Few people would be able to hold a straight face if they heard a song titled "Lansing Rock City."

Though not entirely justified, the Capital City has never been known for the live musical talent that flourishes within its city limits. Nor has the city ever particularly stood out on the map as anything more than just a star or a dot somewhere northwest of Detroit. Nevertheless, local artists and Lansing venues have worked hard to create a positive magnetic pull to the city - one that would attract national artists.

Lansing's largest concert venue, The Temple Club, 500 E. Grand River Ave. in Lansing's Old Town, has made remarkable progress since opening in 2001 and has now earned the consideration by many of being a "real venue."

With live music six nights per week, usually including at least one national artist, The Temple Club has finally gained a reputation as a reason to schedule an extra date on a national tour.

Growing pains

Like all businesses, The Temple Club has had its problems.

Rocker Glen Danzig was set to perform at the club within the first month of its Oct. 18, 2001, opening. But, three days before the show, Jerome White, the club's entertainment director and general manager, received a nightmare of a call from Danzig's tour manager.

"The agency group was desperate to get a date into Michigan, so they told me Danzig would play the venue and love it, but this agent never relayed the information to the tour manager," White said. "The tour manager called up and said, 'There's a typo here, it says the room holds 600 people,' and I said 'yes' and he said, 'No, Glen hasn't done a show like that since he played with the Misfits.' He never actually told me Danzig wouldn't be here, but I just figured they weren't coming."

And of course, Danzig didn't show up.

Having a big-name artist pull out of a show due to a lack of communication during a venue's first month isn't a good sign.

Due to a death in the family of Wu-Tang Clan rapper Cappadonna, the MC, and fellow Clan member Inspectah Deck, pulled out of a Jan. 30, 2003, show. Fortunately, two other Wu-Tang Clan members still were on the bill, along with other national and local acts.

Another difficulty initially experienced by the venue equally was as uncontrollable.

The club's property is about 90 feet away from the Christian Family Fellowship church, 517 E. Grand River Ave. in Lansing. When the club applied for its liquor license, officials of the church protested, citing by law that businesses may not sell liquor within 500 feet of a church or school. In an October 2001 appeal, the club won its license. The club hired staff and opened its doors on Oct. 18, 2001, and hosted a fund-raiser for former Lansing Mayor David Hollister's re-election campaign.

At the beginning, White said, the quality of The Temple Club staff was not up to par.

"We had bad customer relations. People got a bad taste in their mouths from bartenders to security staff, from when they first entered to when they left," he said. "About 70 percent of the business is regulars. If you have a mediocre bar staff, you can't serve people fast enough and you lose money. We had a very nonprofessional staff."

It's a great venue, but...

If someone has anything negative to say about The Temple Club, it's likely to be a complaint about the sound quality in the club's main room.

"The major complaints about The Temple Club, and this is not just me, is the sound upstairs," said advertising senior Aaron Dare, who frequently attends shows on both levels. "It's just not a good acoustic room in the first place, so that's going to make it difficult."

And all biases aside, White said those complaints are valid.

"The reason isn't the sound system or the equipment or the sound guy or the DJ or the band - it's the room," he said.

The main room, as those who have visited The Temple Club know, is huge - about 4,000 square feet. It's also wooden and White said there's no way to change the scientific laws of sound.

"It's a large, cavernous hall with hard surfaces on all planes, so the problem you face there is that you send a sound wave from one side of the room, and it hits another hard surface on the other side, so it bounces back and back and back, and what makes the sound seem unclear is that the person in the middle of the room is hearing different sound waves from different notes at the same time," he said.

The main room has a capacity of 600 people, and when it's filled to capacity, it sounds like a completely different room, White said.

"The sound is clear as day," he said. "But when you put only a few different people in the room, the sound is still bouncing around, and the bodies aren't there to absorb it."

Acoustical treatments, such as padded walls utilized by most IMAX theaters, would remedy the situation, White said. But such changes cost quite a bit of money.

"It's an expensive endeavor we're getting very close to," White said. "The statements about the sound are certainly valid. And it's certainly pertinent to our venue, and it's something we're definitely aware of and working our hardest to fix."

When Texan psychobilly trio Reverend Horton Heat takes the stage Friday, a show which White said is sure to sell out, extra measures will be taken to ensure the sound is as high of quality as the cult group's musicianship.

"The Reverend Horton Heat show is going to be a capacity show, and naturally the sound is going to be absorbed by the bodies," he said. "But we're bringing in different treatment and different microphones to ensure this is a world-class show."

Pride and presence

Danny Amori, drummer of local honky-tonk group Honest D. Smith and The Steel Reserve, said his experiences at The Temple Club have been rewarding. Amori and the band have performed at the venue a few times, both in the main room and the Red Light Lounge. Although he enjoyed playing the main room twice, he prefers the atmosphere of the lower 1,400 square-foot lounge.

"The downstairs is cool, it's a little lounge. It's kind of intimate down there," he said. "It's got that small stage, which is the perfect size for us because we only have four guys."

The velvety-textured pool table and the red lights add to the smaller room's charm, Amori said, but the main level has a totally different ambiance.

"We played last Friday, and they had all the lights off and had a bunch of candles lit," he said. "It's cool because they have all the old church stuff: the benches and the stained-glass windows."

Yes, The Temple Club has come a long way.

"It's personally gratifying to see a small- to mid-level venue having national acts calling the club to play," White said.

The sheer size of The Temple Club gives it an advantage for bringing in national acts. The acts alone, White said, are what keep people coming to the club.

"It's a rarity to get original, what I call big-city artists, into the venues in Lansing," he said. "One bar that does a phenomenal job of that is Mac's, but outside of that there's not many venues."

And Dare, who also is the manager for the local rock group Killer Miller, said he's seen The Temple Club improve since it first opened.

"They're committed to local music and that's great," he said. "Plus, they've only been around for two years. Now that they're really getting better acts and big national acts, it's really getting there."

But White wouldn't say he's completely satisfied with any aspects of the venue.

"We're pleased with where it's at, but we're not content," he said. "We're continually striving to get big national acts: bands, DJs, hip-hop, which will naturally raise awareness for the club, the larger the act. Plus, it helps with the bottom line - to put bodies in the club."