Tipitina’s Thrives Six Years After Band Bought It

TIPI-TOP: Steve Earle, left, and Ben Jaffe of Preservation Hall Jazz Band perform at famed New Orleans nightclub Tipitina’s in 2018, the year local funk outfit Galactic bought the venue. (Gettty Images)

Galactic Holds Fast in NOLA Music Universe

Robert Mercurio and Galactic knew plenty about performing in clubs, but nothing about running one when the band bought iconic New Orleans landmark Tipitina’s in 2018.

The timing wasn’t great for Galactic’s seven-figure investment due to the looming global pandemic, but there was help, and the group remains in place six years later, successfully operating as club owner and house band folded into one enterprise.

“It couldn’t have been worse; right when you’re getting your feet planted and getting an idea about what’s happening, the bottom drops out on you,” Mercurio said after coming off a four-show, West Coast swing in early December with a side project called Dragonsmoke. It consisted of California gigs at Venice West in Los Angeles, Moe’s Alley in Santa Cruz, The Independent in San Francisco and Hopmonk Tavern in Sebastopol.

Dragonsmoke, which extends to Galactic drummer Stanton Moore and the Neville Brothers’ Ivan Neville, returned to Tipitina’s for a Dec. 14 homecoming.

Mercurio, Galactic’s bass player and producer, gives a lot of credit for the club’s survival to the financial assistance granted by the Save Our Stages Act, which he called “the real thing that saved everything.”

But it’s hard to overstate the role loyalty has played in Tipitina’s continuing success, since it opened as a juke joint in 1977.

“It became apparent how much the brand and the room itself means to people internationally,” Mercurio said. “It was touching to see how much people wanted to see this room carry on and not get lost. It was moving and a lot of people wanted to buy T- shirts and anything else they could to keep it going.”

The 800-capacity club, downsized, from 1,000 pre-purchase, was a comfortable fit for revered New Orleans performer Professor Longhair, Dr. John, the Neville Brothers, the Meters, Cowboy Mouth, the Radiators, the Revivalists and Trombone Shorty, along with Galactic.

The list of acts that have played Tipitina’s reads like a who’s who of hipness: Wilco, Nine Inch Nails, Pearl Jam, Lenny Kravitz, Bonnie Raitt, James Brown, Widespread Panic, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Tim McGraw, Goo Goo Dolls, Parliament Funkadelic, Robert Cray, Patti Smith, Willie Nelson, Buddy Guy, Dresden Dolls and Medeski, Martin & Wood.

“We were crafty,” Mercurio said of getting through the COVID closure. “We launched Tipitina TV, which we were selling.”

Galactic produced a season of high-end, slickly produced video, much of it shot live at the club.

“We didn’t want to do a low budget version,” he said. “There was enough of that stuff kind of going around at that time, so we brought in a real film crew, and I would mix the shows and present a nice thing for people to watch. We debuted every show Friday at 8 p.m., trying to turn it into like a TV channel thing.”

Tipitina TV allowed Mercurio and company to pay bands and production people, while the club actually made some money.

“It was like trying to keep the plates spinning there,” Mercurio said. “We launched the Tipitina’s record club at that time, which was a vinyl-based subscription service, and signed up, 2,500 subscribers, and then we also did this whole (four-hour, online) fundraiser event called Save Tips, which I produced.”

Mercurio tapped into new and historic recordings from the club along with interviews with people about how much it means to them.

Everyone from Willie Nelson, Widespread Panic, Jon Batiste & Stay Human Featuring Trombone Shorty, The Revivalists, Big Freedia, Billy Strings, Tank & The Bangas, Preservation Hall Jazz Band Feat. Allen Toussaint, The Radiators Featuring Gregg Allman, Dumpstaphunk, Ivan Neville, The Soul Rebels, Dinosaur Jr., Funky Meters, Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, Dr John, Manu Chao, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Galactic and others were featured in the live and archival recordings.

Mercurio said getting through COVID was the ultimate stress test and the rest of the sometimes challenging club-owning experience has been gratifying so far.

“We have the ability to make improvements that enhance the shows for the audience and the musicians, because we are on both sides of that,” he said. “We’ve been fans, and we’ve been going to shows there forever. We don’t want to change the room drastically, because it has a vibe, but we’ve made subtle improvements that have helped the fans to rally behind us.

The upgrades touched the club’s sound and lighting, backstage amenities and bathrooms, and little touches like filtered water machines.

“We’ve improved some sight line issues; things that that go a long way,” Mercurio said. “I’m a touring musician. It’s rare that you see improvements in clubs. Usually, it’s like every year, they just kind of go further and further downhill. For somebody to see somebody putting an effort into a club, it’s a bright light.”

There’s hasn’t been food at Tipitina’s since long before Galactic took over and there are no plans to bring it back, but the club has had a good experience partnering with a variety of food trucks.

Mercurio kept all of the upper level staff intact after they acquired the club.

“We still have the same talent buyer, same GM, same operations manager, same ticketing and promotions,” he said, mentioning Nick Logan, Brian Greenberg, Mary Slason and Tanner Logan, who fill those respective positions.

“They helped us get on board, but at the same time, we presented them with ideas that they hadn’t thought about, and sometimes you get a little pushback because they’ve been doing it longer than we have, and then sometimes they’ve (said), ‘Wow, you guys were right.’ Having a new a new set of eyes on the project never hurt, so it’s a bit of a push and pull with us in the club.”