All The Young Punks

(Photo of No Brass guitarist courtesy of Joshua/MySpace)

Rollie Ligart runs 151 Productions, an independent booking/promotions company that has presented local shows by Avail, Voodoo Glow Skulls, The Slackers, The Pietasters and, my personal favorite of the bunch, Lucero.

"151 Productions ... was created by default in Fall of 2001 in Blacksburg , VA," Ligart explains on his company's MySpace page. "In the summer of 2003 we relocated back to our roots in the Newport News area of southeast VA. The goal of 151 Productions is to put together shows featuring bands/performing artists that might fall outside of the latest musical trends and fads within the current music scene. We stress quality over quantity."

I admire what Ligart's doing locally, so I asked him the following questions. Ligart is 28, grew up in Poquoson, and currently lives in Newport News.

Q: What was your first show as a promoter?
A: The first show I ever booked was 33 West (defunct ska/power pop band from DC) and Running With Scissors(Blacksburg based college rock band whow I "managed" at the time) at the Bus Stop in Radford, VA.

Q: Are you a musician?
A: I myself am not a musician but my father is one of the original members of the Rhondels (trumpet) and gave me a great deal of insight on dealing with booking agents and working with touring musicians.

Q: What have you learned over the last five years about the local market for original music?
A: The market around here for live music is solid and very much alive but often very much overlooked by our area's residents. I started going to punk rock shows at a very young age at small venues like the King's Head Inn in Norfolk, the Nsect Club in Hampton and Twisters in Richmond. Over the years as those small venues closed their doors we lost a lot of shows to Richmond and DC. I realized that their were a lot of people in Hampton Roads eager to see newer up and coming touring bands that were too small to play larger venues like The Norva.

Q: What's your favorite local band?
A: As far as favorite local its hard to say we have a ton of talented bands around here. I'd have to say at the moment I'm really into Va Beach based punk rockers No Brass.They play a gritty mix of melodic punk rock in the vein of the mid 90's Fat Wreck Chords bands that I grew up on.

151 Productions presents The Loved Ones, The Gaslight Anthem, No Brass and other bands Feb. 8 at Peppermint Beach Club in Virginia Beach.