Latest / Caught on the Mike... / "What in the world is a Ranch Bowl??" with Austin Anderson & Jeff VanRoy
Transcript
- 0:02SPEAKER_02: Warning due to some language and subject matter, listener discretion is advised.
- 0:20SPEAKER_00: What does Pearl Jam, Green Day, 311, and yours truly all have in common?
- 0:27SPEAKER_00: The answer is a storied venue located in Omaha, Nebraska, known as the Ranch Bowl Entertainment Center.
- 0:36SPEAKER_00: With the exception of myself, this was the historical pit stop for bands months, merely months before they would become famous.
- 0:45SPEAKER_00: This fantastic venue tragically shut down in 2005 and is now the home to Omaha's most centrally located Walmart.
- 0:57SPEAKER_00: My next guests are making a highly anticipated documentary about this historical venue.
- 1:04SPEAKER_00: Today I'd like to welcome Jeff Van Roy and Austin Anderson.
- 1:08SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Mike.
- 1:14SPEAKER_00: Jeff Van Roy, Austin Anderson.
- 1:16SPEAKER_00: Thank you for doing the podcast.
- 1:19SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely, man.
- 1:20SPEAKER_00: So we are going to talk about what I refer to as the forest gump of music venues.
- 1:26SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about the ranch bowl, and you guys have found yourself in an amazing new project in regards to that.
- 1:33SPEAKER_00: So first off, I would love to give you guys an opportunity to introduce yourselves and tell our audience a little bit about who each of you are.
- 1:41SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 1:42SPEAKER_01: First off, why what is the you call it the Forest Gump?
- 1:45SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 1:45SPEAKER_01: You got to explain this a little.
- 1:47SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 1:47SPEAKER_00: So the Forest Gump, like, you know in the movie Forrest Gump, how he accidentally has all these little brushes with history?
- 1:53SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 1:53SPEAKER_00: The ranch bull was like the building embodiment of that.
- 1:58SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah.
- 1:59SPEAKER_01: All right.
- 1:59SPEAKER_01: I can see it.
- 2:00SPEAKER_01: I like it.
- 2:01SPEAKER_01: I like it.
- 2:03SPEAKER_01: Now I'm thinking about Forrest Gump and all the scenes.
- 2:06SPEAKER_01: So I can't remember the question.
- 2:07SPEAKER_01: What was the question before that?
- 2:09SPEAKER_00: Just tell people who the heck you are.
- 2:12SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
- 2:12SPEAKER_01: So Austin Anderson, uh stand-up comedian and uh media marketing guy, radio guy, and uh yeah, linked up with Jeff, who we went to high school with together.
- 2:25SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the same.
- 2:26SPEAKER_01: I don't know why I can't talk, but Jeff Van Roy.
- 2:30SPEAKER_01: I own a video production company, Dundee Digital, reached out to Austin.
- 2:34SPEAKER_01: Early 2019 about this project.
- 2:38SPEAKER_01: So you call it a new project.
- 2:39SPEAKER_01: This has been going on for a while for us.
- 2:42SPEAKER_01: It's still 2019 to me in some ways, man.
- 2:45SPEAKER_00: Yeah, a year off.
- 2:47SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 2:48SPEAKER_00: Like I I I swear like April was in a year in and of itself, but the rest of this year has kind of flown by in my perspective.
- 2:56SPEAKER_01: But so yeah, I agree, man.
- 2:57SPEAKER_01: Like I couldn't even believe it's December 8th.
- 3:00SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
- 3:01SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
- 3:01SPEAKER_00: So let's pretend just for a moment that the audience has no idea what the ranch bowl is.
- 3:07SPEAKER_00: Like, as far as our audience knows, it's something you dip hot wings into.
- 3:11SPEAKER_00: So tell everybody a little bit about the ranch bowl.
- 3:13SPEAKER_00: Give a brief overview.
- 3:14SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so the the ranch bull was uh man, I don't even know, like a hub, you know, in the middle of the country for music, which um nobody would really, you know, it I don't know, it's so uh unusual just because of you just think of flyover country in the middle of nowhere.
- 3:34SPEAKER_01: But it was actually the perfect spot because it's it was central in the country.
- 3:38SPEAKER_01: So you have all these bands that were traveling from Chicago to Denver and from Minneapolis to Kansas City, and they all stopped in the middle in Omaha because of Matt Markle at the ranch bowl.
- 3:50SPEAKER_01: And you know, it started off as like, hey, we're gonna try doing uh stand-up comedy that didn't go over well.
- 3:56SPEAKER_01: I think uh Mall mom.
- 3:58SPEAKER_01: Yeah, she was like, Why would anybody want to listen to someone tell jokes?
- 4:02SPEAKER_01: I was like, Yeah, why would they?
- 4:04SPEAKER_01: Mom.
