Last Tuesday, July 11, was opening night for The Bellwether, an independent music venue nestled between Westlake and Downtown Los Angeles. It’s a labor of love between the concert promotion and production companies Another Planet Entertainment (APE) and Teragram Presents. Despite entering partnership talks in December 2020 and acquiring the space in April of 2021, APE and Teragram were able to keep The Bellwether under wraps from the general public, operating in secret until the venue was announced this past February. Five weeks before opening, a full slate of shows were revealed, including residencies from HAIM, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Porter Robinson, as well as performances from Isaiah Rashad, Tegan and Sara, Yo La Tengo, Wilco, and Santigold. So how did this all come together?
A QUICK HISTORY LESSON:
311 S Boylston was home to Vertigo starting in 1986. Seen as a club for the elite, it transformed into a more casual, welcoming, and funky space when the official address changed to 333 S Boylston. From 1993 to 1995 the space was home to Prince’s nightclub Glam Slam West. The walls were carpeted, the columns featured naked bodies, and the dance floor featured Prince’s iconic ankh symbol. After the Glam Slam closed, the venue lived on for private events and as a few other destinations (first as Tatou Supper Club, which lost its liquor license in 2011, then 333 Live/The Gold Room at 333 Live), but nothing stuck as a permanent or popular venue (333 Live had two stars on Yelp—despite the staff being nice, the shows were poorly produced and promoted, and parking was a mess).
Teragram Presents owners Joe Baxley Michael Swier, and Brian Swier looking at the mainstage before opening night
Teragram Presents is an LA-based live music, concert promotion, and venue operations company started by brothers Michael and Brian Swier, Michael Winsch, and Joe Baxley in 2015 with the 600-capacity Teragram Ballroom. In 2017 the group opened the 275-capacity Moroccan Lounge. The Swier brothers and Winsch are best known for creating iconic New York venues The Mercury Lounge and Bowery Ballroom in the ’90s before starting Bowery Presents in 2004. In 2010, the three left Bowery Presents after its sale to AEG and independently managed Mercury Lounge and Bowery Ballroom before starting Teragram. Baxley is behind many of LA’s most popular bars, including downtown institution Broadway Bar.
Another Planet Entertainment was founded in San Francisco in 2003 by former Bill Graham Presents (BGP) President Gregg W. Perloff with former BGP execs Sherry Wasserman and Steve Welkom, who later that year merged APE with Allen Scott’s concert promotion company Mystery Machine. APE is the only locally owned and operated indie concert production company in the Bay Area and Northern California. APE is behind The Independent, Berkeley’s Greek Theatre, and Harveys Lake Tahoe, and operates two of the country’s largest music festivals, Outside Lands and Life Is Beautiful.
THE BELLWETHER TIMELINE:
SPEED DATING (DECEMBER 2020 TO APRIL 2021)
“Michael first approached us in December 2020 about a partnership in this room,” APE’s Allen Scott recalls of the space, initially scouted out in 2018. “We had a really quick ‘dating’ period.” Although Allen hadn’t met the Swiers, he knew of them. “There are so many legendary shows that come through [Bowery Ballroom], and of course Teragram Ballroom and Moroccan Lounge, so we knew by reputation what Michael and his brother have built and we have always had the utmost respect for them.”
Michael Swier says Teragram and Moroccan filled a need for those sized venues in DTLA. He’d tried for years to open something larger, and when the opportunity came there was the idea to collaborate with APE due to them being among the largest independent promoters in the country. But contracts needed to be signed by April. Michael agreed it was “accelerated dating,” but APE ultimately joined what Swier calls “the perfect fit. I couldn’t have asked for a better scenario and better partnership.”
Teragram Presents’ Joe Baxley Michael Swier, and Brian Swier
Another Planet Entertainment’s Allen Scott
BUILDING & ADDING FLAVOR (April 2021-July 2023)
Michael and Brian Swier are obsessing over the sightlines of the stage, made possible by Brian’s engineering and architectural insight. The biggest issue was four major columns left over from Glam Slam. “It was [visually and structurally] a disaster,” says Brian. “We gutted the entire building, we kept only the structural walls. We made the stage much bigger, took these columns out, and we had to build 90-foot-long trusses on the roof to which [we attached] a bridge to support the deck.”
Michael says removing those columns made it “the perfect venue for live music. I always go on the roof and look at this bridge we built. You can almost watch this room from 180 degrees, because it’s a bit of a thrust stage. This room is going to sell itself.”
Bridge built on roof of venue to add structural integrity after columns removed from venue.
“Design and development of the project has been about two and a half years,” Brian shares of the undertaking, “but the actual construction was a year and a half. The DWP was not giving us power because there had been vandalism before we took over the building there and all the copper was taken out. So we had to build the entire building out using generators. We were actually scheduled to open a couple of months ago, but we couldn't because we didn’t have power.” According to Allen, while all this was going on there was also a year-long process to get settled on a name that wasn’t already trademarked.
“You can almost watch this room from 180 degrees, because it’s a bit of a thrust stage. This room is going to sell itself.” — Michael Swier
The 45,000 square foot complex boasts an outdoor patio overlooking DTLA, a restaurant/lounge called The Virginian (which houses a smaller stage), a lobby bar, bars on the first floor and balcony of the ballroom, a backstage area with four dressing rooms, an ADA seating, a 400-capacity private event space that has yet to open, and the VIP Looking Glass Lounge, which includes a private bar, bathroom, and balcony side stage views. The space’s various unique wallpapers give it personality. Brian shares that he had a home in New Orleans that had mylar wallpaper from the local brand Flavor Paper, so he took note of the designer. When the brand moved up to Brooklyn, Brian installed at least some of their paper in all his venues.
