Tower slated to host ‘a lot more shows’ as it partners with concert promoter

One of Bend’s biggest and busiest concert promoters, Random Presents, will be booking “a lot more shows” at the Tower Theatre thanks to a new partnership between the two businesses, according to Ray Solley, the Tower’s executive director.

Random, under the guidance of owner and founder Bret Grier, has been bringing live music to town since 1999. The independent company has always booked shows at various venues across Bend, but it also has a long-standing relationship with the Midtown Ballroom and Domino Room on Greenwood Avenue.

That relationship will continue, Grier said in an email. Random currently has the reggae band Rebelution booked in the Midtown on March 4, and will “continue to support the Domino Room and Midtown Ballroom with hip hop and hard rock acts catering to a younger audience,” Grier said in a press release.

But Random will also begin booking general admission shows at the Tower, in addition to the reserved-seating shows it has been booking there for years. The Tower has agreed to remove the first three rows of the theater’s seats when appropriate, creating an area in front of the stage for standing and dancing, and bumping the venue’s capacity from 460 to about 500, Solley said.

“The time has come to begin producing the majority of my events in a theater environment versus a bar setting, while keeping the party-vibe alive and well,” Grier wrote in an email to The Bulletin.

Random’s general admission shows at the Tower will have a slightly later start time and full liquor bars in the lobby and balcony. They begin with folk-pop artist Brett Dennen Feb. 13, reggae band Midnite Feb. 18 and veteran ska band The English Beat Feb. 19. Dennen and Midnite have played the Domino Room in the past. Random also announced reserved-seating shows at the Tower by comedian Ralphie May (Feb. 5), ukulele star Jake Shimabukuro (March 15) and blues-rockers Los Lonely Boys (May 7).

The new relationship not only gives Random the theater setting Grier desires, it also opens the company to a wider audience of Tower attendees and supporters. And it provides the Tower with a slate of shows that will appeal to a younger group than the theater’s core audience.

“It rounds out our schedule in a really great way, bringing in acts and patrons that I don’t think we could always get if we just did it by ourself,” Solley said. “We’re looking to throw a little bit of a curveball when it comes to what people expect at the Tower.”

The Tower also helped seal the partnership by giving Random rights to collect revenue from bar sales, Grier said. That lowers the company’s overhead on each concert, making it easier for Random to book bigger names at the theater, he said.

And “anybody who brings us these kinds of names … we’re going to be a really great partner,” Solley said. “(We’ll be) flexible, but also we’re going to be collaborative and make sure that if someone wants to commit that to us we’re going to commit a lot to them.”

Details on Random’s upcoming shows at the Tower can be found at www.randompresents.com. More info on the Tower is at www.towertheatre.org.

— Ben Salmon