- 4:05SPEAKER_01: And uh so um that didn't go and they started doing all this music, and then it just spiraled into seven days, um, seven days a week music, like three to four bands, and then you have, you know, like all these um, you know, you'd have like a local band that, you know, is pretty polished, and then you'd have like a band like Incubus come through, and they would end up opening for like a local band, and then they would come through again, you know, and they would have more weight behind them and people knowing about them.
- 4:34SPEAKER_01: So then they would end up headlining, and it was just a place where like Green Day was there, and you know, right like when they released Dookie, Pearl Jam with their album, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the list goes on and on and on and on.
- 4:49SPEAKER_00: What resonated with you guys personally that compelled you to want to make this documentary?
- 4:55SPEAKER_01: It was our hangout.
- 4:55SPEAKER_01: We hung out, yeah.
- 4:56SPEAKER_01: So we were late, late 90s, early 2000s.
- 4:59SPEAKER_01: So um, real still exciting and a lot of bands going through there, but it wasn't kind of the heyday of mid-90s, early 90s that really defined it.
- 5:07SPEAKER_01: So it just meant a lot to us.
- 5:08SPEAKER_01: And then as we were talking about stories, Austin had another podcast that he was talking about um 101 the Edge and the last moments on air with that.
- 5:16SPEAKER_01: Um, the ranch bowl got brought up, and I thought, man, this is an interesting story.
- 5:20SPEAKER_01: And the deeper we dug, the more that came out of it.
- 5:23SPEAKER_01: And beyond the the music venue, it was a bowling alley, it was a radio station, 93k rock, it was um recording studio studio, volleyball, volleyball, yeah, the list goes on and on.
- 5:34SPEAKER_01: So a lot of ours, a lot of people were going there not just to see bands, too.
- 5:37SPEAKER_01: It was pretty interesting, right?
- 5:38SPEAKER_00: Right, and I think you guys hit the nail on the head about it just being a hub because you could be underage and see things that you wouldn't have been able to see had you been under 21 otherwise, correct?
- 5:52SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it goes both ways.
- 5:53SPEAKER_01: There's there was old women at the bowling league seeing things that they should be.
- 5:57SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
- 5:58SPEAKER_01: You got like Pantera getting ready in the bowling alley and it's the grandma's bowling leg.
- 6:03SPEAKER_01: Um, but it yeah, it was it was just wild.
- 6:06SPEAKER_01: And then like looking back on it, you know, I don't like I didn't have any idea like how cool this place was, like how special and unique it was that we gotta go there and spend, you know, and see like all these cool bands that we saw there, and then even just go hang out there and watch our friends' bands play on uh amateur night or whatever from the school we went to and like hanging out in the parking lot and just bull, like it was just wild like to think about.
- 6:35SPEAKER_01: Um you just took it for granted almost.
- 6:37SPEAKER_01: You didn't really I didn't realize, you know, what a landmark it was till I mean a lot later in life.
- 6:43SPEAKER_01: Yeah, until it was gone.
- 6:44SPEAKER_01: And then it was like, oh man, we were sitting on something great there.
- 6:46SPEAKER_00: I I think a lot of us are in that same position, especially, you know, it, you know, and we'll come back to that because I I do want to kind of touch on the the final days uh of the ranch bowl because I had myself, I had quite an intimate relationship with it probably the last five years.
- 7:02SPEAKER_00: I didn't move to Omaha until 2000.
- 7:05SPEAKER_00: And I think when I moved into the city, that's when the Ranch Bowl had kind of its second renaissance and it was a big inflated bubble at that point in time.
- 7:14SPEAKER_00: So, but as documentarians, you guys have a pretty close relationship with this project, and it did mean different things to different people, didn't it?
- 7:24SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's right.
- 7:24SPEAKER_01: And as we when we talked to one person, they introduced us to five more people and five more people after that.
- 7:30SPEAKER_01: So the web is just growing and growing, growing.
- 7:31SPEAKER_01: So it's really exciting.
- 7:32SPEAKER_01: We've met some amazing people along the way, heard some amazing stories, and it was so many different things to so many different people.
- 7:39SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, absolutely.
- 7:41SPEAKER_00: So if each one of you had to describe a personal favorite experience of your time as a patron at the Ranch Bowl, what would it be?
- 7:49SPEAKER_01: Oh man, I don't know.
- 7:50SPEAKER_01: Like looking back on it, I mean, I could say that, you know, seeing um, you know, like bands that I loved at the time, right?
- 7:59SPEAKER_01: But looking at some of my own footage that I had from there, I don't know.
- 8:02SPEAKER_01: I really like when I think about it, going there and watching my friends play in their bands, you know, like so that that's probably one of my favorite memories looking back on, of course, like seeing vanilla ice there.
- 8:15SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 8:16SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, as as um, we get to ask this question on everything that we do, podcasts, magazines, everybody's asking it, and it's hard to say that one moment that really stands out because there it was just the two nights with two skinny jays, like to go in there two nights in a row and just spending all your time, all your energy, everything there was just memorable.
