Music

No more RACKET?

By Sam Pfeifle

The space has seen raucous sets by Twisted Roots and lonesome ballads by the Piners. It’s seen audiences in the thousands. But unless there is a drastic change in circumstances, it may have seen its final days.

No, this isn’t the case of yet another club closing, it is the possible end of RACKET Live!, Channel 4 Community Television Network’s live local music show. Though the show was in Channel 4’s budget for the past two years, “it became necessary to reevaluate our ability to continue this program without support from patrons and sponsors,” says Lesley Jones, Channel 4 spokesperson and onetime RACKET producer. “We are unable to continue to fund this program through CTN at this point.” And so, RACKET is now on hiatus.

RACKET first aired in December 1998, the idea of CTN Executive Director Tom Handel. It is the only current local live music show in Portland, and a valuable resource for Portland’s music community.

Joe Boucher of the Frotus Caper, a local rock outfit, sees its value in helping the music community learn from and play off one another. “I think a big problem that keeps a music scene from really gelling,” says Boucher, “is bands not knowing enough of what other bands are doing.” Often, he says, because of obligations musicians don’t have the chance to experience the Portland scene from a fan’s perspective. RACKET allows musicians to get out there without leaving the house.

And so, there’s a movement on to save it. Angelo Howland’s Guimick Productions produced a benefit show at Geno’s in August, but despite providing fodder for three RACKETs, the show only raised about $300, says Jones. A combination of OPSail weekend causing poor turnout, and the cost of the field shoot hampered the show’s fundraising ability.

“This was certainly not what we had hoped for or needed to fund future shows,” she says. Howland is now charged with finding corporate sponsors — “music-related businesses” — for the show’s $10,000 yearly budget.

If that doesn’t work, Boucher is interested in reviving the show in a different guise: as a live show a la PBS’s Austin City Limits. He and Big Sound’s Joe Brien “were putting something together at the Portland Performing Arts Center last summer,” says Boucher, but “scheduling caused it to fall through.” Now he’s got his sights set on the St. Lawrence Church when it opens in May.

“I’ve walked through it,” he says, “it’s a nice format to film bands in, maybe a couple hundred people in the audience would make it feel like a real show.” He also feels that while RACKET has been a boon for local bands in need of a hand marketing themselves or attaining an audience, the live audience would show the bands “interacting in a more natural environment.”