Shapiro is Bullish on Bearsville

OLD WOODSTOCK: The Bearsville Theater underwent renovations after it was acquired by Lizzie Vann in 2020, prior to being leased by Peter Shapiro and Dayglo Presents. (Courtesy Dayglo Presents)

Venue extends Dayglo’s reach up the Hudson

Peter Shapiro’s Dayglo Presents announced the opening lineup today for the Bearsville Theater just outside Woodstock, New York, beginning with Don Was on June 1 and followed by shows from Guster, Dawes, Guided By Voices, Drive-By Truckers, Mdou Moctar, The Beths, Andy Frasco & The U.N., Dresden Dolls, The Zombies, and The Jayhawks.

Shapiro said Dayglo has a long-term lease with the owner of the 500-seat venue and is confident he can replicate some of the success he has enjoyed at the Dayglo-owned Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York.

“It’s a geographic continuation,” Shapiro said. “I’m a New York City venue guy, with Wetlands and the Brooklyn Bowl, and then I went 30 miles north to Port Chester, New York, where the Capitol Theater is and this is just further north, to the broader Woodstock area.”

The theater will fit nicely with artists routing their way through New York, Montreal or Boston or places like Syracuse and other northeast college towns.

The venue has a rich history. It was built by Albert Grossman, manager of Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul and Mary, The Band and Janis Joplin and was restored by owner Lizzie Vann, who acquired ownership in 2020.

The Bearsville Theater team includes new General Manager Frank Bango and Talent Buyer Mike Campbell.

Shapiro says he’s got the right people in place.

“I didn’t really know them before,” Shapiro said. “But they are just the leading guys up there.”

Bango moved to the mid-Hudson valley in 2012 after 23 years in New York City and Campbell, an area resident since 2013, was previously the talent buyer and venue manager of The Colony in Woodstock from 2017 to 2023.

David Geffen’s opinion of the place aside, Woodstock and the mid-Hudson Valley have grown in population, with a surge in new residents since the pandemic, Shapiro said.

“A lot of people left the city during COVID and a lot of them went to that broader region,” he said. “”It’s got a bit of that Brooklyn hipster cool and we’re gonna book a bunch of bands that kind of forecast what we’re seeing.”

There isn’t a venue in the region consistently drawing high-profile acts of the stature of Bearsville, which includes recording studios made famous by Todd Rundgren, among others, Shapiro said.

The Colony is smaller at about 399 indoor capacity.

 

Guided by Voices is selling well, Shapiro said of one of the theater’s early on-sales.

The theater has a new Meyer Sound audio system and will be an easy plug and play for smaller bands.

Food and beverage is handled in-house, as it is at the Capitol.

“We’re building something for people to draw  from all directions.,” Shapiro said. “I’ve seen that at the Capitol when we do multi-night runs with Phil Lesh or Bob Dylan we see people drive in, come in flying and driving from all over and and people love going to their favorite venue and seeing their favorite band. We’ll see a lot of that multi-night run stuff.”

Shapiro said they are working on getting Rundgren booked.

I’ve done a show every night for last 28 years since owning Wetlands in ’96,” Shapiro said. “Hopefully, we’ve learned some things. We have the kind of relationships that are necessary, but the need is there. There’s more people living up there. That’s my bet. People that love music, love live music. It’s this historic theater with a lot of history: David Crosby and Bobby (Weir) and Rundgren and then there’s the studio and there’s the dhistory in Woodstock, and The band. We want to bring all that back.”