Q’s With Amy Madrigali, In-House Talent Buyer For The Troubadour

Queen Of The night time world
Miriam Brummel / EVEN KEEL
– Queen Of The Night Time world
Amy Madrigali, head talent buyer at the world famous Troubadour.

Amy Madrigali has been the in-house talent buyer for Los Angeles’ iconic Troubadour for the past four years and may have one of the most well-rounded perspectives in the live business having worked for Seattle’s KMTT radio, One Reel (which produces Bumbershoot), Pearl Jam, Q-Prime and The Billions Corp. agency,  Here, she discusses her approach to booking, her work for NIVA, the legacy of Elton John and what the venue is doing these days. (For the full interview with Amy Madrigali order Pollstar’s upcoming Talent Buyer 2020-2021 Directory.) 
Pollstar: What’s it like working at one of the most historical music venues in the world? 
Amy Madrigali: It’s an iconic place, and I still can’t believe they let me book it. It’s a true gift. We’ve been independently owned and operated since 1957 and at our current location in West Hollywood since ‘61. Doug [Weston] had another location on La Cienega for a little while when he started.
What was the first show you saw there? 
It takes a little while to get your bearings in L.A. My first little sublet apartment was in West Hollywood and I knew the first venue I had to go to was the Troubadour. I saw Matt Pond PA and just felt it was somewhere special. Then I watched the PBS documentary [“Troubadours”]; after that I was in awe. That was the documentary they made for the 50th anniversary where James Taylor and Carole King came back and played a bunch of shows. I watched that before I started at the club in 2016. 
Who else did you see before you started working there? 
I saw Jonathan Wilson and Jackson Browne came out and it was incredible. I saw Natalie Prass and Ryan Adams came out. Probably the most affecting show I saw was Sam Smith on his debut in 2013. It was his debut show [in Los Angeles] and he wanted to play the room because Elton John played the room for his US debut. I remember standing there and looking at him just like, this guy is going to be a star and you’ll never see him in a club again, which is just the magic formula for the Troubadour. He did that night what Elton did, which I think was his goal and he nailed it. His voice was unbelievable. His songs were incredible. You could feel it in the room, that was a moment. 
Did you see Elton John’s GQ piece on the 50th anniversary of playing the Troubadour? 
The GQ piece is incredible. The show is the model for everything. I talk about the right room for the right band at the right time. I always say I’m looking for the band that’s the rocket on the way up. And when I say rocket, I mean, Rocketman, like best case scenario, if I’m finding the right band at the right time, it’s August 25, 1970. It’s the best you can do, it’s the best that room can shine in that moment when you walk into the room and you see a band. Like I felt with Sam Smith. Like I felt when I saw Adele at Neumos [in Seattle] when I was in college. You see a band and you think, “Oh, I’ll never see this person in a club again.” That’s what I imagine when I daydream about August 25th, 1970, and people walked into that room and they saw him. They wrote in the L.A. Times, the next day “the next rock and roll star was born that night.” And that’s what I aim for. And we’re lucky enough that bands call and want to come back and recreate that moment with us for an underplay.
What do you use when you’re trying to hear or discover bands? 
It’s all over the map. A band can come from a friend or from another band they brought on tour and it’s the opening act. I always try to see the opening act when I can or at least look them up and discover their music. Then KCRW and Morning Becomes Eclectic, I’ll check out their playlist. I’ll be driving around on a Saturday and Shazam whatever Anne Litt or Jason Bentley or Raul Campos or whoever’s playing. Just blogs and publications and Pitchfork and all that normal stuff. Spotify playlists are also a big part of it. I love KCSN also. It’s like I want to hear something new, but I also want to hear Tom Petty. If I’m in the mood for the new Jamestown Revival but also some Tom Petty. Or I want to listen to Lucinda Williams. They’re also a beloved station out here for sure. They do a lot of local music, which I appreciate very much.
What are some of your tent pole moments at the Troubadour? 
Allen Stone was the first show I had and then I started booking from there. I’ve been able to book some really amazing things, but one of the best ones was that Sam Smith wanted to come back in 2017. He wanted to come back and do an underplay and I got to book him and all I wanted to do was go back to 2014 me in the room and be like, “Amy, guess what? Three years from now you’re going to be back here. You’re going to be the talent buyer and Sam will play again and put out another incredible record.” I remember that whole day in 2017 just being pretty overwhelmed with emotion, that was a really good full circle moment” 
What are the biggest challenges booking the Troubadour, which has a capacity of 500?
I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that the Troubadour is the right room for the right band at the right time. You want to book the bands that make it a moment. I only have 365 squares on the calendar and I fill them as best I can to make it exciting and diverse and fun and profitable. You want to make good deals for everyone involved. It took me a minute to learn when to say, maybe they should play a smaller room first. Or when to go really aggressive and say, I have to have Maggie Rogers’ first L.A. show, which felt like a really big get because I knew the moment I heard “Alaska” she was a star. I just loved her.
Music Venue / Temple:
Courtesy Marushka Media / Rich Fury / Getty Images
– Music Venue / Temple:
the storied West Hollywood club Madrigali calls home.

