Club and Tech Review Saturday 26 October 2002
The Intersection
1520 Wealthy SE, Grand Rapids, MI
By Red Ron

Last show for us this tour, the club's Halloween party, the WYCE Hoodoo Bash, the Red Elvises, Life Is Good!

First, I would like to thank Mike and Dagmar of WYCE radio; they have done an excellent job of introducing the Red Elvises to Grand Rapids and promoting the shows; it's good to have friends in high places.

The Intersection is currently located in east Grand Rapids, in a large building housing a café, the club, and an out-of-business smaller club, as well as various other businesses. I say currently because the club is moving to the downtown area soon. The RE were supposed to play the opening show for the new location, but it wasn't ready yet.

The club was described to me as a large box, and it is (or was)! The front door opens into the bar area, with many tables and chairs, then a section of tall tables and stools. Then the ceiling rises up to about 30 feet and the dance floor extends maybe 80 feet to the stage at the far end of the building. The black walls have flames painted on them above the wainscoting, and the bathrooms are lined with diamond plate sheet metal, floors, walls, and ceiling, cool!

The floor in the bar area is old carpet that has swallowed up pennies and won't let them go. The dance floor is a combination of bare concrete, peeling asphalt tile, and what appeared to be a grease pit covered with plywood. Overall, the club looked "rode hard and put away wet"!

There is a large (3'x8') table in an alcove between the bar and dance floor for the band to sell their merchandise. It was nicely lit and laid out, with a chain link fence on the wall to hang shirts and such. Very nice.

The bands load in through a side door and down a wide, slightly sloping hall to the stage and green room doors. The green room is a large area to the rear of the out-of-business bar with a private dressing room and rest room. They were able to load in and to do a sound check before going to supper.

The stage is large, about 25' x 40' and 4 feet high, large enough to set up the opening act in front of the headliners, making for a nice stage entrance for the band. The sound system was huge, with four massive speakers flown above the stage and the area under the stage filled with subs. They have a separate mixer next to the stage for the monitor mix; feeding independent mixes (a good thing) to 4 large monitors across the front and a stacked array for the drummer. The lights and "front of house" sound are controlled from a raised booth at the rear of the dance floor. It is nicely equipped with a 48-channel board and several racks of processing equipment, and a guy that knew how to use it.

After a nice dinner, we returned to find that the entire neighborhood was without power!

Eek! We walked into the place and it was lit with candles and flashlights, with a lot of people in costume waiting for the show. Mike (of WYCE) wasted no time, made frantic phone calls, and soon had a generator on its way. When it arrived it was determined that the capacity would only handle the stage, not the entire club. After several minutes they had the connection made to a sub-panel, ready to go, and as they went to turn on the generator, the power came back on! A quick rewiring and the show went on as scheduled.

It was an excellent show; the guys had a good time, the crowd had a good time, and we had a good time, too! During the last encore, Monica grabbed the fake polyester cobweb covering the front of the stage and handed it to Zee, who then placed it over his head. Before long, everyone was grabbing a handful of the web and passing it to the person behind them. I turned around, and the entire dance floor was covered by the web, very Pink Floyd.

I'm sorry that this club is moving! Although the club looks in rough shape, it has character. It has been in this location for 25 years and has had many famous, not-so-famous, and yet-to-be-famous bands over the years, and it shows. I'm sure that the new Intersection will be a very "nice" place, as are a lot of downtown clubs in Grand Rapids, but this place has a history that should not be allowed to fade away.