When the indie-rock group Portugal. The Man first came to Columbia in March 2010, it performed at Mojo’s to a sold-out crowd. For a group from Wasilla, Alaska, selling out the 300-person venue in the Midwest was quite an accomplishment. When the group returned to Columbia in October 2011, it was able to pack the house once again, this time at The Blue Note, which can seat around 835 people.

But The Blue Note is already booked on Oct. 16 this year, the night of Portugal. The Man’s return to Columbia, and the group has proven to attract too large a crowd for Mojo’s smaller stage.

Forrest Rose Park, the outdoor venue adjacent to the Mojo’s indoor stage, can accommodate 1,400 to 1,500 people, and this is where Portugal. The Man will make its October appearance. Of course, outdoor concerts come with their own set of risks. There may be plenty of space, but the threat of rain can send bands and fans packing.

What’s a touring band to do?

According to Josh Bowles at Mojo’s, touring acts are more likely to reach out to Mojo’s with the dates that they could feasibly be riding through Columbia (as opposed to Mojo’s reaching out to the acts directly). Additionally, in the case of Portugal. The Man and other Columbia favorites (Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, White Rabbit, etc.), the city and venues have become locales of familiar faces that bands make it a point to stop in for a show, as long as space and timing permit.

Richard King owns both The Blue Note and Mojo’s and has for the past 33 years. In a game that is so dependent on venue size, reputation also plays a big role. King and his venues are in good standing with consistent acts, and because of this, the first, “Do they know you?” hurdle is jumped.

But the question remains. If it rains on Oct. 16, where will Portugal. The Man and Portugal. The Fans go?

City competition

“Because of the stage size, we’re limited,” King says. “There aren’t enough seats to sell enough tickets [to attract bigger acts]. Fairly often when we’re bidding on acts, we lose out to larger venues [in St. Louis and Kansas City].”

After The Blue Note, the Missouri Theatre is the next biggest venue, fitting 1,200 people. However, The Missouri Theatre has already booked Straight No Chaser, a modern a cappella group, as part of the University Concert Series for Oct. 16. Manager John Murray, in charge of venue booking, pricing and availability, does very little of the actual booking himself, but he says that Missouri Theatre and Jesse Auditorium are already filling the 2014/2015 calendar. For their event production, the Department of Student Activities and the University Concert Series are responsible for booking shows. They maintain a list of acts they want to reach out to, but they also receive requests from agents with routing date information. For example, a group might be in Kansas City on Monday and have something scheduled in St. Louis for Wednesday, so they want to stop in Columbia on Tuesday. The calendar gets so full that usually routing dates don’t work with the schedule unless they are established months in advance.

For example, when Jerry Seinfeld performed his tour in Springfield, Mo., in October 2011, it wouldn’t have been hard for the tour to stop in Columbia for a night, and his team expressed interest in doing so. But, unsurprisingly, artists determine which venues they book based on their expected gross profit. To make a profit, the Seinfeld show would have had to charge approximately $100 a ticket and done two nights of the show for the stop to make financial sense, according to Murray.

Putting on the glitz

Even with its 1,730-seat capacity, Jesse Auditorium is still too small to support a lot of acts. It’s the largest venue in Columbia except from Mizzou Arena, which is rarely available due to athletic events and puts on approximately two shows a year. Audiences have come to expect a certain production value at concerts, and this increased level of production requires more space, both on stage and backstage.

“Audiences today want to see a lot of glitz and special effects and lighting and video shows, and that increases their production value,” Murray says. “The more production value you have, the more room you need.”

Murray and his team have been trying to get the Broadway show American Idiot to stop in Columbia for the past three season, but the show has always been too big. Now that it’s been off Broadway for long enough and is no longer operating at its original scale, it’s finally booked at Jesse. Instead of the six- to eight-trailer entourage customary with shows hot off the circuit, this show, and others that Jesse is able to accommodate, travels with no more than four trailers.

According to Murray, a 2,300- to 2,500-seat venue was in the Jesse Auditorium/Missouri Theatre master plan for several years but has since been removed. “It’s not in the works anymore,” Murray says. ““I don’t know if the city could support [a venue larger than 1,700]. It’s expensive to run, and you have to keep it booked.”

A proposed 100,000-gross-square-foot MU School of Music facility at the corner of Hitt Street and University Avenue will provide a much needed, modern 410-seat recital hall, appropriately sized and acoustically appropriate rehearsal rooms for large instrument ensembles, opera and chorale education. New classrooms will allow for dual use for scheduled classes as well as small group rehearsal in the evenings. Individual practice and instruction space will be accommodated in faculty studio spaces and student practice rooms. The new facility will consolidate the School of Music in one location and allow for space in the Fine Arts Building to be renovated for consolidation of the theater and art departments in updated facilities, at an estimated cost of $39.3 million.

King says the city could benefit from another privately owned 1,500-set venue, but he doesn’t think such a place will be built any time soon.

Booking depends on much more than simple logistics as well. Portugal. The Man has established its Columbia following at Mojo’s and The Blue Note. Its fans would be disappointed if they were to expect the same concert experience downtown (perhaps with a slice of Pizza Tree or beer raised above their heads) that the historic, sit-down Missouri Theatre venue provides. To fully enjoy a show, atmosphere is just as important and as the act.