NorVa nears the 2,000 show mark, employees share memories

By Malcolm Venable

On Monday, The NorVa will celebrate its 2,000th show with a performance by Sugar Ray. That’s a lot of candles for a celebratory cake, but exactly how big a deal is 2,000 shows? Or, for that matter, The NorVa?

“Oh, that’s Bill Reid’s place, isn’t it?” said Gary Bongiovanni, editor in chief of Pollstar, a California-based publication that writes about touring, ticket prices  and issues relating to thousands of music venues large and small across America. “I understand it’s a nice place to play.”

That is The NorVa’s long-standing reputation. And it’s one reason that the downtown Norfolk venue, which Rolling Stone named one of the top five rock clubs in the country in 2008, has pulled in so much talent and has had those acts return time and time again.

The NorVa will have put on 2,000 shows in about 3,400 days since opening in April 2000 with James Brown – a nail-biter debut in which the venue got the city’s OK hours before showtime. Now, the place is a local and regional landmark.

Many performance halls feature dingy, cramped quarters backstage, but The NorVa is renowned for its several separate rooms, including a spacious den with rip-free leather couches, rugs and flower arrangements. It smells nice. There’s a basketball court, sauna and hot tub for the performers.

“It was a huge leap of faith,” said Reid, a promoter and one of the owners of the venue, “conceptually and financially. People had said that downtown had seen its best day, but I was sensing a shift away from the suburban back to the urban. And we wanted to create an experience that was unparalleled to the consumer and the artist.”

 Bongiovanni said he didn’t have The NorVa on his list of the top 100 clubs in America because it doesn’t report its ticket sales, but “anybody that’s been around for that long means they’ve weathered some good and bad times. That kind of longevity is hard to come by. If they’d had a bad reputation, it would have caught up to them by now.”

 We sat down with four staff members – Will Rowe, general manager; Jennifer Alford, box office manager; Frankie Melchiorre, security; and Ken Ward, head of security – who’ve been there since the beginning to share some of their best and wildest memories. 

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Artists you remember

Ken: Tracy Chapman. On the way out of the show, someone made a bomb threat; it was in really bad taste. They’d said they left a bomb on the bus. The police came.

Frankie: Elvis Costello. He’s usually someone who spends all day on the bus, but he came in and hung out in his dressing room. Artists just can’t believe what they see. I’ve never had a problem with a band.

Jen:  In 2001, we got a call from Prince’s management; the word had gotten out about the place, and he wanted to play here. So we had a three-day turnaround – we cleared a space for him. The tickets sold out in seven minutes. We did a lottery system, like we did for Dylan.

Will: He was really nice. The thing was, we were told not to make eye contact with him, and do not speak to him unless he spoke to you first. So I get him on the elevator, and one of the bar staff comes in and goes into, “Hey, man, how’s it goin’?” and chatting him up. But Prince was really nice; he talked with him. Nobody said anything about it later, either.

Worst fight

Will: There was that Hatebreed melee. It was ugly. It was 120 seconds of pure hell. A couple of security guards got black eyes. 

Ken: There are no acts that have been banned, but there are people who’ve been banned. Maybe about six to 12. Their pictures are at the front. The thing is, the turnover here is minimal, so everyone remembers.

On sex, liquor and rock ’n’ roll

Will: I’ve seen someone do shots off girls’ backsides. I’ve seen someone do a funnel of Jagermeister onstage.

Jennifer: Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots once got too drunk to perform. He laid down on a couch on stage.

Frankie: Leif Garrett. Completely too drunk to perform.

Will: Does it get wild backstage? There’s a lot we can’t say to The Virginian-Pilot. Do acts pluck girls from the audience? Oh, yeah. (Everyone says “Oh, yeah” at the same time.) Puddle of Mudd plucked however many girls. So, after everyone is gone and the show is over, there’s a guy sitting by the stage crying. He’s saying into his phone, “I thought you loved me!” So I talk to him, and his girlfriend or fiancee or whatever is upstairs with the lead singer. I go get her, and she’s all wet – she’s been in the hot tub. I take her down and she says to him, “This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance!” He asked why her hair was wet, and she said, “They threw me in the hot tub.”

Ken: He didn’t ask why only her hair was wet, but not her clothes.    

Will: Yeah, right, exactly! You see some wicked stuff. Rock stars are some trashy people. 

  On working at The NorVa

Jen: My favorite show was the Flaming Lips. It was interactive. They gave everyone laser pointers, and so people were shining them on people on the balcony. It was a great feeling.

Will: Los Lonely Boys. It wasn’t sold out, but it was great people and a great show.

Frankie: New York Dolls. Just to see them back, and for the younger guys in the punk scene to see them.

Jen: It’s amazing to work here at a show and feel that energy. It’s like this warm electricity. It overtakes you.

Ken: For the guests, this is their night. Every night is a special night. And knowing they are enjoying themselves, it’s great.

Jen: When Bill (Reid) was designing the space, and making it all nice, I said, “It’s just going to get messed up.” He said, “It won’t.” He said the nicer you make it, the nicer people will treat it.   Malcolm Venable, (757) 446-2662, malcolm.venable@pilotonline.com