What are you doing these days?  

I’ve been more of a lobbyist, than a promoter. Calling our Congress people trying to get them onboard for the legislation and funding we desperately need from them because we can’t open our businesses. I’m still focused on that in a big way. Then just streaming stuff, filming stuff, booking things for next year. It’s busy, which is great. That feels good.
Are you working with NIVA?
Yeah. I’m the southern California precinct captain for the lobby advocacy team.
Wow, precinct captain, do you get a badge or sash? 
I think I just get a lot of emails and make a lot of calls. I’m typically coordinating for the L.A.- and O.C.-area venues to get in touch with their representative.
Like Congressman Adam Schiff? 
[Troubadour GM/owner] Christine Karayan and I did a Zoom meeting. [Adam Schiff] was actually my first call with a real Congress person, which was no pressure. He was wonderful and very supportive. I live and work in his district also, so he is truly my representative. He signed our initial letter in the House and then co-sponsored the RESTART [Act] in the House. He’s also co-sponsored the Save Our Stages Act. I’m in touch with his office. Jimmy Gomez downtown is also supportive. I’ve had meetings with Kamala Harris’s team, and she is supportive, and [Diane] Feinstein is supportive.
Now it seems like we’re in a purgatory, is there a status update? 
The House will come back Sept. 8th; the Senate will come back Sept. 14th. So we hope and pray and cross our fingers that at that point negotiations will get serious between the two parties. So we’re hoping by the end of September, when the appropriations still has to go through to fund the government by Sept. 30.
What other activities are you engaged in now?
We opened the online merch store for the first time. which is going great. We hope people would want to head over there, grab some T-shirts, and hats, and mugs, and koozies and all that fun stuff. And we’re grateful to anyone who wants to rock our merch. And then beyond that it’s still rescheduling shows that would have played through the spring. We’re sliding those forward as we wait for hopefully good news on a vaccine. We’re looking at new shows for next fall and just trying our best to shuffle the calendar and look positively towards it. And then we’re looking into streaming opportunities and filming opportunities. But I don’t have any specifics I can share on that quite yet. It’s an ongoing project working on filming and streaming. We’re excited about a new medium and we are excited about taking the Troubadour online for the first time.

What’s the tool that you use that you most rely on to do your job? 
Email and Google calendar.
Are you moving the same shows for like the second or third time?
Yes.
And that’s just every day?
Yes, I had a show that was originally supposed to be in May. It is now scheduled for February. But just in case, we’re looking at September of next year as a backup date, just in case the February one can’t play through. So basically my goal is to do the best we can to be ready whenever we’re allowed to open and we can open safely.
Is that typical?
I have a number of shows that are in that same boat that we’ve now moved three times. Mike Campbell’s a good example. We were supposed to have two shows in April. It was actually a good travel weekend. We were supposed to have Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs for two nights over Coachella weekend one. That was early April, where that did not happen. So we moved it to October 2020. And now we’ve just moved it again. It will now play in October 2021, hopefully.
It’s just this crazy guessing game, isn’t it? 
Every artist is trying to do a primary date and a secondary date.
It will be so wonderful, we’ll all drop to our knees and cry when the shows come back but are you also going to cry because it’ll be a logistical nightmare?   
When we reopen it will, more than anything, be a joyous day and I’m going to do my very best to be ready with shows, ready to go. But there’s a lot of factors there and I think tours will take a minute to ramp back up and it’ll probably take us longer than we want to get back going again, but we will be so grateful to do so. And I’ll be so ready for those shows when they come. It’ll be a challenge but I will take it as soon as I can have it.