- 8:34SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and the fact that there's no seating, you know, in a standing room only, and it was so small and compact.
- 8:40SPEAKER_01: See, yeah, my favorite thing about the ranch bowl changes on the given day.
- 8:44SPEAKER_01: I've probably given a different answer to every interview.
- 8:47SPEAKER_00: Is it weird?
- 8:48SPEAKER_00: I mean, it is for me, but it and I I imagine with you guys working on a project about the ranch bowl, um, how your memory can get very hazy.
- 8:58SPEAKER_00: Like you'll have a day where you'll be able to rattle off 10 things in a row that you remember about the ranch bowl.
- 9:04SPEAKER_00: Then you'll have another day where you have the Woodstock experience where if you remember Woodstock, you probably weren't there.
- 9:11SPEAKER_00: You know, you know.
- 9:12SPEAKER_00: Uh for me personally, I think one of, you know, taking all the national bands that I saw, all the local shows I got to be a part of um and play on.
- 9:23SPEAKER_00: I think one of my most memorable events there was uh a New Year's Eve party they did from 2000 to 2001.
- 9:29SPEAKER_00: It was New Year's Eve 2000 going into 2001, and they had bands going in every single bar of the Ranch Bowl that night.
- 9:38SPEAKER_00: Uh Aphrodisiacs were playing in the main venue.
- 9:41SPEAKER_00: Uh, you go over to Snookers, which was the pool hall, and they had Pomeroy and three-day meat sale playing in there.
- 9:47SPEAKER_00: And it was kind of cool to see Pomeroy playing on the ground where normally they were up on the stage and you could you could see them play.
- 9:53SPEAKER_00: And then I think Matthews Pub had like Fonsarelli's and Noise Wave, and it was so jam-packed that if it took place in 2020, it would be considered a super spreader event.
- 10:04unknown: Yeah.
- 10:05SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 10:05SPEAKER_01: Well, like if you think about it, that's it's like the ultimate house party.
- 10:09SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's what you're describing.
- 10:10SPEAKER_01: For sure.
- 10:11SPEAKER_01: It's like the old like that is the ultimate party.
- 10:14SPEAKER_00: For sure.
- 10:14SPEAKER_00: And as a local musician, for me, I I look at that specific night as a defining night where I got to network with so many people that it kind of set up the 10, 11 years afterwards for me as a local musician, and it was just fantastic.
- 10:30SPEAKER_00: So, taking off the nostalgic and lovely rose-colored lenses for a moment, there were some very real issues that maybe kind of led to the demise of this place, right?
- 10:41SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 10:41SPEAKER_00: I mean, like in in what regards.
- 10:43SPEAKER_00: Um, to rephrase that a little bit, in your opinion, as a fan, what was a major turning point or downward decline to the ranch bowl in some of its later years?
- 10:53SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, it definitely had, you know, the I mean, the fact that the building was becoming decrepit.
- 10:59SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 10:59SPEAKER_01: And the fact that, you know, I think countless people told us that bowling balls were thrown into toilets on a regular basis.
- 11:07SPEAKER_01: There was a homeless guy living in the ceiling.
- 11:10SPEAKER_01: You know, it was just, it was just falling apart.
- 11:12SPEAKER_01: It would need so much renovation.
- 11:14SPEAKER_01: But like the main, you know, the final nail in it was definitely Matt Markle getting sick and then having to step down and having other people step in to run it, you know, and then, you know, because like he was the magic behind it.
- 11:26SPEAKER_01: Like he was the one with all the contacts and that, you know, had all these deals with the agents and everything that could get any band and bring any band in, you know.
- 11:36SPEAKER_01: And um, once that went away, you know, like no one could do what he did.
- 11:40SPEAKER_01: I mean, the guy worked that said that he even traveled, you know, his wife told us with uh two cell phones and a fax machine, which we always go, two cell phones and a fax machine where it's at every time.
- 11:52SPEAKER_01: But and he always always answered the phone, always was working, always like right, you know, that was like one of the reasons why the agents loved him, we were told, is because they could always count on him and he would always answer.
- 12:04SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you'd book him early and there's no red tape.
- 12:06SPEAKER_01: Yeah, got those big bands in there.
- 12:08SPEAKER_00: Oh, absolutely, absolutely.
- 12:10SPEAKER_00: So I should probably clarify that I'm asking this from the perspective of a guy that kind of was in the trenches, get playing on those stages at you know, pretty much every week, every other week with different projects.
- 12:22SPEAKER_00: And one thing that I remember when I uh first moved to Omaha versus towards the end of the Ranch Balls run is it was very prestigious to earn a weekend spot as a local band.
- 12:36SPEAKER_00: And you had to earn that spot.
