Citing building lease issues, Starlight Room owner Daniel Beckett suspended operations of the concert venue on June 1. Our coverage was one of Local Spins’ most-read stories of the year.
One-Year Run: The Starlight Room on opening night in May 2023. (Photo/Jeff Brinn)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Our year-end countdown of 2024’s top posts continues with the story Local Spins broke in June about the Starlight Room closing its doors, reflecting an up-and-down year for many venues and music festivals. Scroll down for a video.
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Muskegon’s Starlight Room closed its doors in June, just a year after hosting its first concert in what was billed as a unique, intimate and state-of-the-art listening room.
Owner Daniel Beckett said he suspended operations due to an issue with lease of the building at 4765 Airline Highway, a space which underwent significant renovation to create the 205-capacity concert venue.
“Everybody will think lack of ticket sales was our undoing, but that is not the case,” said Beckett, who declined to elaborate on the record about the lease issues which forced the venue to scrap upcoming fall shows.
Daniel Beckett (Photo/Jeff Brinn)
“We were a little behind the pace needed to achieve our year-end goal. However, we were achieving better than a 50:1 ratio of followers to attendance, so we were actually outperforming my estimate quite significantly in that metric. … Our social outreach was working, and the trendlines all indicated we were on track to continue that growth, so we would have been fine by the end of this year.”
Beckett insisted he’s “exceedingly proud of what this team built,” noting that Starlight Room hosted a bevy of memorable shows and introduced what he considered a groundbreaking “multi-camera, multi-track recording and live-streaming of live-audience concerts” by partnering with Robby Fischer of Grand Rapids’ Dogtown Studio.
Starlight Room also provided “an enhanced recital space” used by students from Music Everyday along with recruiting “the best of what West Michigan has to offer” in terms of concert performers: More than half the artists playing the venue were WYCE Jammie Award nominees.
Among the many performers were Asamu Johnson & The Associates of the Blues, Roosevelt Diggs, Grace Theisen, Blackthorn and Deerfield Run, which played the venue’s final weekend in late May. (Scroll down for video.)
STILL EXPLORING VARIATIONS ON LIVE MUSIC VIDEOGRAPHY
“I think my favorites, though, were the shows that showcased our unparalleled backline, most notably, the seven-foot conservatory grand (piano and) the 1954 Hammond C2 organ,” he said.
“The ‘Grand Haven’s Got Talent’ showcase featuring Money Soup in January of 2024 was our first show to break 100 patrons, and that talented bunch of high school-college students used our piano, organ, Rhodes, drums and amps. That was definitely a special night.”
Beyond the lease complications, Beckett said his biggest challenge revolved around medical issues facing Starlight Room co-founder and friend Larry Decker. Decker “suffered a catastrophic health issue” last summer, though he’s since recovered.
Roosevelt Diggs: The Americana band played Starlight Room in March. (Photo/Jeff Brinn)
Decker would have assisted with artist relations and Beckett conceded he “struggled in persuading artists that promoting their shows at The Starlight Room was a far superior form of crowd-funding and career-building than essentially begging in the public square using services like GoFundMe, Kickstarter and IndieGoGo (and) we did not achieve the consistent level of engagement I expected from enough of the artists to hit our goals by the end of the spring season.”
As for Beckett’s future ventures, “it remains to be seen if it would be prudent to resurrect the Starlight brand. Regardless, the concept of live concert videography remains tantalizing, so much so that Robby Fishcer and I are exploring several variations on what we began.
“We both invested a lot of time in perfecting the operational aspects of our offering, and that intellectual property has a lot of value that neither of us wants to see go wasted. We have no specific timeline at the moment, so all I can say is, stay tuned.”
Despite the disappointment of closing the venue, Beckett insisted that “manifesting The Starlight Room from virtually nothing in less than 75 days is definitely the most rewarding undertaking I’ve ever attempted. It remains a great idea, and partnering with all the amazing people that gave of their time and talents is truly humbling.”
VIDEO: Deerfield Run at The Starlight Room
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