Big Ticket Blues
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Tigrett, 48, made his vast fortune by starting the Hard Rock Cafe, whose first outlet opened in London back in 1971. The rock ‘n’ roll theme restaurant became a model for gimmicky eateries, as one glance around River North reveals. Unfortunately, in their search for uniqueness, these prefab palaces have inadvertently become identical to one another. That’s because you can’t prefabricate culture, but don’t try to tell it to Tigrett. He has long suggested that the guitars and other objects stockpiled in the Hard Rocks are synonymous with rock itself. (Conversely, he once reduced his late wife Maureen Starkey, Ringo Starr’s first wife, to an object, calling her “my greatest piece of rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia.”) Tigrett sold off his Hard Rock shares in 1988, but his new venture operates under the same assumption that cultural authenticity is only a blank check away.
Tigrett speaks largely in sound bites, and one often quoted says that “House of Blues isn’t celebrating culture, it’s creating culture.” But culture can’t be farmed by a businessman; he can merely gather up its detritus. Tigrett dressed up his LA club in corrugated metal taken from an old gin mill near the Mississippi crossroads where Robert Johnson is said to have made his pact with the devil; he also has piles of Delta dirt boxed and kept under all the clubs’ stages to impart to them the proper blues spirit. “I think it reeks of authenticity,” he says. The Chicago club, like the other locales, is modeled on an old southern juke joint, but this juke joint cost $20 million to build and has several restaurants, a clothing store, a book and record shop, and, next year, “the world’s first blues-themed hotel.” Better call now to reserve the Howlin’ Wolf suite.
One possible positive effect of the entry of House of Blues into the Chicago market is that similar-size venues like Metro and Jam-booked spots like Park West and the Vic will have to be more creative and varied in their booking. Hopefully they won’t be forced to turn themselves into circuses as well.