- 12:38SPEAKER_00: So normally you would kind of take some of the shit shows, you would play on a Tuesday night, play on a Wednesday night, prove your worth, and then if you were worthy, you got the Friday-Saturday billing.
- 12:50SPEAKER_00: I would say as it got later, and this is a no disrespect to the guys that did end up taking over the booking, it was pretty much throwing a spaghetti noodle on the wall and hoping something stuck on a weekend, where it kind of became a thing where draw kind of superseded talent to a certain degree.
- 13:10SPEAKER_00: Some of the other events that Matt Markle put on as an extension of the Ranch Bowl were some of the Rockfests.
- 13:16SPEAKER_00: And uh, you guys want to talk about those at all?
- 13:19SPEAKER_00: Sweet stock.
- 13:20SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 13:20SPEAKER_01: Um, I mean, we didn't dive too deep into it.
- 13:22SPEAKER_01: We heard a lot of stories about Westfair.
- 13:24SPEAKER_01: We heard a lot of stories about Peony Park.
- 13:26SPEAKER_01: Um, we're not getting too deep into that because there's Ranch Bowl so vast.
- 13:29SPEAKER_01: So we would we would let people just kind of graze that, share a few things, but we didn't ever dig deep on it.
- 13:36SPEAKER_01: Yeah, those those will be some deep cuts.
- 13:38SPEAKER_01: There's some funny stories out of Westfair.
- 13:39SPEAKER_01: Sure.
- 13:40SPEAKER_01: Oh, oh yeah.
- 13:40SPEAKER_01: Yeah, some deep cuts.
- 13:42SPEAKER_01: I've got a few of those.
- 13:43SPEAKER_01: I've got a few of these.
- 13:44SPEAKER_00: Who were uh who are your favorite artists to interview for this documentary so far?
- 13:49SPEAKER_01: Blue October.
- 13:49SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Blue October, man.
- 13:51SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's hilarious.
- 13:53SPEAKER_01: Dude, those guys are so good dudes.
- 13:55SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 13:56SPEAKER_01: And just super like funny and uh easy to talk to, like just great conversation, man, and just people that really just love music.
- 14:05SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 14:05SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and the ranch.
- 14:06SPEAKER_01: I mean, he's so passionate about it.
- 14:08SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he could have sat there for four hours and talked about dude.
- 14:10SPEAKER_00: I am so glad you said this because one of the last episodes of the podcast, um, I was talking to my friend Matt Frampton, and uh Matt was in a band called Normandy Circle, and he went off and he did some bookings.
- 14:21SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you guys remember, they started doing shows at Funplex for a little while.
- 14:25SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 14:26SPEAKER_00: And uh we we talked about Blue October, and I happened to just be at FunPlex with an ex-girlfriend one day, and I saw the guys from Blue October there.
- 14:33SPEAKER_00: And the crazy thing about those guys is if they meet you once, they know you.
- 14:39SPEAKER_00: They know you.
- 14:40SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was weird.
- 14:41SPEAKER_00: They knew my name the whole nine yards, and I'm just bullshitting with them by the water slides, you know.
- 14:46SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I think that's what I enjoyed about it.
- 14:48SPEAKER_01: Is their interview was it was so vivid, like they just remembered it so well.
- 14:52SPEAKER_01: And you know, other people are kind of yeah, and it's crazy considering the amount of drugs that that dude took at two at one time.
- 14:58SPEAKER_01: I'm like, right, you know, the one band that's like you don't remember it.
- 15:02SPEAKER_01: It's like, dude, Blue October remembers.
- 15:04SPEAKER_01: Yeah, have you seen his documentary?
- 15:07SPEAKER_01: He is taking every drug.
- 15:09SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
- 15:10SPEAKER_00: And and uh one of the a Ranch Bowl show that I remember them being on, I remember them opening for Pomeroy one time.
- 15:17SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
- 15:18SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
- 15:19SPEAKER_00: So you guys got to talk to the Pomeroy guys, too.
- 15:21SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 15:22SPEAKER_01: They were a great time too.
- 15:23SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and they they kind of had a little bit of a residency there to some degree.
- 15:27SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, they were Matt Markle's pet project, like you know, Passion Project.
- 15:32SPEAKER_01: Um, and they were on the label, yeah.
- 15:35SPEAKER_01: Get in the records.
- 15:36SPEAKER_01: I mean, they had their equipment there, that's where they practiced.
- 15:39SPEAKER_01: He put them up, like everything, like um, and then he got sick, unfortunately.
- 15:45SPEAKER_01: So he wasn't able to devote, you know, his time and resources to them like um like he could have.
- 15:51SPEAKER_00: The scope of bands that you've interviewed for this project, it this is an opportunity.
- 15:55SPEAKER_00: Name drop those bands.
- 15:58SPEAKER_01: There's still some big fish out there that we're working on.
- 16:00SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 16:01SPEAKER_01: COVID really Yeah, I'm sure.
