NWGB Amphitheatre

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New management has high hopes for amphitheater

Article by Mike O’Neal, Catoosa Weekly/Times-Free Press

The Northwest Georgia Bank Amphitheatre may soon become a regular venue for local and national acts, according to Chris Thomas, president of Ooltewah-based Palo Duro Presents.

“Catoosa County seems to be a great community that supports music,” said Thomas, who also heads Palo Duro Records and operates the non-profit Chattanooga Market. “We are really excited, there are only a handful of venues in this area where you can hold ticketed outdoor events.”

County commissioners were unanimous in approving a contract that will have Thomas market and manage the 1,800-seat facility adjacent The Colonnade at the Benton Place Campus.

Thomas said his company will manage the facility at no cost and split gross revenue with the county on a 50-50 basis.

“We are taking on financial risks,” he said.

But with those risks Thomas hopes there will be rewards for both his company and the greater community.

While the facility is first rate, Thomas said not having a group familiar with attracting talent to an outdoor venue has been a hindrance and is something he hopes to change.

“We will try to raise national attention, to let people know what is available in the area,” he said. “Our goal is to put some shows in there next year, but we’d eventually like to see a regular series of concerts.”

Thomas said initial efforts will focus on developing an online presence (www.nwgbamp.com), spreading the word about this venue that is so conveniently located to the Tri-State area.

Noting the sold out Summerset concert on Aug. 17 that featured Colbie Caillat and We The Kings, Thomas said, “Everything is done right over there, it couldn’t be better.”

August 17, 2010: Summerset featuring Colbie Caillat [Sold Out!]

Last time around, Colbie Caillat was feeling “Bubbly,” and the entire pop world seemed to want a sip. But this time, effervescence flirts with explosiveness. For her sophomore album, Breakthrough, Colbie has shaken up her sound, bringing in a wider array of producers and players, and significantly picking up the tempo at times from her debut effort’s signature ballads.

You’d be hard-pressed to consider an album as accomplished and successful as Coco an accident, yet that’s almost what Caillat’s 2007 freshman release was. The sudden mania it created at radio and retail “was a surprise for me,” Caillat says, “because I hadn’t really been in this business yet. I hadn’t been doing shows. I wasn’t trying to get signed. I just was this girl who wrote songs and put them up on MySpace.” By the time Coco was released to stores, “Bubbly” was already enough of an airplay sensation that the album debuted at No. 5. The massive success of a second single, “Realize,” helped push the album to over 2 million shipments, in addition to almost 6 million individual digital tracks that were sold. “It all just happened naturally,” says Caillat-”and now I have to keep up with it.”

August 17, 2010: We the Kings

We the Kings are an unapologetically commercial emo-pop band from Bradenton, FL, a small town that doubles as the home base for Tropicana orange juice. Friends since childhood (the band’s moniker refers to the name of their junior-high mascot), the foursome — singer/guitarist Travis Clark, guitarist Hunter Thomsen, his bassist brother Drew Thomsen, and drummer Danny Duncan — formed the band while attending high school. Under the guidance of manager Bret Disend, the teenaged quartet placed a number of tracks on the social networking site Purevolume in 2007 to build online buzz. Meanwhile, they also pursued a deal with EMI’s imprint S-Curve Records, which eventually signed the group.

We the King’s self-titled debut album was produced by Sam Hollander and mixed by Lou Giordano, both of whom had done work with some of emo-pop’s most marketable acts, and released in October 2007. “Check Yes Juliet” cracked the Pop 100 that Fall, and the group spent much of the following two years on the road, playing shows alongside simpatico bands like The Academy Is and Hey Monday. They also found time to record a second album, with Smile Kid arrived in late 2009. ~ Stewart Mason, Rovi