Sealed With A Kiss
New concert promoters kick Vancouver's music scene into high gear
CBC Radio 3, February 2006

In the past two years, Sealed with a Kiss has come out of nowhere to become one of the biggest concert promoters in Western Canada. They're giving the West Coast music scene an adrenalin boost and they're providing some healthy competition to corporate concert promoters. Freelance journalist Sarah Efron went to Vancouver concert venue Richards on Richards to see Sealed With A Kiss in action.

Tonight the Secret Chiefs Three, featuring members of Mr. Bungle, are headlining at Richards on Richards. But Dani Vachon from Sealed With A Kiss looks worried. The bands were delayed at the border for an hour and a half. The doors are supposed to be open now, but they're not, and there's a growing line up of fans waiting in the rain. Vachon is working to get the show back on schedule.

"Two headlining bands are soundchecking with their crazy amounts of gear and lighting. We're figuring out how to fit the opening band on the stage and how to check them as quickly a possible so we can open the doors."

Dani Vachon is Production Manager for the concert promotion company Sealed With A Kiss. Her gig poster designs have plastered city streets for years. She also runs the indie label Sound Document, and sings in the band Cadeaux.

Sealed With A Kiss is made up of a collection of fixtures of the West Coast Music scene. Talent buyer Jason LaJeunesse was the drummer in Closed Caption Radio. Promoter Malcolm Croome works part time at the shop Zulu Records. They joined forces two years ago, and since then, they've put on over a hundred shows. Some of their bands aren't widely known, while others are big name acts.

Dani Vachon: "Arcade Fire, Death Cab For Cutie, Interpol, Bright Eyes…"

The Vancouver concert business was previously dominated by Timbre, a well-established family run company, and House of Blues, a U.S. corporation that books all over North America. Sealed with a Kiss has grown into a major player in town and they also book shows in Seattle. Some indie bands are prefer to work with them because they're young and heavily immersed in the music scene. But for the most part, Sealed with a Kiss have gotten where they are due to hard work and building on their connections.

"A lot has to do with relationships. The buyers, Malcom and Jason, have relationships with booking agents all over world. They appease them by taking on their smaller shows as well as their bigger shows. They way it works with promoters is if you've done show with band before, you get first dibs if they come to town again, unless they were disappointed."

Malcolm Croome says one of their key competitive advantages is their Seattle connection. They have a talent buyer there who persuades bands to brave the border.

"It's been a great arrangement. Jason's booking Numos, a large concert venue in Seattle. He's sending up bands to Vancouver and we're collaborating. We get a lot of stuff that we maybe wouldn't."

Mike Usinger is a music critic with the newspaper the Georgia Straight. He credits Sealed With A Kiss for breaking new bands and building them to the next level. Usinger also says the Sealed With A Kiss has rapidly established themselves as a company that can handle major shows as well as their better-known promoters.

"Sealed With A Kiss has been the dark horse that's come up on the left of all these guys. They've done some really amazing shows. Last October, Arcade Fire played to 4000 at the Forum. Everyone, including myself, thought Sealed With A kiss was insane to put an indie band with little radio airplay and little TV airplay into the Forum. Lo and behold, when you walked in, it was sold out, T-Shirts were sold out. Everybody had a great time."

That Arcade Fire show was Sealed With A Kiss's first huge show, but it's probably not the last. Malcolm Croome says some of their bands are small now, but they could become much bigger.

"As the bands we book grow, we have to grow with them. That means we've had to grow a lot faster than we naturally would. We have to learn as we go. It's an obstacle but it makes it exciting. I wouldn't want it any other way."

At Richards on Richards, the doors finally open and the crowd streams into the club. They gather around the stage to watch Vancouver band Bend Sinister play the opening set. It's the first Sealed With A Kiss show of the year, and there are already a dozen more lined up. If Sealed With A Kiss continues to have a nose for bands who are going to be big, they'll have no problems expanding their empire eastward.

In Vancouver, I'm Sarah Efron for CBC Radio 3.