Stranded?

Plus, bound sounds and around the town

by Michael Caito

Predicting the ebb and flow of the nightclub biz is kinda like that old joke about the Lone Ranger and Tonto. They're riding around on their horsies, half-starved and grubbin' for chow. Suddenly Tonto leaps from the saddle and presses his ear to the ground, listening intently.

"Buffalo come," he says.

"Wow, you the man, Tonto!" says the Lone Ranger.

"No, kimo sabe. Side of face sticky."

Two hundred thousand people equals more than a third of the New England Patriots' annual home attendance. Two hundred thousand people equals about 30 Providence Bruins crowds or 15 Celtics crowds or several sold-out seasons of the Philharmonic's Classical Series at Vets.

Providence is a small city, and will probably never be a big city . . . gondola-led renaissance, ambitious mayor or not. Since occasions like the agonizing fiscal throes of the Strand Theatre aren't uncommon in the nightclub business, there's not a great deal of shock at the news that a room may shut down, given the size of the market it serves and the fact that since Day One they've gone mano a mano in bidding wars with a club owner -- Rich Lupo -- who is almost as much a household name as Salty Brine.

What sucks is the parking lot bit. I've been Denver-booted downtown more than once due to failed skirmishes with the parking meterStasi. Ain't fun. Nope. Ain't fair. Nope. But you take the good with the bad in any city. Ante up, get over it, hope the good outweighs the bad. Or, you leave.

Progress has been made, but with it comes the realization that trying to force a rebirth is akin to pushing a big ol' boulder. First, you have to stop it from rolling in the wrong direction, which it was doing and which has happened. Then you arrive at that nervous instant when the boulder is stock-still, capable of rolling in either direction. Forward or backward.

That's where things are now, and whether you love the place or not, the Strand has helped bring the city back to this still-precarious point. Picture the Grinch atop Mount Crumpet with Max and the sliding sled full of booty. And little Cindy-Lou Who at a show with a brew.

Innumerable questions beg answers if the Strand closes. Will mega-promoter Don Law step up to the plate, suddenly finding himself without a room between Boston and New York?Will booking agents who had been more than happy to offer their bands' services in a town with a guaranteed bidding war pull the plug, realizing that with Steve and Karen Wright gone, Lupo's and the Providence PAC can name their own prices? Do ticket prices then fall for dollar-dazed fans if touring bands sign for a $10Kguarantee instead of a $25K guarantee?

And what if major recording artists start bagging the Providence exit for the (gasp!) New Haven exit off Route 95? Then do smaller independent acts and local acts get gooned or goosed?Does a major club's closing help shift attendance to the AS220's, One Ups and Century Lounges? Theatres and galleries? Do these organizations want this help . . . if it is help? Will those 200,000 people per year -- the Strand head-count posited by Steve Wright -- come Downcity anyway?Who else will book rap and hip-hop if the Strand is banned as is planned? Is Providence then returned to a more realistic second-tier market status given the fact that, with no one to bid against, agents' first-tier pricing no longer applies? It's a story with plenty o' gamesmanship ahead, but one thing's certain: I'll risk the Denver boot.

BOOK'EM. Can't beat a good book for a gift. Cannot. This year's picks include The Beatles:Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Cambridge Music Handbooks), a blow-by-blow of the making of the Fab Four's opus; The Grateful Dead and the Deadheads: An Annotated Bibliography (Greenwood Press), an exhaustive (4000 listing) chronological history of Jerry-atrics; Jelly Roll, Bix and Hoagy (Indiana University Press), which traces the history of the Gennett family from 1917 to 1932 and the recordings of this groundbreaking family company; Stairway to Hell (Da Capo) which in this updated form proclaims the 500 finest moments of Heavy Metal "in the universe"; Lush Life (Granta) a thoughtful biography of Billy Strayhorn which has already garnered huge praise; Charles Ives: ALife with Music (Norton) and The Music of Charles Ives (Yale University Press) both of which follow the Danbury, Connecticut native through the creation of some of this century's -- and this country's -- finest, if most chaos-laden, classical moments. They're perfect primers for another Ives piece we'll hear at the Philharmonic later this season, courtesy of Ives fan/music director Larry Rachleff.

Finally, there's the crime fiction pick of the season from author Charlotte Carter titled Rhode Island Red, from the estimable Serpent's Tail publishing house which gave the world two great Eastern European fiction anthologies last year. Rhode Island Red follows the adventures of a talented single black woman who, despite professional training in French translation, opts to busk along to Charlie Parker tunes on her ratty old sax somewhere near TriBeCa. Saying just where Rhode Island Red comes in would be bean-spilling, but Carter can boast of a poet's yen for clarity, a whipcord sense of humor and an obvious devotion to jazz greats like Bird. Neat read.

SHOWZ. Newport may be finally sloughing off a long rock and roll slumber with the re-appearance of a venue [rumored to be] called Craig's Place, where this Saturday night Dopey Lopes, Motormags (who include Mother Jefferson's Jon Jones and former members of One Ton Shotgun) and the Prov-based soopah-groop The Followers (including Don Sanders, Bruce Moravec, Stephen Twining, Jack McKenna). Next Saturday is Lopes and Mother Jefferson, in the very same room formerly known as 333's. Great news from Newport. Lopes recently relocated to New York, having undercarded several recent bills with Mark Cutler who, by the by, has dropped the "Useful Things" part of the band name, though they still feature drummer Bob Giusti plus bassist/vocalist Chuck Vath (the Kinsleys) and guitarist vocalist Allan Devine (ex-Stardarts). SkyLoLo, the next Cutler record, is now set to start shifting in early '98, though they've released an EP in the interim.

Stone Soupers will be out in force for their annual New England Christmastide show Saturday, since the lineup is typically strong and the Soup's closed for two weeks thereafter until Northern Lights on January 3. So boost the spirit with a fine group of players including Sandol Astrausky, Jon Campbell, Everett Brown and more. Seminal avant-guardian/ Knitting Factory mainstay John Zorn formed his own label called Tzadik, and they've released Search for the Golden Dreydl by Naftule's Dream, who appear at AS220 December 19. Trombonist David Harris and clarinetist Glenn Dickson lead a stellar assemblage including pianist/accordionist Michael McLaughlin (Ibrahima Camara), Either/ Orchestra's drummer Eric Rosenthal, tubist John Manning, and Tracy Bonham's guitarist Pete Fitzpatrick. Klezmer jazz improv? Plan ahead. The Blackstone River Theatre continues to ramp up for their March opening with a show at the Cumberland Public Library featuring Harvey Reid on Friday. The Millionaire, Lily and Combustible Edison hit the Century mark on December 13, and Gruvis Malt celebrate their EPrelease Friday at the Strand with Freakshow and more.

FOLKSTRESSES. Jody Blackwell cut her performing teeth in East Side cafes with the help of pal Jerald Harscher, and now she's based in Somerville, having released Volcano, an introspective charmer of a disc. That one is matched by Another Girl (RCA), featuring multi-instrumentalist Lynne Kellman, a Canadian recently re-settled in Newport. Two strong titles, one with lots of publicity muscle behind it (Kellman's) and another accompanied by one very nice letter. For Blackwell (now in a jazzy/folk trio) and Kellman (now with a full band), the future's so bright.