If you, like me, find yourself looking at the marquee at The Palace, wishing that more was going on there, you will want to read this story.
After my recent chat with Little Lost Records, I learned that Tiny Box Booking was taking on the challenge of The Palace. So, I reached out to Brandon Rizzo from Tiny Box to talk about his plans.
Based in New Haven, Rizzo sort of fell into booking musical acts—not an unusual story in the music business. After working with roommates to throw shows in his dorm room, he eventually graduated to pizza shops and other small venues. Rizzo says he quickly started getting calls from agents and other music business pros who were using industry jargon and asking questions to which he did not have the answers. So, he learned.
Since 2015, he’s been booking shows from Hartford to New Haven to Middletown and back again. The pandemic hit many of his usual venues hard, so when Dave Bacchiochi, owner of The Palace, called him, he was excited to drive out and give the location a look. When he showed up, he didn’t even know his friends were running a record store just next door.
He says that in the post-pandemic era, “I’m living on a sort of ‘send it’ attitude. If someone wants something, and it seems possible, why not do it?”
The Palace, according to Rizzo, has everything you need to put on a good show and more. From a sound system to a bar, Rizzo says the space had the basics covered, but he was also impressed with what he saw on Main Street.
“I want people to see what I see,” Rizzo says of Stafford. The vibrant small businesses and community vibe impressed him, and he hopes to work together to make his shows successful and bring more attention to the businesses already here.
“I work on a do-it-together mindset,” he says. “You can’t do it all yourself. What better help to get than the people who live there!”
Rizzo says Stafford may be off the beaten path but is situated well to draw audiences from surrounding cities like Worcester and Providence, as well as colleges like UConn. Hartford, Springfield, and Northampton are all close by as well. Rizzo believes he can pull fans from all of those places to build a robust audience.
“We get skipped a lot,” he says, referring to many national tours. In fact, for this first round of shows, all the bands are from California and have never played in Connecticut, says Rizzo.
When I asked him if he shared worries about parking that I often hear expressed around town (but do not necessarily agree with), he said, "If people want to go, people will figure it out." That's especially true of young, loyal music fans like the ones the indie bands will bring to town.
Tiny Box and The Palace have shows planned for September and October, and if these first shows are successful, Rizzo says he could see a future in which “we could call it home.” Still, those of us who have watched The Palace over the years know that its future is uncertain, so these shows must go well to ensure a future for original live music in Stafford.
The first show featuring Walter Mitty & His Makeshift Orchestra, along with Queen Moo, is September 29, 2024 (get tickets and more info here).
After that, The Red Pears hit the stage on October 3, along with Ultra Q and The High Curbs (tickets and info here). By the way, Ultra Q’s Jakob Armstrong is the son of Green Day’s Billy Joe Armstrong, so I’m officially starting a rumor that Billy Joe might show up.