CSULB students promoting future

By Alex Roman
Daily Forty-Niner

Last summer senior communications major Chris Friel was promoting one of the largest concerts of his entire life. Then everything began to go wrong.

"There was a contract with Irvine Meadows which said that so many tickets had to be sold and we hadn't sold that many tickets, so we had to find an investor to front all that money," Friel said. "Instead we ended up moving the whole thing to another venue and everything went off without a hitch."

Friel is discussing last summers Skate Jam, which featured professional skaters and performances by rap artists Method Man and Redman. Despite some problems during the show, where some performers did not want to go on, the show had over 7,000 people in the audience and was a big success.

"When I started doing this I had no idea what I got myself into," Friel said. "You've got to be prepared to lose money at the start and it's hard having everything on your shoulders but it's cool."

Senior Janis (pronounced Yanni) Lange, a public relations major has also become a successful promoter. His company AMI Productions promotes punk shows, clubs, movie premiers and surf contests.

Lange began flying by the seat of his pants after being involved in trying to get a clothing line off the ground.

"I booked the venue and the band and I thought that it would flop," Lange said about his first show in Oct.1997. "500 people showed up and it blew my socks off. I decided that promoting was more gratifying than clothing."

His production company AMI, which stands for Alterior Motives Inc., has one noticeable flaw, which was pointed out to Lange.

"When I re-evaluated everything and stripped everything to its nuts and bolts I realized that everyone involved has their own motives," Lange said. "So I came up with Alterior Motives Inc., but then someone pointed out to me that ulterior actually has a 'u,' so I looked in the dictionary and found out they were right. It was kind of embarrassing, but it started out with good intentions."

Meanwhile, Friel has successfully promoted one of Orange County's most popular clubs, the Dollhouse, a club in Anaheim. Since that venture ended he now promotes what the Los Angeles Times has called the best club in Orange County, Limelight @ Paris, and Buzz which will have their grand re-opening Dec. 7 at the Shark Club in Costa Mesa.

Lange on the other hand has just been named manager of the punk band the Deviates who are signed with Epitaph.

"We started out together," Lange said. "My first show that I ever did was with them. We've always worked closely together and grew up in the same area so they asked if I would manage them."

When asked what the future will hold both students have somewhat the same ideas.

"I intend on taking it to another level," Lange said. "I would like to get involved in music tours, maybe something like the Warped tour and take this as far as it can go."

Friel has a little different take.

" We want to do Skate Jam every summer here and have one on establish one on the East Coast for the beginning of every summer," Friel said. "We want to do more of a drum and bass or hip hop show than Warped, that's what's big with skaters right now."