- 16:03SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, and on top of that, you know, like a majority of them are in California, and that place is like completely, you know, locked down, deserted, and then no one wants to be around anyone, you know.
- 16:13SPEAKER_01: So it's like, yeah, man.
- 16:15SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, we've been on hiatus now for what, six months?
- 16:18SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 16:18SPEAKER_01: Oh, no.
- 16:19SPEAKER_01: Seven?
- 16:20SPEAKER_01: Like a year.
- 16:21SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, since we're in February.
- 16:23SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, we're or we were gonna go in like March or April.
- 16:26SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we were lined up to go in the spring, and then it was just done for that.
- 16:30SPEAKER_01: But yeah, so it's um so we got a lot of the you know, regional everybody with the usual suspects, you know.
- 16:36SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
- 16:37SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
- 16:38SPEAKER_00: I watched the live stream that you guys did.
- 16:40SPEAKER_00: Wasn't that at the first of this year, or was it tail end of last year?
- 16:43SPEAKER_01: That was that was early on pandemic.
- 16:45SPEAKER_01: That was during that was this year.
- 16:46SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was in the spring.
- 16:47SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because you you guys showed the footage of Ma.
- 16:50SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 16:50SPEAKER_00: That was fantastic.
- 16:53SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 16:53SPEAKER_00: Fantastic.
- 16:54SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we got uh yeah, it's gonna be great.
- 16:57SPEAKER_01: So I know we were hoping to have it wrapped up and ready for 2021, but gotcha.
- 17:03SPEAKER_01: But we're just gonna I mean our original goal was to have it done 2020.
- 17:07SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 17:08SPEAKER_01: But there were some outliers like they have to be a part of it, so we we're not and then that's when it got pushed.
- 17:13SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and like the thing is is like we've had, I mean, we've done 45 interviews.
- 17:18SPEAKER_01: So I mean, we and we have tons of footage and stuff that people have sent in.
- 17:23SPEAKER_01: Like we have enough, like we could make it, yeah, but then it wouldn't be like how we envisioned it to be and what we want it to be because there are certain people that we wanted to be part of it, you know.
- 17:33SPEAKER_00: So we're just holding off.
- 17:34SPEAKER_00: Mad respect for that, because if you're gonna do it, do it right.
- 17:37SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
- 17:39SPEAKER_01: Like, that's what everybody's like, when can we see it?
- 17:40SPEAKER_01: We can see it.
- 17:41SPEAKER_01: I'm like, it it'll be a while, you know.
- 17:42SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
- 17:43SPEAKER_00: But I I think I think that's just because of people's individual nostalgia, especially in a year like this.
- 17:49SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like people are looking at mortality in a different way.
- 17:52SPEAKER_00: Totally.
- 17:52SPEAKER_00: So they're looking at nostalgia in a totally different way as well.
- 17:55SPEAKER_00: So they they want things like this.
- 17:57SPEAKER_00: Hypothetically speaking, and this is very, very, very hypothetical, um, being your involvement in the entertainment world, if you will, and your involvement as somebody that does video production.
- 18:09SPEAKER_00: Take the Walmart, the Home Depot, Menards, all the rumored suitors to the land and the real estate.
- 18:16SPEAKER_00: In the wake of the years that came after the ranch bowl close, do you think another renaissance could have happened if it had stayed open?
- 18:24SPEAKER_01: Based on what we've heard from people, probably not.
- 18:27SPEAKER_01: Not not in that building.
- 18:29SPEAKER_01: Yeah, not in that area.
- 18:30SPEAKER_01: That town and yeah, the building was just like needed so much work.
- 18:35SPEAKER_01: I mean, from what we heard, it was like falling apart.
- 18:38SPEAKER_01: So, like, I don't think we could it could make a comeback.
- 18:41SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 18:41SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's I think it literally died.
- 18:43SPEAKER_01: It died with Matt.
- 18:45SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
- 18:45SPEAKER_00: I I'm I'm glad you guys answered that way, just for the simple fact that I think there's a lot of misconception out there about what the reality of the closing of the ranch bowl was.
- 18:56SPEAKER_00: Now, there was kind of an attrition of business, which I've already mentioned, but uh in the same like, like it couldn't have ever been recreated to like the entertainment complex that we all kind of came to came to know and love.
- 19:10SPEAKER_00: This one, this one takes that same question a little bit further, but just from a more humorous standpoint.
- 19:16SPEAKER_00: Given the socio-political climate we live in and in the era of sociopolitical sensitivity, could a venue as unique as the ranch bowl exists today?
- 19:27SPEAKER_01: No.
- 19:30SPEAKER_01: Can anything exist?
- 19:32SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, I but I do think people would lose their minds because but the reason why it's not even because of you know political correctness or political anything, it's it's brought it's because the ranch bull lived in a time pre-technology, pre-cell phones, pre like we're having a hard time finding pictures because it was disposable cameras or a film camera, like you couldn't have a place like that because everybody would be recording the nonsense that happened there and it would be shut down immediately.
