural capacities of even the most modern arenas, often exceeding 250,000 lbs.
He points out a recent show that featured more than 130 rigging points—not just over the stage but across audiences spanning the entire arena.
Safety is one of the most important reasons why the entire production needs to be rehearsed in a facility that can accommodate that, he emphasizes. It’s not just to ensure that all the equipment works well, but also that the crew is trained on work safety before they go on the road. “We intend to work closely with the Event Safety Alliance and other organizations to train for those unexpected situations on tour, including weather safety, active shooter drills, and even an unexpected personnel crisis. I’m an advocate for better training, how we can be safe and have lifelong careers. I want to help build best practices. Let’s get people trained.”
The Phase I development plans include four rehearsal studios. Two will each accommodate 25,000 sq. ft. stages with rigging steel at 70’, capable of 500,000-plus pounds. Two other studios will accommodate 10,000 sq. ft. stages, with rigging steel at 50’, capable of 200,000-plus pounds. A 40,000 sq. ft. operations center will provide staff offices, meeting spaces, satellite office space for vendors and support businesses, and 24/7 food & beverage supporting more than 1,000 meals per day.
Regarding investors, he says, “Some of the largest multi-disciplined vendors are keeping an eye on this and several have expressed interest. The challenge is how to keep it neutral. I am looking outside of the industry to keep it a politically free space, with a ‘love all, serve all’ atmosphere. I want it to serve people well.”
www.elevationstudios.co
Music City Studios
Music City Studios announced in late October its plans to open a 47-plus acre campus in Hendersonville, TN, 18 miles northeast of downtown Nashville. This master-planned campus will offer more than 200,000 sq. ft. of state-of-the-art sound stage space and more than 500,000 sq. ft. of space dedicated to tenants servicing the film, live music, broadcast, Metaverse, and media production businesses.
The anchor for the campus is Monolith Studios, under CEO Josh Furlow, which provides services for virtual productions. Details have not been revealed regarding tour rehearsal space capabilities. Other services offered for the music industry will include full scale production space, corporate experiential space, a previz room, production storage, and accommodations for virtual concerts.
Touring industry veteran David Buttrey will lead the Music City Studios Campus. “With this new campus, no Nashville-based artist or crew member will ever have to leave the metro area to rehearse for a global concert tour, produce a movie, or film a commercial,” says Buttrey. “I used to have to travel to Los Angeles, New York, and overseas for global-level production work. The goal of Music City Studios is to act as a platform and catalyst for more world-class production coming to and being created out of Nashville.”
Music City Studios plans to break ground by the end of 2021. The sound stages are set to open in the fourth quarter of 2022, with the entire campus construction slated to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2023.
www.musiccitystudios.com
