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Area bands perform to help restore theater
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Malpractice was one of 10 bands to perform in a benefit concert Saturday for the efforts to restore the Historic Wayne Theater.Musicians have kicked all of the ghosts and ghouls out of the Historic Wayne Theatre in downtown Wayne.
The theater, located on Michigan Avenue between Wayne Road and Elizabeth Street, reverberated with sound on Saturday during a theater fundraiser, but the screams and howls of the perennial haunted house were replaced by slamming chords and shrieking vocals of several local bands.
The second installment of Wayneapalooza was a success.
The event brought 10 bands from throughout the community to play in a day-long concert to benefit the restoration efforts of the historic movie and playhouse, according to Chris Katcher, who helped organize the event.
“It went pretty well,” he said. “I would’ve liked to see about another hundred people , but we probably had between 200-250 people throughout the day.”
The 10 bands were: Big Fat Kill, Muff, Street Crimes, Casket Gasket, Heoric Villian, The Hex, Exchange Bureau, The Gutter Punks, Coffin Cats and Malpractice.
“They’re all local bands that have had some national exposure,” said Don Nicholson, capital fundraising chairman for the Historic Wayne Theatre.
The idea for the event came from Katcher’s girlfriend, who works at the City of Wayne Youth Services department about two blocks away on Wayne Road. She had heard about the efforts to revitalize the theater and that the board sought artists to help out.
“We just ran with it from there,” Katcher said. “The whole idea for doing it was to get local support. We want to get the community interested in helping to restore the theater.”
The event got under way shortly after noon and wrapped up around 11 p.m. Young people crowded the former storefronts at the theater, now an open grassy area where a temporary stage was set up. Wayne police were on hand to ensure that things didn’t get too rowdy, as well.
“They were great and we were happy to have them,” Nicholson said. “I’m happy to say that we didn’t need them the whole day.”
The event, characterized by thrash metal bands, did draw some noise complaints and Nicholson said he regretted that.
“We approached many ‘quieter’ bands to perform but the only ones that came to our aid were the rock bands,” Nicholson said.
The Historic Wayne Theater dates back more than 70 years to when Wayne County was primarily a rural area and Michigan Avenue was the main route between Detroit and Chicago. The theater has been vacant for more than 20 years after a fire destroyed the storefronts that faced Michigan Avenue. Efforts to bring it back to life have been sporadic, but those attempts took on a new urgency earlier this year when the building was cited by the city through the dangerous building ordinance.
Since then Nicholson has led the effort to gather enough donations to bring the theater back and renovate it into a viable facility that includes a restaurant and rooms that can be used for various artistic purposes. He’s hired an architectural firm to come up with renderings of what the theater would look like and hopes to have secured funding for the project next year. He estimated that it would take about $4.5 million.
“We’ve got a long way to go yet,” he said.
Those who have volunteered at the theater for the past two decades said they like the momentum the project has taken on.
“I haven’t seen this many people here since the haunted house days,” said Matt Wilkinson, who’s been involved in the effort for more than a decade. “It’s good to see.”
Wayne Mayor Al Haidous agreed. “I haven’t seen this much activity with the theater in my 34 years in the city,” he said.
For more information on the restoration effort, visit www.HistoricWayneTheatre.com.