- 20:06SPEAKER_01: It had to exist in a time where it wasn't tethered to you know the technocracy.
- 20:12SPEAKER_00: Oh, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely.
- 20:16SPEAKER_00: So you want to get the best interviews possible, the correct interviews for this documentary to make it happen.
- 20:24SPEAKER_00: So obviously, it probably stands to reason that I wouldn't ask what the release timeline is at this point in time, but if you had to kind of pinpoint a goal, like what ideally would make you happy?
- 20:40SPEAKER_01: 2021, I think.
- 20:41SPEAKER_01: Um we're still trying to figure out exactly what it's gonna be.
- 20:43SPEAKER_01: You know, we have so much footage, so many interviews, so many aspects to the story.
- 20:48SPEAKER_01: So we're even like we should be further along in the editing because of the whole shutdown, you know, just in sitting there editing.
- 20:55SPEAKER_01: But um, we had other business to attend to.
- 20:57SPEAKER_01: So once we get into that, I think we'll have a better idea of the exact timeline.
- 21:01SPEAKER_01: But like you said, we have key interviews that we want to knock out, and it could be something where it even stretches out a little bit longer because once you talk to those people, they might say you have to talk to these people, you know what I mean?
- 21:11SPEAKER_01: And that's how the whole process has gone is like these people have to be a part of it, and that's what we've been doing.
- 21:16SPEAKER_01: Because like we said in the beginning, this is this isn't our perspective of this.
- 21:20SPEAKER_01: You know, we're just we were there for a few years out of many years, and we want to tell the best story that we can.
- 21:26SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, absolutely.
- 21:28SPEAKER_00: So, do you see this potentially being maybe a multi-chaptered movie or a small mini-series?
- 21:35SPEAKER_00: Because you could tell like a different story for every era of the ranch ball to some degree.
- 21:40SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we we're we're playing around with the idea.
- 21:43SPEAKER_01: You know, just to be like, okay, this has to be an hour and a half minute, you know, an hour and a half documentary, and that's it.
- 21:48SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna cut all this stuff out because of it.
- 21:50SPEAKER_01: I just don't think that makes a lot of sense in the current landscape of how people consume media.
- 21:54SPEAKER_01: Um, but and hey, well, you know, I was just thinking about this the Tom Petty.
- 22:00SPEAKER_01: Documentary is four hours long.
- 22:02SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 22:03SPEAKER_01: And I watched the whole thing.
- 22:04SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 22:05SPEAKER_01: Something to think about.
- 22:06SPEAKER_01: Make it four hours and then premiere it at the Omaha Film Festival, the four-hour movie.
- 22:12SPEAKER_00: But that's a that's a good that that leads to another good thing.
- 22:14SPEAKER_00: Like, why would somebody and and this is just like complete subjectivity here?
- 22:21SPEAKER_00: Why would somebody that's never heard of the Ranch Bowl wanna wanna watch a documentary about the Ranch Bowl?
- 22:27SPEAKER_00: What's your big pitch?
- 22:28SPEAKER_01: It's a fascinating story.
- 22:29SPEAKER_01: And we're not we're kind of toying around some things, but it is really, really a fascinating story.
- 22:34SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's just like you know, people that love music and like the draw is just the bands that paid there, uh played there, and then also just like the vibe and the atmosphere.
- 22:44SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
- 22:45SPEAKER_01: It's just like projecting those people like this time existed, like something like this, this awesome transpired.
- 22:51SPEAKER_01: And we're learning so much that we didn't know about this.
- 22:54SPEAKER_00: That oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 22:55SPEAKER_00: You and and I'm sure there's local band dudes, national band dudes that could tell you stories about hidden hidden hallways, practice rooms.
- 23:05SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
- 23:06SPEAKER_01: Like if you love music and you're a fan of like live shows and stuff, I mean it doesn't matter who you are, you would want to watch this movie.
- 23:13SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
- 23:14SPEAKER_00: You know, again honestly, I don't want to pull the curtain back on your movie too much because I want people to see this.
- 23:20SPEAKER_00: I want people to see what you are putting forth here.
- 23:24SPEAKER_00: Um we'll probably cry when we show it because it'll be done.
- 23:27SPEAKER_01: We'll just cry together.
- 23:29SPEAKER_00: Bro, bro, some of us that lived it are gonna cry.
- 23:32SPEAKER_01: People will look back in the movie theater and see me and Jeff crying on each other's shoulders, weeping.
- 23:38SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we'll just be uh yeah, it's uh it's crazy.
- 23:44SPEAKER_00: So has there been a any certain story that you've been told that you're just like, this is far-fetched, this couldn't have happened, and then you've fact-checked it and it's been like, oh my god, this really, this really I can't think of anything off the top of my head.