The Virginian Restaurant
Lobby Bar
Bar manager Derek Chaiboonma worked with local brewery Golden Road for the beers on tap but is hoping to obtain a rotation of locals from breweries like Boomtown and Highland Park Brewery, as well as some from nearby craft mecca San Diego. There isn’t a cocktail program for general admission, but Looking Glass features an upscale menu of mixology wonders like the Cheshire Cat: hibiscus simple syrup, tequila, and soda.
Head Chef Amaro Gutierrez is part of a catering group for which he’s also the executive chef at the Empire Polo Grounds where Coachella and Stagecoach operate. They took the five most popular menu items from their San Diego venues and their LA area events to make the initial menu at The Virginian.
BOOKING (FEBRUARY 2023 TO PRESENT)
Nick Barrie got his start as a security guard at APE’s venue The Independent in San Francisco in 2005. He worked his way up the ranks to become a booker for APE and launched Outside Lands’ dance music SOMA Tent in 2021. Barrie was revealed to be the booker for The Bellwether along with the venue announcement in February.
“It was really important to us that we had a diverse offering, and that’s what we want the room to be. It’s all kinds of music, all kinds of programming, not just a certain genre.” — Nick Barrie
“I think just the next day I started picking up the phone and calling agents,” he recalls. “It started with specific artists who we’ve worked with a long time and people really want to have here and then [cast] a wide net, trying to get shows and different audiences in the room. It was really important to us that we had a diverse offering, and that’s what we want the room to be. It’s all kinds of music, all kinds of programming, not just a certain genre. It’s really hard to book in July and August, so to be able to bring this level of artistry and this many shows into [the venue at] this time, it is pretty amazing for us and something we are really proud of.”
The Bellwether talent buyer Nick Barrie
JULY 11, 2023 OPENING NIGHT
Ill Peach was the first act to grace The Bellwether stage. The ballroom was packed to the gills by the time headliners Phantogram came on. Many attendees didn’t realize it was opening night for the venue, having just snagged tickets to see the band’s first LA show since 2018.
Phantogram came full-circle by opening a Swier brothers venue. Their first performance was part of a CMJ showcase at Mercury Lounge, and their first headline show sold out Bowery Ballroom—despite the band having only released eight songs at the time. “The final thing they were putting up was the disco ball,” vocalist Sarah Barthel comments during soundcheck. “We were strobing the hell out of [the lights] because our shows were insane, and I felt really bad because they were struggling to get up on this ladder and our strobes were not helping.”
“I was impressed when I walked in—and I’m very hard to impress,” Barthel’s bandmate Josh Carter states (Sarah laughs, calling him a jackass). “It’s a really nice room...the stage is solid, the floor is solid. So hopefully we’ll have a solid show. And hopefully, the audience is solid.”
Phantogram’s Sarah Barthel backstage
Artist dressing room
Sarah Barthel’s dog Leroy backstage
“Solid,” Sarah smirks. “I also love the wallpaper, and the rugs are cozy. I can lay all over them...I always find rugs to lay on with my dogs.”
“I like how there’s many dressing rooms [and] green rooms,” Josh adds, looking around the room. “Sometimes I like my privacy just to warm up on guitar. Some backstage areas are super cluttered and you don’t feel like you have any space to yourself… The bathrooms are great, too. They even have Life Savers and Listerine and stuff, so—”
“They’re telling you your breath stinks,” Sarah laughs.
There are small kinks: not enough air conditioning, overcrowding, sound not being evenly distributed to the back areas of the venue near the bars, and less parking than was needed. But despite all that, the crowd seems pleased with the new venue. People describe the patio and lounge as making the space feel more modern than any other venue in the city. The food is rated on average by those polled as a 7/10, all stating that it’s by far the best music venue food in the city. The bathrooms are gushed over, the bar lines are short, and everyone thinks the staff is “cool” and “fun.”
“I think we’ve built a very unique space that is perfect for the programming that we’re putting in the room, and it’s unique and special not only to Los Angeles but the entire country.” — Allen Scott
The most popular comment is about how intimate all the sightlines make the venue feel, and throughout the evening people can be spotted on their phones purchasing tickets for future shows despite there being a box office on the other side of the wall. There you go, Michael, the venue really does sell itself!
THE FUTURE:
With “bellwether” meaning a sign of things to come, all involved with the team seem to be excited as to what’s next. “One of the things that’s really exciting about booking down in LA is the broader range of [genres] that are more programmable down here,” Nick Barrie shares. “For example, I’m a huge fan of regional Mexican music now, and I’m excited to book stuff like that. I’m hoping [that we can book more] K-pop [and other] things that maybe have more of an audience down here.”
Allen Scott hopes the Bellwether will be “regarded as one of the top venues not only in the United States but in the entire world. I think we’ve built a very unique space that is perfect for the programming that we’re putting in the room, and it’s unique and special not only to Los Angeles but the entire country.”
Michael Swier agrees with Allen, but goes on to say that he doesn’t even hope, he knows it will be one of the top venues in the world. “I see what was built and it’s just beautiful. I always pinch myself coming in here. I hope people see what I see, because I think [The Bellwether] is something that I’ve not seen before—and we’ve all seen a lot of venues.”
He adds before sneaking into the ballroom, “I hope we have five nights of The Strokes.” FL
