🎶 Jeff Kleinschmidt, Talent Buyer at The Vixen McHenry, Breaks Down Chicagolands Local Music Scene 🎤

Join Mike Orfanos, Mike Dermont, and Pete Jansons as they interview Jeff Kleinschmidt, Talent Buyer at The Vixen in McHenry, Illinois! 🎸 Discover the insider scoop on Chicago's hyper-local music scene and how Jeff books incredible acts for this legendary venue.

From The Vixen's evolution from a movie theater to a premier concert destination to landing artists like Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple) and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Jeff breaks down the strategies behind talent booking and reveals the importance of sound production with experts like Dave Treadwell.

Plus, hear about the Kerry Devine Invitational Bash, all-ages events, and how local music venues stay competitive despite rising costs and trends like weed legalization impacting liquor sales.

🎧 Don’t miss this deep dive into Chicago's live music culture!
👉 Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/c/LakeForestPodcast
🔥 Check out upcoming Vixen shows: https://www.vixenmchenry.com/events/list/

Key Moments:
0:00
1:43 Jeff Kleinschmidt, Talent Buyer at The Vixen, joins the show (no relation to Tom Kleinschmidt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Kleinschmidt)
3:37 Mike Dermont at The Vixen watching Wolfgang Paul on drums https://www.facebook.com/wolfgang.paul.7528/videos/959919906100972 Kerry Devine Invitational Bash https://www.facebook.com/kerry.pat.devine
6:34 Peter Dankelson at The Vixen as well, playing with Kerry Devine on bagpipes to AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top" https://www.facebook.com/100013783265903/videos/pcb.1998040490665374/2314003072313824
7:54 History of The Vixen https://www.vixenmchenry.com/
10:40 Investors of The Vixen and the early days
15:57 Shoutout to the great staff at The Vixen, especially Dave Treadwill, the sound guy
16:56 New Year's Eve at The Vixen
19:32 All-ages shows
22:05 Has weed brought down liquor sales in the clubs?
22:47 NIVA Association https://www.nivassoc.org/
23:49 Selling tables in advance to get revenue
24:25 Ticket fees—another source of back-end revenue
27:04 Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple) at The Vixen
28:05 Radius clauses in contracts
31:47 Strategy of overpaying bands in order to get them
34:00 Routing bands through a territory and keeping relationships
38:00 Is SXSW still a place to go to check out new bands and industry happenings? https://www.sxsw.com/
38:10 What music conferences does Jeff go to? Pollstar https://www.pollstar.live/flow/ovg/psl25/landing/page/page, NIVA Association https://www.nivassoc.org/, IEBA https://www.ieba.org/
39:58 NIVA explanation NIVA Association https://www.nivassoc.org/
42:17 Bob Cozza clip
44:40 "Coopetition" in the music scene versus competition
45:40 If you're going to open another place, how do you allocate budgets?
56:45 Shows coming up at The Vixen https://www.vixenmchenry.com/events/list/