Music empasanero Peter Shapiro wear’s a ton of different hats - He’s the Publisher of Relix Magazine, Owner of the Brooklyn Bowl(s), The Capitol Theatre, a concert promoter of The Grateful Dead’s 50th & Lockin’ Festival, film maker of U23D, but with all those accomplishments he still wears but one face, his only face. He’s Pete. To get a richer picture of his career check out his Wikepeida page or just google him. This modest but meaningful memoir of the Pete Shapiro I met nearly 25 years ago, the friend he’s been to each of us and the magnanimous way he’s woven into the Lore of Strangefolk.

I remember booking our first gig at Wetlands myself in the mid 90s. Pre Pete. We had been starting to build traction in New England oddly at the time we had more fans in Boston than Burlington. I was fast talking the talent buyer, who was only there on Tuesdays from 4:15pm to 4:17pm and describing the number of people we had recently drawn in Boston it was a few hundred and I think I only rounded up a few hundred more. We got the gig and opened for The Ominous Seapods. I remember at the time feeling like we had “made it.” Back then in order to figure out how to pay the band they asked people at the door who they were there to see and kept a tally. We had 150 people or so show up. I recall my dad taking pause the day after the show to comment “thats legitimate, I mean those cant all be your friends.”

Fast forward a year or so and we had a manager, Brett Fairbrother. We were headlining Wetlands and by this time Pete Shapiro had taken over. We were both around 24 or so and I remember thinking how young he was to own a club. What I remember most about Pete though is that his legend proceeded him even back then. In the days leading up to the first gig we played with Pete at the helm at Wetlands, Brett, our manager was alight with enthusiasm about Pete and our future as a band and life in general. Brett’s remarks went something like this, “this kid Pete is bla bla bla new owner of Wetlands, bla bla bla gonna be huge bla bla bla biggest rock thing ever bla bla bla, NYC is going to be covered in glitter bla bla bla Epic bla bla bla. Hey are you going to eat that last chicken wing man? “ The point is Pete had inspired Brett in a single conversation and in meeting Pete just days later he had the same effect on us as a band. There was a sparkle in his eye, a genuine passion for music that sort of shot out of him, a self assured charm and a confident shuffle to his gate left you with the sensation big things were gonna happen, good things and that he was gonna see to it personally. Looking back through the lens of time Pete has delivered against so many of his dreams, our dreams and more than likely yours.

Those days at the Wetlands were something else. It’s a spirit and an era that marks a time and place in so many of our minds. We went on at all our of the night and played into the early ours of the morning. The apex of our days at Wetland was NYE1997. We did a three night run (I think) and literally played through the night until 6 or 7am at which point Pete served everyone Bagels.

Here’s what Pete had to say about it : “I had only been there for a year or so, and got to be a part of such a unique celebration. There’s an aura of a New Years Eve show. It was a major night for me, because those guys had become friends of mine. It was so memorable. They played ‘til dawn and it just seemed like the night kept going and going.”

To say Pete is well loved is an understatement. He’s the mayor of Jamband Land. That said the members of Strangefolk have had a special relationship with Pete for over 20 years personally and professionally. He grew our audience at the Wetlands. When we graduated from playing the Wetlands he left a sold out show at his own venue to bring Nile Rodgers to come see Strangefolk at the Bowery Ballroom. Pete included Strangefolk at the first Jammy Awards and paired us with Merl Saunders. He put me on Stage with The Tom Tom Club, which is more or less Talking Heads without David Burn, to sing Take Me to The River and had Assembly of Dust back Dickey Betts for Ramblin’ Man and Blue Sky at Madison Square Garden.

Over the years, Pete’s career has grown and with each new endeavor he has taken us along for the ride, sometimes implicitly and sometimes explicitly. Either way we all feel a part of his success. He’s the kind of guy you root for because you know he is out there rooting for you.

One of my favorite Shapiro escapades was during a visit to Vermont, he was there with C Taylor Crothers who was taking photos of Strangefolk for publicity and posterity. Fun fact, Taylor is Alex Crothers older brother and Alex owns the Higher Ground in Burlington (See photo of Alex and Bowery Presents John Moore to right). Anyway Taylor wanted us to get into this FRIGID mountain pond in Waterbury, VT and none of us particularly wanted to participate. So, true to form Pete took off his shirt dropped trow and plunged in. Let the records show Peter Shapiro does not have a stunt double. The man leads by example. Life is more complicated 20+ years later, but I know for a fact that pond is still frigid and Pete is still Pete - a music fan with a huge heart and big dreams that come to him like lyrics to Robert Hunter

Interview with Pete Shapiro 2020

Below is a short interview I did with Pete to bring us to the present.

Reid: Where did you get your passion for music?

Pete Shapiro: I just try and do what I know I would like to see and experience as a fan.   That really helps me, that I still love to see live music as much as I did when I first got into putting on the shows almost 25 years ago.  It makes it easier, I think.  I can see stuff from the POV of a fan and then I try and implement that in all aspects of how we put the show and/or event on.   I have found that what seems like small stuff impacts the live music experience a lot.  Like how you are treated when you enter the venue at the box office and by security or how your bathroom visit goes.   It all matters and plays a role, not just the sound and lights.

