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SPOTLIGHT FEATURE: The El-N-Gee On The Rise

By Daniel S. Boroughs

Any of us who have lived in New London County long enough and even in the greater regions of the Connecticut State, once knew the El 'n'Gee as the premier music venue for independent national acts to come to when traveling between the two greater cities of New York and Boston while on tour through the northeast. Not to say there isn't other stand-up pit stops on the way between those two behemoth metropolitan areas (i.e. New Haven, Hartford, Providence), but you went to the El 'n' Gee because they hosted the filet mignon of fringe acts that America had to offer.

I could just turn to my girlfriend and ask her an often-posed question to many townies around New London and music enthusiasts in Connecticut, "Who did you get to see at the Gee back in the day?" And she would respond, "FEAR, Social Distortion, Henry Rollins, Face To Face, The Queers...". And the list would be endless.

If you asked me who I got to see at the Gee 'back in theday', I would have a very fond memory of Converge's Jacob Bannon taking an unannounced and indiscreet swan dive on a group of packed heads (including my own) during one of their sets of raw ferocity and heaviness. Then my brother would chime in to answer the question with his own list of bands and show memories. Then his friend, sitting next to him would add to the list and then that dude's friend would have his say and so forth. For some odd reason, we as show-going heavy music fans and Connecticut citizens have some familial connection to the infamous El 'n' Gee.

It's been rumored, the El 'n' Gee has been suffering from the curse of bad management, crippling funding issues, ripping off artists, 'it ain't what it used to be' mentalities, fights, and a dingy, drab ambiance. Well, I'd like to let a new little secret outof the box: the El 'n' Gee is in the midst of a new attitude adjustment. And in turn, those aforementioned curses on the venue are about due now to fade away forever.

The other evening I sat down with two-thirds of the three main personnel in the El 'n' Gee management team, Craig McCallister & Joaquin Gouin, who have been responsible for this new attitude change and approach to the way the venue is run. The following is an interview that brings a new positivity and promise to the El 'n' Gee.

 

 

 WC: Tell me a bit about yourself and what you do to help the El 'n' Gee operate.
Craig McCallister: I'm the general bar manager for the club. I take care of the day-to-day operations. Making sure that the bar is running, and that we are all stocked for shows and events. I also take care of making sure all the supplies for the venue are ordered. Then, also taking care of the upkeep and maintenance of the building. 

Joaquin Gouin: My official title is event coordinator. Basically any shows or events that come in here get filtered through me. I decide if it's something that we want to do here.

WC:  Are you doing the day-to-day events or the events on the weekends?
JG:  Every event pretty much.  A lot of the events like the weekday stuff are mostly Craig’s brainchild and he gets full credit for those because he’s done great things during the week.  He’s made this place somewhere people want to be during the week.  I always focus mainly on the weekends because I can be back and forth.  Craig’s got the week on lock. 

WC: What kind of attitude and tone did the Gee have in the past?
CM: Based on my own perception, it seemed like it was very disconnected from the rest of the town. A lot of people in the town were turned off by it. And it's one of those things we are trying to change here.

JG:  That’s a tough question because the past has many different sections to it.  There’s been so many different past-owned Gee’s because there’s been so many different owners, so many different scenes that flourished here in the past so it’s hard to say.  For me, my love for this place started when I played my very first show here when I was sixteen.  It continued on from coming to see all the bands play here up until I was in my twenties and in my late twenties I took a crack at running the place myself (didn’t work out so hot).  And then in the last few years I came back in as an outside promoter originally and then I ended up taking over the in-house booking position. Just to give you a quick back-history, I came up in the DIY-punk scene, so I apply that to every aspect of whatever I do in my life pretty much because that’s pretty much how I view the world.  I think a lot of the people who come from that same scene have similar feelings and people who don’t, can read a book and will probably get it.  If you can be a part of it and it’s yours, then you’re going to love it that much more. 

WC: What are some of these new regular events that you can expect to find at the Gee during the course of the week besides the major shows?
CM: We are trying to stick with a schedule; Tuesdays we mainly do what's called, "Vinyl Night", which is where we have the record player available for people to bring in whatever they'd like to spin and share with the folks.  This is the crowd in essence being the DJ.

