Selling the scene

‘Tulsa Boom Factory’ invests $80k to bolster Tulsa at SXSW

To Tulsa residents, it’s no secret that our music scene is on the verge of something amazing. Buoyed by an ambitious young workforce, small businesses and large public-private investments, downtown and its surrounding neighborhoods have exploded with activity. The boom is providing venues and, more importantly, audiences for hundreds of Tulsa musicians. Events like the Center of the Universe Festival have seen runaway success, and national media have been dedicating a significant number of column inches to extolling Tulsa’s virtues as the next live music capital of the Midwest. 

Wednesday, March 18, nearly a dozen Tulsa acts will take their show south of the Red River to play at Tulsa Boom Factory, an $80,000 South by Southwest day party designed to push us closer to the tipping point. 

Organized by VisitTulsa, the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation and SMG, which manages the BOK Center and the Tulsa Convention Center, Tulsa Boom Factory will feature several startups and two stages of Tulsa bands. The lineup includes Alaska & Madi (of NBC’s “The Voice”), Capitol Cars, The Fabulous Minx, Bandelier, Native Lights, Nuns (an official SXSW 2015 band), Paul Benjaman, Mark Gibson, Phil Marshall, Eric Himan and Desi & Cody.

“At SMG, we believe Tulsa is one of the greatest live music destinations in the world,” BOK Center General Manager Jeff Nickler said. “SXSW is the perfect venue to showcase Tulsa’s vibrant music scene, innovation and spirit of entrepreneurship to hundreds of thousands of people.”

The impact a 6-hour showcase can make at a festival that in 2014 featured 2,371 acts, 111 stages and hundreds of unofficial showcases remains to be seen, but it’s a big step in the right direction.

A music scene’s growth is driven from two directions, the first of which is the quality of musicians it produces and exports. With 8,000 U.S. and international acts vying for fewer than 3,000 performing slots, a locally-focused showcase provides an otherwise unavailable opportunity for many bands to perform.

“We actually got an email telling us that we had been passed over as an official SXSW band,” said Grant Wiscaver, lead vocalist of Capitol Cars. “This party will provide the  opportunity for us to go down and play in front of a crowd we couldn’t reach otherwise.”

The second is the quality of musicians it attracts. Festivals and large-capacity venues like Cain’s Ballroom, the Brady Theater, and the BOK Center are doing a phenomenal job making Tulsa the go-to tour stop for the nation’s headlining acts. But the task of attracting small and mid-tier acts rests squarely on the shoulders of Tulsa’s touring bands.

“When you go play a festival, your set accounts for maybe an hour of your trip,” Fabulous Minx drummer Noah Sears said. “You spend the rest of the time making friends with the other bands and inviting them to play with you and stay at your place next time they’re in town.” 

Editor’s Note: Ryan Daly is lead singer and guitarist for The Fabulous Minx.

Want more stories by Ryan? Check out his piece on old-school radio and his tips for rookie record collectors. For something more personal, read what it's like to hire a personal trainer—he wrote about it with his wife, Voice contributor Ashley Heider Daly.