There’s a kind-of loaded question Nicole Owens gets when she talks about the struggles of operating a nearly 100-year-old theater in downtown Fresno.
It’s, “why don’t you guys just do more shows?,” says the executive director of the Warnors Center for the Performing Arts, which includes Warnors Theatre, Frank’s Place and Star Palace.
Sure, that is one of the ultimate goals of the theater: “We would like to have shows booked every weekend,” she says.
But getting there is time-consuming and expensive and takes industry experience that can be hard to achieve with a nonprofit board like the one that runs the theater. “You have to have a pretty good-sized war chest built up,” says Owens, who took over as the theater’s executive director last August.
Enter Ineffable Music Group.
In July, the Warnors Center signed a deal to bring the Bay Area entertainment company on as the exclusive talent buyer for the theater. This will expand its offering of live music, but also comedy, live podcasts and other family entertainment.
“Our goal is simple,” Ineffable CEO Thomas Cussins says. “Make Fresno a must-stop destination for artists and performers traveling between Southern and Northern California.
“We saw an opportunity to bring more shows into a beautiful, historic 2,000-capacity room.”
Ineffable will bring its connections, knowhow, logistics and money, while theater staff will oversee on-site operations. The Warnors Center also retains the right to host community events like the Chanticleer Shakespeare Co., which announced a partnership with the theater last year. The Warnors Center will also continue to promote events at its two other two venues. “We have a shared calendar system,” Owens said, and are “encouraged to stay as active as we can.”
Looking down from the Warnors Theatre’s ornate suspended ceiling showing the seating, balconies, stage and wrought iron chandelier on Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021.
Gary Numan performs April 9 concert
For its first go-round, Ineffable is bringing in Gary Numan.
On Tuesday, the theater announced an April 9 date for the pioneering electronic musician, who had a hit with ”Cars” in 1980. Tickets are $29.50 to $69.50 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, though presales will be available at 10 a.m. Thursday with the code “Fresno.” At least one more event has been booked but has not been announced .
The deal, which Owens describes as a hybrid co-promotions model, is expected to bring in two shows per month by next year and will run through 2028.
It would be a return to form for the theater, which has seen its share of live entertainment in the past.
The rock group AC/DC played the theater early in its career on the Highway to Hell tour. The Clash played the theater in 1984. An up-and-coming REM was there the following year. More recently, the theater hosted a trio of dates for Neil Young on his reunion with Crazy Horse. Audra McDonald packed the place for a rare hometown concert for Good Company Player’s 50th Anniversary. Comedian Bill Burr was at the theater on his trip through the Central Valley last year. English crooner Morrissey performed at the theater in April, on one of just a dozen U.S. tour dates.
“This historic, beautiful theater deserves to thrive,” Cussins says.
“We’re committed to helping make that happen.”
What is Ineffable Music Group?
According to its own press, Ineffable Music Group started in Oakland in 2006 at a studio that Green Day famously once called home. Along with its live entertainment division, the group also does artist management (Cussins manages bands like Stick Figure, The Elovators and Collie Buddz) and runs a record label that leans heavily toward reggae music (see: Ballyhoo!, the Expendables).
The Warnors will be one of the largest capacity venues in a portfolio of venues Ineffable operates across California.
This summer it took over as the exclusive talent buyer at the Majestic Ventura Theater in downtown Ventura. The 1,200-seat theater had previously been booked by Live Nation.
Last year, Ineffable signed a similar deal with the 844-seat Uptown Theatre in Napa. The company’s full roster includes the Catalyst in Santa Cruz, The Quarry Park Amphitheater in Rocklin, the Hangar in South Lake Tahoe, and the Fremont Theater in San Luis Obispo (which recently got a surprise pop-in from the Foo Fighters). The company also operates multiple music festival across the state, including Levitate Music and Arts Festival.
It’s also part of a network of venues across the country thanks to a recent merger with Gate 52, a live entertainment platform that works with independent venues. “Our two businesses have aligned goals,” Cussins says, “to bring live entertainment to communities where we don’t see enough touring bands play; places like San Luis Obispo, Ventura, Santa Cruz … ”
And, now, Fresno.
The city has long been a strong market for emerging artists (those playing clubs with capacities in the hundreds) and arena-level acts, Cussins says, but it remains “overlooked when artists plan their tours.”
“We want to change that.”
Fans wait to pick up their will call tickets outside Warnors Theatre on the first night of the Neil Young and Crazy Horse concert on Tuesday, May 1, 2018. Young and Crazy Horse last performed together in 2014.