WC: That's great. What is the schedule for the rest of the days of the week?
CM: Wednesdays are what we call our 40 Ounces of Film. We show a couple movies, off beat flicks, cult classics, and then offer five dollar 40 ounce drafts for the customers.  Thursdays is primarily Open Mic Night where we have the small stage set up so anybody can come up there to do everything from a solo act to duets or tell jokes. They're more than welcome to do poetry. We're also trying to work with DJs like Josh Banks to do a reggae night here. Bring bands here for Tuesday events like a monthly DJ night; but right now we are trying to stick with a steady schedule so that the people in the community know what to expect and know what’s available to them.

 JG:  Craig's always working on making the stuff we got going on better.  He brought the idea of doing the open mic once a month as an all ages thing to get that crowd involved.

CM: ...which we are doing November 10^th.  We are going to partner up with Copperwood’s across the street.  They are going to run cheap burger specials all night for the college kids.

WC: Who runs this aspect of the week?
CM: I take care of setting up the weekly events. We also get help from Allen Glidden. He works at the Pigeon Hole. He helps out quite a bit, especially with the Wednesdays. But Allen has definitely been a huge huge help in making all this happen. We wouldn't be able to do it without him.

WC: How has the response been?
CM: It's been very favorable. We get people in. They'll come in, they'll see what weare offering and then they have suggestions. I take great pains in trying to pay attention to what it is they wantand if it's something that's doable, I'm all for it. As long as it stays within the theme of the evening.

 WC: There has been a sort of resurgence and notoriety about the place; both the positive attitude in the approach of running the venue and the spirit of the attendees. What has exactly changed about the Gee now that there are all these events going on and there's this new attitude change?
CM: I think a lot of the change is with the three main personnel that are running the place. Our approach has been to try to make this more of a family event where the customers coming in are treated asfamily. Really paying attention to them as people. Getting to know them as people. Not just some person we're slinging beers to. We try to build those relationships because in the end we want those kind of relationships. We do enjoy meeting and interacting with all the folks that do come here.

 JG:  I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I deal with the bands differently now as opposed to the previous booker who was here.  Where I don’t think it’s ever fair for a band to pay to play.  And I don’t mean that in just in the sense of making you sell a ticket to play on the stage, I mean that in the sense of making you come from out-of-state. If I book you and you came from out-of-state,  I don’t care if nobody shows up because it was my job as a promoter to make sure that there was people there; you still get paid.  In my opinion, there should never be a band looked at as a business venture.  And that’s probably the wrong attitude for someone who’s running a mid-size venue, but that’s the way I’ve always felt, and I’m not changing it now.  I’ve been doing shows in Connecticut in some capacity since the early-to-mid-nineties, and I’ve always done it under the same pretense of, ‘I don’t want to make money off you having a good time.  I want you to get fairly compensated for doing what you want to do.’  And that’s the way I treat the bands because when I’m in a band that’s how I want to be treated.

A lot of people think, ‘oh it’s a big place like this, it’s a business so you walk in there and there’s a set this this and this…” And yeah, 99.5% of places are like that.  If you walk into pretty much any other club that can hold at least as many people as we can, you are not going to get treated the same because they’re there because it’s their job.  I’m here because this is what I want to do.

It’s about courtesy in the underground.  Because as far as I’m concerned, I would never call this place a punk club because that puts a connotation on it, but this is an underground club.  Plain and simple.  We are a part of the underground network.  We do, do some regionals and nationals and we love to do them, but the base for this place is now, and has always been, since I’ve ever come here, and even before I ever had anything to do with opening its doors with a key, a place to find original music and people that want to play it.  Not because they’re waiting to hop on the latest trend or waiting to get paid to do it, but it’s a way for them to express. 

When I say I came from the punk scene, don’t let that deter you from thinking that I would not have anything other than punk.  I would put on anything and everything that has the right heart and the beat.  That’s the way it’s always been for me so why change it now.  I’m too old.

WC: Would you say it's starting to become a grassroots movement that's gaining a lot of momentum in a way?
CM: Yes. The people they come in and feel like they're getting their dollars worth. They're being respected and appreciated for their patronage. They are paying that forward by sharing their, for lack of a better term, excitements with their friends so their friends are coming in and so forth.

JG: Yes.  The fact of the matter is, you’re here right now doing this interview.  If that’s not grassroots, [you doing an interview for our town’s online zine], then where the hell are the grassroots growing from?