- 23:56SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's some crazy stories, but you're all like, yeah, you're like that, you know, there's nothing we're like, oh that doesn't sound like it happened.
- 24:03SPEAKER_01: Like it's all like, oh yeah, that I foresaw that.
- 24:07SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
- 24:07SPEAKER_01: Anything could happen there for sure.
- 24:08SPEAKER_00: Goldfinger recorded an EP there.
- 24:10SPEAKER_00: Yep.
- 24:11SPEAKER_01: Yeah, see, that's one of the bands that we have.
- 24:13SPEAKER_01: John Feldman's definitely on our list.
- 24:14SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm sure.
- 24:15SPEAKER_00: I'm sure.
- 24:15SPEAKER_00: I'm sure uh CeCe Deville went in and jammed with I think the early incarnation of Secret Weapon.
- 24:21SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I believe there, just on a random whim one day.
- 24:24SPEAKER_00: Like just go crazy.
- 24:26SPEAKER_01: Like another guy, one of the the guitarists from Kansas or something, remember?
- 24:31SPEAKER_01: Or Kansas came in, there was one band, and they played like what they just were like, hey, can we play real quick?
- 24:37SPEAKER_01: They were playing at like the Civic or something.
- 24:39SPEAKER_01: And then they went in and just like jammed out to like the winds of change to like 10 people, and people are like, What is happening?
- 24:48SPEAKER_00: And then I guess I guess Prince did an after party there, like 2003, 2004.
- 24:52SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's just crazy shit.
- 24:55SPEAKER_01: And he had the whole he demanded that the whole place be decorated in purple.
- 24:58SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 24:59SPEAKER_00: And I I guess he spent most of his time there actually in the broken down arcade that was right in front of Snooker's, from the the way I've been told the story, at least.
- 25:08SPEAKER_01: Like Prince throws a party, demands uh purple, and then plays Pac-Man all night.
- 25:13SPEAKER_02: Pretty much.
- 25:14SPEAKER_01: Doesn't look at anyone.
- 25:16SPEAKER_00: That's uh that's that's pretty much what I heard.
- 25:18SPEAKER_00: Um, I I've I've kind of got my own funny story that I'll I'll just share with you guys.
- 25:23SPEAKER_00: Uh, one of the bands I was in, and it was kind of towards the later days of uh of the Ranch Bowl being open.
- 25:29SPEAKER_00: They brought in a 90s one-hit wonder band, and I will not say who that band was.
- 25:34SPEAKER_00: You have to, I want to know.
- 25:36SPEAKER_00: I'll I'll tell you off recording.
- 25:38SPEAKER_00: So we got we got the we were afforded the opportunity to open for them.
- 25:43SPEAKER_00: These guys were dicks, like they were just such jerks, like totally big timed us.
- 25:50SPEAKER_00: And so it was a band I was in, and I don't know if you guys know Chris Schramm.
- 25:53SPEAKER_00: It was me and Chris Schramm.
- 25:54SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I know Chris.
- 25:55SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Chris Schramm, Ryan Murphy.
- 25:57SPEAKER_00: Um, our band was Reaganera at the time.
- 26:00SPEAKER_00: And uh, so they big timed us, you know, they did their sound check, they went away.
- 26:05SPEAKER_00: We did our sound check, and it was one of those situations where we had to set up all of our gear in front of their gear.
- 26:10SPEAKER_00: They're such dicks that my band, as soon as we get done sound checking, we start messing with all their volume knobs on their amps, detuning their guitars.
- 26:19SPEAKER_00: My drummer, I think, took his drum key to their snare drum and detune their snare drum.
- 26:25SPEAKER_00: And uh, and uh yeah, so when they came up on stage and started the show, they uh they got their uh comeuppance for big timing us.
- 26:33SPEAKER_01: So and did they uh did you guys leave immediately?
- 26:37SPEAKER_00: Nope.
- 26:39SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure we all stood in the bar drinking our beers with our shitty and grin and you know, high-fiving with Ma over the whole deal, the honest to God truth.
- 26:49SPEAKER_00: But so what have you guys learned about yourselves in the process of making this film?
- 26:53SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
- 26:54SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
- 26:55SPEAKER_01: I like questions.
- 26:56SPEAKER_01: I like producing things.
- 26:57SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
- 26:58SPEAKER_01: Like it's fun setting up the interviews, and when we were really on a roll before this happened, I mean, we were traveling and going.
- 27:04SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was it was a great time.
- 27:06SPEAKER_01: I want to get back to it.
- 27:06SPEAKER_01: I miss it, too.
- 27:07SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a dream job.
- 27:08SPEAKER_01: I really do.
- 27:09SPEAKER_01: It is it's a dream job, right?
- 27:10SPEAKER_01: It's what I want to be doing.
- 27:11SPEAKER_01: That's what I've learned.
