Voices From The Trenches: Lee Smith, Prescient Entertainment

I started promoting shows at Syracuse University, where an upstart named Rob Light was coming in when I was leaving. After college, I helped open and manage the Landmark Theatre in Syracuse before heading to San Francisco to “stalk” Bill Graham.
After several years working at the Concord Pavilion and a couple of odd interviews at BGP, I was hired as a booker working for Gregg Perloff.

After Bill died, I was invited to be part of the employee ownership group and weathered the transition from BGP to SFX to Clear Channel and finally Live Nation. At the end of 2010 Live Nation and I laid each other off and I started Prescient Entertainment and the Mountain Winery has been a principal client ever since. I love that place.

Speaking of which, can you explain both Prescient and Second Octave?

I had been living in Sonoma County for several years when I left Live Nation. I love the area and the best way to integrate myself into that community was to involve myself in projects that interested me.
Morty Wiggins, a close friend and co-worker at BGP, also lived in Sonoma County and had started Second Octave, which manages artists and now promotes shows. We had talked frequently about wanting to work together, and for the last few years we have co-managed a few local acts, currently two: Girls and Boys and Major Powers and the Lo-Fi Symphony.

A couple of years ago an interesting property came to our attention, a local business park in Rohnert Park called SOMO Village, being transitioned into a multiuse, environmentally friendly community with room and interest for a venue.

Second Octave and I co-promote at the 3,000-capacity outdoor venue and we really enjoy working together. I personally am loving working on a project that is growing organically rather than the typical acquisition situation.

When does an agent make your day?  When does an agent ruin it?

The obvious answer is when they confirm a show I really want, or don’t. Having said that, I have always appreciated agents that don’t play a lot of games.

I love people who, despite the pressures and the inherently adversarial relationship, don’t lose sight of the humanity in all of this. Mutual respect goes a long way with me.

What are you listening to and HOW are you listening to it?

I have to say, I LOVE on-demand streaming…the whole world at the push of a button! Currently I’ve been listening to a shit-load of Bowie, have lots of standards like Wilco, Patti Smith, Miles Davis, but I’m always checking out newer music: Deerhunter, Kamasi Washington, Geographer, US Elevator, Damien Jurado, National, new Iggy Pop, etc etc.

I also am addicted to podcasts…WTF, This American Life, Song Exploder among others.

What is the one thing people would be surprised to learn about you?

Hmmm, I’m anti-social? Actually, most people know that. How about I’m an architecture nut. I went to college for that before I had the concert promoter epiphany. I buy books all the time…a former employee of mine referred to it as architecture porn. A fun project at the end of my Live Nation stay was being very involved in the design of new SF offices.

We’re assuming you have at least one colorful anecdote to share from the BGP days.  Feel free to throw in a couple more.

Most shouldn’t be printed. Let’s see, I mentioned two epic interviews above…the first was soon after I arrived in SF. I made a good first impression, was asked “how good are you at math?” I literally nailed the hypothetical problem thrown at me and I was ushered into Danny Scher’s office, at that time in charge of BGP concert division.

I must have given a wise-ass response to a question and was out on the street in about 5 minutes. Several years later, in the second interview with Bill and Gregg and a couple other biggies in the company, I started by telling the story of the first interview, everyone cracked up, and I think I got the gig right then. One of the best things that ever happened for me.