Jesse Morreale Returns To Live Biz As EVP Of Talent & Venues At Lucky Man Concerts

Jesse Morreale, who stepped away from concert promotion at his former company, Denver’s Nobody In Particular Presents, 16 years ago to go into the restaurant business, is back with his appointment as Executive Vice President of Talent & Venues for longtime friend Tom LaPenna and Lucky Man Concerts based in Tempe, Arizona.

The appointment is effective immediately, and Morreale will be responsible for booking all capacity levels with a focus on larger venues and arenas. Currently, Lucky Man owns and operates the 2,425-capacity Marquee in Tempe, and promotes more than 200 concerts and other events annually in Arizona, New Mexico, and other primarily Southwestern states. Lucky Man shows on the books include Portugal. The Man, Jenny Lewis, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, and Evan Dando.

“Between his years as a concert promoter and venue developer, and his more recent experience developing more complicated and ambitious real estate projects, Jesse has acquired a unique set of skills that I believe will be invaluable to our company’s plans,” says LaPenna. “I believe Jesse’s experience and relationships will lead to him being an immediate, integral part of both our booking and venue operations, and I look forward to seeing how swiftly we are able to see results in booking and venue expansion.”

LaPenna acknowledges that part of the plan in hiring Morreale, whom he’s known since college and worked with in previous concert industry roles, is to help his independent company grow throughout the Southwest.

In addition to booking, Morreale will oversee and implement the company’s growth initiatives related to venue and market development and expansion, according to a Lucky Man statement.

Morreale moved on to work for House of Blues Entertainment, Universal Concerts and with the late Barry Fey before joining partners Doug Kauffman and Chris Swank at Nobody In Particular Presents, and becoming a minority partner.

Over the course of 15 years, NIPP promoted more than 1,000 concerts and other events, including events at Red Rocks Amphitheater and other public venues. It exclusively promoted the Denver Botanic Gardens concert series and company-owned venues including the Ogden, Bluebird and Gothic theaters in the Denver area, Royal Oak Music Theatre in Detroit, Colorado Music Hall in Colorado Springs and Marquee Theatre in Tempe, now owned by Lucky Man.

At the turn of the century, NIPP was at the center of a wildly competitive concert market in Denver, with Clear Channel Communications, House of Blues Entertainment and NIPP duking it out for shows. Promoter legend Barry Fey even came out of retirement to return to the fray.

As Clear Channel, which in 1998 acquired the radio and concert promotion assets of SFX Entertainment, began rising in dominance, NIPP sued the concert giant in 2001 on antitrust grounds in federal court. The suit was settled out of court in 2004 – terms remain confidential, Morreale says, and one year later Clear Channel divested its live event division into what would become Live Nation. The radio stations – some of which in Denver were accused of leveraging artist airplay against venue bookings – were not part of the deal.

But the lawsuit took its toll on NIPP, including its partners. Morreale was the first to walk away, beginning a long run in the hospitality industry with Mezcal and then RockBar, El Diablo, and other Denver eateries. He’s also made his mark in Denver real estate development.

“I’ve always stayed in touch with artists and agents, and Tom (LaPenna) and I’ve always been close friends,” Morreale tells Pollstar. “Over the last 10 years, my main focus has been on real estate and development, but always with an entertainment or hospitality component. But in addition to that, I quietly still stayed involved in music. You can never get it out of your system. Over time, the relationships that I developed with a lot of agents, managers, even bands, was just too strong to ignore.”

While the company’s offices are in its Marquee Theatre in Tempe, Morreale’s role with LMC is non-exclusive and his time will be split between Arizona and Colorado, which will allow him to continue to work on other projects in his pipeline.