- 27:12SPEAKER_01: I absolutely um it was a big undertaking and it's become it's become kind of larger than life at times, you know, just because of the scale of it and then the pandemic and all that garbage.
- 27:24SPEAKER_01: But um, it's it's gonna be great.
- 27:27SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
- 27:27SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm so looking forward to it.
- 27:29SPEAKER_00: Is the name of the movie gonna stay the Ranch Bull Documentary?
- 27:33SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
- 27:36SPEAKER_00: Probably.
- 27:38SPEAKER_00: That's uh that's how all of us uh those us local media.
- 27:41SPEAKER_01: Like we had we had a yeah, we had a real long name for it, and uh, but I just we simplified it just so people could find it easier.
- 27:48SPEAKER_01: So when they, you know, people were doing a lot of searches for Ranch Bull documentary, so changed the handle and stuff like that just so it came up quicker.
- 27:56SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't know.
- 27:57SPEAKER_01: We'll probably change the name.
- 27:58SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 28:00SPEAKER_01: We'll think of the last of us The Ranch Bull Trilogy.
- 28:05SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Lord of the Ranch Bull.
- 28:10SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
- 28:11SPEAKER_00: Soundtrack provided by Clever and Pomeroy.
- 28:13SPEAKER_01: The strings of time.
- 28:15SPEAKER_00: That's the first one.
- 28:19SPEAKER_00: That is awesome.
- 28:20SPEAKER_00: Uh, Jeff Austin, awesome talking with you guys.
- 28:24SPEAKER_00: Awesome getting to talk about this documentary.
- 28:27SPEAKER_00: I'm excited.
- 28:28SPEAKER_00: I know every one of my peers is super excited.
- 28:32SPEAKER_00: You are doing the Lord's work here, guys.
- 28:36SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's it's gonna be an audio visual time machine that we're all kind of looking forward to.
- 28:41SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that brings another good point to like uh why we're taking our time with this is because we know so many people are looking forward to it.
- 28:49SPEAKER_01: Like we want to be able to present it the best that we can, and we don't want to half ass anything, you know.
- 28:55SPEAKER_01: Just like you said, like I mean, the people from the Omaha Film Festival, they're like, is it done yet?
- 29:00SPEAKER_01: Like we know people are anticipating, so we just don't want to throw something together and then be like, people be like, uh, like you know, we want it to be the best, and show all you know, show every era that was there the best that we can.
- 29:13SPEAKER_01: Because there's a there's a lot that we weren't a part of um that we still need to hear voices from.
- 29:18SPEAKER_01: So yeah and we still are looking for photos and videos from that time period, right?
- 29:22SPEAKER_01: Which is a good point.
- 29:23SPEAKER_01: Go to ranchbullfilm.com.
- 29:25SPEAKER_01: You can buy a ranch bull t-shirt.
- 29:27SPEAKER_01: We got permission from the trust to sell those, and the money goes to help the documentary.
- 29:32SPEAKER_01: And then also you can submit stories and pictures and videos there on the website as well.
- 29:38SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
- 29:39SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
- 29:40SPEAKER_00: I was hoping you would say something along those lines.
- 29:43SPEAKER_00: Guys, it's been a pleasure.
- 29:45SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much for doing my podcast.
- 29:47SPEAKER_00: I hope maybe we can talk again sometime in the future.
- 29:49SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
- 29:50SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, man.
- 29:51SPEAKER_01: Anytime I appreciate it.
- 29:52SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
- 29:53SPEAKER_00: I want to once again thank Jeff Van Roy and Austin Anderson for doing the podcast today.
- 29:58SPEAKER_00: And just to reiterate, that is ranchbullfilm.com.
- 30:03SPEAKER_00: You can submit stories as well as purchase Ranch Bull t-shirts and hoodies at that site.
- 30:09SPEAKER_00: There was a blink and you'll miss it moment there in the podcast where Austin Anderson stated that he was a stand-up comic.
- 30:17SPEAKER_00: When I was talking to him off air, he said that he has only performed four times since February.
- 30:23SPEAKER_00: So once this world of craziness subsides a little bit, check your local listings and see if you can catch an Austin Anderson gig someplace.
- 30:32SPEAKER_00: Also, if you've got a couple of minutes, go to the Apple Podcast app and leave us a five-star review.
- 30:38SPEAKER_00: Plus, leave a couple of comments if you don't mind.
- 30:41SPEAKER_00: This push us to the top of the search engine queue when people are looking for new podcasts.
- 30:47SPEAKER_00: You can also leave messages on Instagram and Facebook, and I will be quick to respond.
- 30:52SPEAKER_00: As we're nearing the end of 2020, I'm hoping I could squeeze out a couple more episodes of the podcast.
- 30:59SPEAKER_00: But I did want to take a couple of moments and thank you for your support.
- 31:04SPEAKER_00: This has been Caught on the Mic with Michael Clark.
- 31:07SPEAKER_00: Until next time, thank you.