Written by Chad Taylor
Photo by Justin Salem Meyer
Des Moines, as far as music is concerned, is kind of Sam Summers’ town.
If you’ve been out to see a touring act—at just about any venue in town—the odds are pretty good that Summers had a hand in bringing them through Des Moines. Since he was a 17-year-old high school student in Johnston, Summers, now 31, has been booking live music at venues throughout the city under his First Fleet Concerts banner. Then, in 2012, Summers doubled down on Des Moines’ music scene by opening Wooly’s, a 700-person-capacity venue in downtown’s East Village.
“I’ve always been interested in the business aspect of everything,” Summers says of his beginnings. “When I was younger, I was always selling stuff to neighbors. My grandparents lived next to a golf course, so I’d pick up golf balls and sell them to golfers.”
While he was in high school, Summers got involved in the straight edge, skater scene. At the time, a few acquaintances were booking pop punk shows at the Des Moines Botanical Center (now the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden), and Summers became intrigued by the mechanics of putting together shows that he wanted to see. Soon, he was booking his own shows there.
“That skater scene, it was all so DIY, you know? It was like, if you wanted a band, you brought them to town,” Summers recalls. “Booking shows at the Botanical Center was where I learned how to book shows without losing money.”
As he became more adept at the economics of keeping shows viable and in the art of promoting them, small pop punk shows gave way to concerts in front of packed houses at House of Bricks and Vaudeville Mews, including a performance by Fall Out Boy at the latter.
“I remember the first time I worked with (Summers) on a show,” recalls Kathryn Dickel, owner of Midwestix. “We ran the ticketing for a show at House of Bricks—this was back when Bricks was still on Merle Hay Road—and we sold like 300 tickets for it. I had to go up (to Bricks) and check it out for myself, because nobody was putting 300 people into that place. When I get up there, I find out that the whole show was put together by this college kid. He wasn’t even old enough to drink yet.”
Summers, who by his own admission doesn’t go out of his way to keep up with music trends, credits his work ethic for his success as a booker and promoter. He’s never been afraid to introduce himself to a band he likes, he’s always been intrigued by the business side of music, and he’s relentless.
“That’s how it’s always gone,” he says. “I’d book a support band for a show and find out what agency booked the headliner, then I’d call them. I’m just persistent. In the beginning, I was pretty much the most annoying person ever.
“I went through a bad (financial) spell right out of college,” he adds. “The occasional show was fine through college, but now I needed to make real money. So I got this job dealing cards at Prairie Meadows from 2 a.m. to 10 a.m. From there, I’d go home, sleep a couple hours, get up and book from noon till 5 p.m., go back to sleep, then go to work at 2. I was making money at night so I could lose it during the day.”
All of Summers’ hard work was paying off, though. He was becoming known around town as a guy who could bring in quality acts—and good crowds to see them. When Tom Zmolek opened People’s Court on Court Avenue in 2007, a partnership with Summers and First Fleet seemed like a logical decision. Zmolek handled most of the booking himself, but in the times that he didn’t, it was First Fleet’s name that was on the ticket.
People’s closed in 2012, and Summers opened Wooly’s that same year. The venue draws its name from the historic Woolworth Building at 504 E. Locust St. in which it’s housed. “The idea for Wooly’s came when I started doing shows in Iowa City at Blue Moose,” Summers says. “It’s always kind of weird booking at a new venue, because it’s not in your comfort zone. But I get over there, and I’m really liking how they’re running things.”
A large part of the ethos behind Wooly’s, and a big part of the reason it’s so popular among touring acts, is Summers’ focus on a positive experience for the musicians. “As much as you try to please the customer, on my end I’m trying to make the artists happy so they have a good impression of Des Moines,” he says.
To that end, Wooly’s is the only downtown venue with two green rooms: one for the headliner and one for supporting acts. Neither green room is going to be mistaken for a suite at the Palms in Las Vegas, but with multiple couches and a mini-fridge, as well as private showers, washing machines and ice machines, Wooly’s backstage area can go a long way toward making a road-weary band feel human again.
Summers, Wooly’s and First Fleet are now some of the best-known names in Central Iowa’s musical identity. From touring acts like The Wallflowers and Matisyahu, to legendary Iowa musicians like David Zollo and William Elliott Whitmore, Wooly’s has a reputation as one of the best places in the city to see a show. Its capacity is larger than that of any other venue in the city, outside of Wells Fargo Arena, the Des Moines Civic Center and Hoyt Sherman Place, and it boasts one of the largest sound systems around.
When he’s not filling his own venue, Summers has booked acts for the Des Moines Civic Center, Nitefall on the River and Wells Fargo Arena. This past summer, the latter venue was home to Summers’ largest show to date in the city, when it played host to Seattle rapper Macklemore.
“It’s rare that you come across someone like Sam,” says Jill Haverkamp, owner of the marketing agency On Pitch. “He seamlessly mixes an unmatched work ethic with a creative entrepreneurial spirit.”
What’s next for Summers is really anyone’s guess.
Summers also owns the video arcade/bar Up/Down, located two doors down from Wooly’s, and is opening a second Up/Down location in Kansas City this year. Musically, while you might see First Fleet’s name associated with a Wells Fargo Arena show again, Summers says it won’t become a regular occurrence. He’s always found his comfort zone in booking midsized shows. Coincidentally, those are exactly the kind of shows that fill a venue like Wooly’s.
“In Des Moines, everything I do is kind of pulling that size,” he says. “It’s all about pulling in more than will fit into Vaudeville Mews, but less than the 900 that filled People’s; 700 is a number I’m comfortable with.
“I’ve never been the guy that wants to do the biggest shows or wants to fill an arena,” he adds. “I just want to put on shows that put (the city’s) best foot forward. I like the vibe of Wooly’s. I like the warehouse feel. And I really like the neighborhood.”
