Rochester works to cultivate music scene in buttoned-up culture

When Johnny Yucuis moved to Rochester five years ago, he was excited to catch several national acts touring through the city.

Turns out that wasn't going to be his new normal.

"I saw Trampled By Turtles, I saw Wilco, I saw Bob Dylan. I'm like, 'Man. I'm in the big city. This is awesome. I'm going to see music all the time,'" Yucuis recalled. "And then after that ... nothing."

Despite Rochester's reputation as shy on arts and culture, it has long had a vital music scene — it's just been hard to find.

But over the past six months, a new crop of musical entrepreneurs has been trying to shine a spotlight on talent that's been hiding in plain sight.

Yucuis is one of them. He co-founded My Town, My Music, a concert promotion outfit that launched this spring and has put on three shows this summer. They recently hosted a well-attended battle of local bands.

The duo created a subscription-based service that lets people vote on who they want to see. And using their marketing backgrounds, they're analyzing data from their members and music-subscription services to figure out what will sell and how to promote events.

"We noticed there's a really good following for hip-hop in town," Hart said. "But how they interact with social media is definitely different with the country fan base."

The thing Yucuis and Hart say Rochester really lacks is an iconic, music-first venue.

Around the time Yucuis and Hart launched My Town, My Music, Zach Zurn was opening Carpet Booth Studios.

Zurn can hardly keep up with demand for the recording studio, much of it from local musicians.

"Pretty much within the five-to-seven days of me announcing that I even existed, emails [started] flooding in, phone calls flooding in," he said.

Zurn said there has always been an abundance of musical talent in Rochester — just not enough venues and too few paying gigs to support them.

But Zurn said this past summer marked a change for Rochester. Two new concert promoters put on several shows, a weekly music series drew talent from the Twin Cities.

That's a 180-degree change from 10 years ago, when Zurn was a teenager playing in his own bands.

"This summer was a foundational for the arts and music scene," Zurn said.

The music in town persuaded Noelle Tripolino Roberts and her husband Chris to open the 75-seat Jive Mill this summer too, a few years after they arrived in Rochester.

"I think we were just blown away by the amount of creativity and artistry and music that was actually coming out of Rochester," she said.

Tripolino Roberts and her husband saw opportunity in the lack of venues that charge for shows.

Jerry Kvasnicka, a retired Mayo Clinic employee, welcomes the Jive Mill, but he said the biggest problem facing Rochester's music scene are the concert-goers.

Demand for music is unpredictable in Rochester, Kvasnicka said. Medical professionals are often too exhausted to stay up late for a good show, and Rochesterites often buy tickets at the last minute.

In the city's buttoned-up medical culture, some don't want to be seen letting loose at a concert.

"I know physicians who will go to First Avenue but don't see music here," he said.

That fickle demand for music proved fatal to a high profile, end-of-summer event at the Mayo Civic Center.

The concert, slated for Saturday, featured a lineup of big Minnesota acts including Poliça, The Suburbs and Low.

While there may be more than 100,000 people living in Rochester, a week before the event, organizers cancelled the show saying only a fraction of the tickets had been sold.