WC: What acts have been coming through here and have drawn those larger crowds?
CM: We just had Death Threat come through. That was a really big draw for us. Recently we had a great show with Stressbomb, No Reason To Fight, and Taxi Driver.  All Boston and Providence bands.  We are in the process of cultivating that relationship with the Boston, Providence, and New Haven scenes.  We get their acts to come down and then also the same thing to get the bands from New London to have a place to go and play.

JG:  Lately, there has been a huge resurgence of ‘80s to early ‘90s hardcore and punk bands that are getting back on the road and we are thankful that we have access to a lot of those people.  A lot of it is through a booker called Brass City Boss Sounds out of Waterbury which is run by Pete and Max.  Pete’s the owner of Shogun Screen Printing.  He does a lot of band merch for many bands all over the world.  He’s a great guy.  He himself has been involved in bands, and is still, since the mid-to-late eighties.  I look up to him as a musical influence.  And even though he’s become an adult throughout the years, he’s got a thriving business, he’s a got a family—wife and kids—but he still stays true to the original stuff, which is what draws me to him still and the reason why I work with him so closely in booking shows here.

WC: What are some other upcoming acts coming to the Gee in the near future?
JG: Honestly, any act that is coming up I think is worth seeing or I wouldn’t book them.  That’s just a matter of fact.  You’ll never catch me putting together a bunch of bands I threw against the wall and see what sticks and sell tickets, that won’t happen.  I won’t do it. 

This weekend we have great shows Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but the king one for next one is going to be Youth of Today on November 12th, which kind of boggles my mind that it’s even happening.  I never thought I would get the chance to see them, much less work at a venue that would host it. 

 There has been so many great bands that have come through the past year and a half since I’ve come back into it and have been apart of the El n Gee. I don’t want to forget to mention Katie, the owner.  She is responsible for all of this happening because granted, I’m booking some good shows, Pete’s booking some good shows, Craig’s making some amazing stuff happen during the week, but without her sitting through the bad times that everybody’s forgetting about now, we wouldn’t be having the good times that we’re having now.

On December 17^th, we have Underdog and another amazing old school hardcore band.  100 Demons, which is a Connecticut hardcore band of newer years that are amazing and they haven’t played out in a really long time.  And in that night, Supertouch, another older band that’s coming back out... it’s just the three headliners.  To have any one of those bands as a headliner would be an amazing show.  All three are on the same show.  I have goose bumps right now just thinking about it.

I can’t really announce a couple of the other bigger ones that are coming up in February yet, but fans of early eighties hardcore from Boston and New York are going to be very very happy very soon when I announce the show that’s coming up.  It’s a show you will want to know about because it’s going to sell out.

 WC: Who would you like to see at the El ‘n’ Gee that would blow the lid off the venue if you could get them?
CM:  A big name band that I would love to see come through here would probably be somebody like The Descendants.  I know they’re on tour.  OFF!, Keith Morris’ band.  I would love to see those guys come through here. 

JG:  At this point in my life, right now, the band I want to see the most is a band from Canada, a three-piece reggae band called Bedouin Sound Clash.  That’s who I’d like to see if I had a magic ticket.

 WC: Any other remarks?
CM: We're very humbled and very appreciative by this rapport we've had with the community and we really want to keep things going in this positive vein. We definitely thank everybody for their patronage. I'd also like  to thank Ian, my son who's done a lot of work helping out with the building upkeep and maintenance and Ben Philo who has been integral in doing a lot of the building maintenance and upkeep as well. The place would not look as nice as it does without him. It’s been a team effort.  We’ve all got our jobs and we’re all doing them.

 JG:  I’m glad to see this place coming alive towards the potential that it has and like I said before, in my opinion it’s mostly due to Katie Gear weathering the hard times that happened before now.  Craig joining now and keeping things the way they’re going because without him here, tonight wouldn’t be happening for sure as far as the door being open and a lot of the other stuff behind-the-scenes wouldn’t happen either.

We’re all about the community as well.  I mean, from the art gallery up the street to the restaurant next door to even the other bars in town, we work with everybody.   We don’t ever want to be at odds with anybody and we know there’s competition, but competition doesn’t mean everybody can’t work together on some degree.