Toad's goes national with eight new venues

Toad's Place, a New Haven institution for 23 years, will soon be trying its luck in the national music scene. After deciding at the beginning of 1997 to franchise the Toad's name to prospective club owners, Toad's General Manager Brian Phelps has just announced his selection of eight locations for new Toad's Place venues.

PATRICK MCGARVEY/YH General Manager Brian Phelps hopes that this sign will become a hit in Portland, Providence, Virginia Beach, Atlanta, West Palm Beach, Jacksonville, and Indianapolis.

Phelps said that he is opening these clubs "so that Toad's can get out and meet new people." He also hopes that these clubs will increase his ability to attract entertainment, since he will able to book bands into a circuit. "Bands will able to hop from one Toad's to another," he predicted.

The new Toad's Place clubs will be opened in Portland, Maine; Providence, R.I.; Virginia Beach, Vir., Atlanta, Geor.; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Indianapolis, Ind.; and a yet-to-be-determined site in New Jersey.

Phelps chose these cities out of the 30 applications he received from across the country, selecting eastern cities because of his desire to "take it slow," he explained. "Within six months, the first two or three clubs should open."

Phelps thinks that these new clubs will have a positive effect on the New Haven Toad's Place. "There may be a few extra big name acts," he commented. He claimed that he still plans to run local dance parties and provide New Haven bands with an opportunity to perform.

In fact, Phelps prides himself on the variety of music offered by Toad's Place, and wants the new Toad's franchises to continue this approach. He stated that the philosophy of Toad's Place is to provide people with "total nightclub entertainment," and thinks that this will be the key to the franchises' success.

"The operating manual [given to each franchisee] is three inches thick. Virtually every aspect of [the New Haven] Toad's is going to be carbon-copied," Phelps said.

Yet some question the "total nightclub entertainment" approach of Toad's Place. Fernando Pinto, who runs the Tune Inn--a New Haven music joint that caters to the local punk and ska crowds--wonders how successful Toad's will be on the national level, since it does not cater to any specific musical genre.

"Toad's has a certain unstable quality to it," Pinto commented. "People who really care about music don't really respect all of that variety."

In addition, Pinto has doubts about the timing of the decision to franchise. "If I were them, I would have done this eight years ago," he commented. "That's when the club was on fire. But I don't think that Toad's is so hot today."

Some students agreed that Toad's has not been booking shows as well as in the past. "I think that Toad's is a great venue because it is a very intimate environment and in the past it has drawn big names," Gates Hurand, TD '00, said. "The problem is that stars like Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and The Boss don't seem to come there any more."

Others doubt that Toad's can succeed on a national level. "I hate that Hard Rock Café, Planet Hollywood thing. It seems stupid to try and bring a local feel that belongs to a specific setting to a national level," Sean Collins, CC '00, said.

Yet Phelps--and many Yalies--are confident that the new Toad's Place venues will be able to succeed. Phelps pointed to the fact that he received 30 applications to start new Toad's franchises.

"That's proof that people know our name," he commented. "If you wear a Toad's Place T-shirt on a beach anywhere, plenty of people will recognize the name."

Ethan McCusker, TD '00, shared Phelps' optimistic attitude. "If Toad's can be successful in New Haven, I think it could be successful anywhere," he predicted.

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