Reid: Wetlands was your start it sort of launched your career but it also must have framed the world for you as a music promoter and venue owner in some way shape or form?

Peter Shapiro: It’s where I learned to do what I do.   And because Wetlands had challenges as a pure music venue (aka sightline challenges) we had to work harder to give people a good experience.   So now that my venues have great sight lines I still try and incorporate the stuff that we did at Wetlands.   You combine that together and I think it’s why Brooklyn Bowl and The Capitol Theatre are what they are.   

Reid: I remember you walking me around the site as The Bowl was going up it was plywood, dust and some big holes as I recall but you were waving your hands and spitting with enthusiasm - you had a vision. Wha’s was your long term vision Brooklyn Bowl as you expand into new locations and different sized and shape rooms?

Peter Shapiro: Just gonna try and keep doing what I do.  There are still a lot of challenges that pop up.   Just when I think “hey, I think i did it,” something falls out of the sky and you have to try and climb over it.  Just last week we had to deal with Coronavirus and the Tornado in Nashville.  That’s stuff you can’t anticipate.  It’s a hard game this live music thing, but I have the bug and it bit me hard and I plan to keep going.   It’s going to be fun to see how far it goes.   Seeing shows is still the best part and after a long day, it’s what I want to do.  That hasn’t changed. 

Pete Opens The Capitol Theatre & Reunites Strangefolk

To listen to his heartwarming remarks press play below:

Pete is responsible for getting Strangefolk back together in 2012. The way I remember it is he got us all on a conference call. With the exception of a good friends wedding we had not played or really spoken in 10 years. Pete gets on the phone, none of us really said much and he sort of told us, in a benevolent way, how it was going to be. This is my impersonation of Pete “Ok I’m re-opening The Capitol Theatre and you guys are gonna cut the crap, get over it already, get back togehter and open the theatre, two nights. It will be epic. Am I right? Im right… great it’s done. Peace!” Click. All I know is we’ve been playing together again ever since. One cool factoid is the first show Pete saw at the Capitol was Strangefolk in 1998 (see below).

Here’s how it played out in the media: Capitol Theatre owner Peter Shapiro spoke with them in late 2011 and invited Strangefolk to headline the venue’s re-opening night. While that gig didn’t happen due to construction/scheduling issues, thanks to the call, the band did reunite, kicking off their March 2012 four show run at Shapiro’s Brooklyn Bowl. Strangefolk later performed at the Capitol Theatre over Thanksgiving weekend in 2012.

Jon Trafton on Pete

Bill Clifford – So we understand that an initial “nudge” to play again came from musical impresario Peter Shapiro (Relix Magazine Publisher, Wetlands, Brooklyn Bowl, Capitol Theater). Did it take a whole lot of convincing on his part to bring you guys back together? How’d it come about?

John Trafton – “Pete has an enthusiasm that’s contagious. He’s a real “Big Idea” guy. We were all feeling ready to reunite, so Pete’s involvement was pretty much the spark that lit the fuse. Last summer or fall we had a conference call and I remember Pete was standing outside some raging show at the Brooklyn Bowl. He’d stepped out to make the call at the appointed time. He pretty much laid down his whole idea of how it should go. It was more like a speech. At the end we were all pretty much like, “Yep, I’m in.” Unfortunately, the original idea didn’t pan out. We were to play the re-opening of the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York. By the time the wheels were in motion, we had dates settled in VT and Maine, but the Capitol wasn’t ready. But because Pete was so instrumental in getting the whole thing together we felt it was important to play a show at the Brooklyn Bowl (his other venue). He actually flew there from a family vacation in California to make the show.”

Reid Genauer On Pete

Dean Budnick: So this all was put in motion through an invitation from Peter Shapiro for the original Strangefolk to appear at the Capitol Theatre when he re-opens the club later this year. Can you talk a bit about that conversation?

Reid: Well from Pete’s perspective, I’d imagine he was thinking, “Hey, I’m going to reopen the Capitol and it wouldn’t it be great to see my old friends on stage together? Wouldn’t the combination of these things be fun?” Pete’s got a lot of emotional equity in Strangefolk. We played Wetlands many, many times and we spent a lot of time just getting to know each other. It’s a great thing when the people you work with have emotional connections, so he is definitely emotionally invested in seeing this happen. And in the absence of anybody else taking the helm, he got everybody on the phone and said, “Pick up your toys and let’s play.” (laughs)

There were a couple conversations but the one that inked the deal, so to speak, was when he more or less gave us a rock and roll sermon that lasted all of 35 seconds, concluded that he was right and then hung up on all of us (laughs). We were left on the phone trying to figure out what was agreed upon. It was comedic.

Dean Budnick: What people might not realize is that Peter made the trek from NYC up to Vermont to see Strangefolk a number of times, including some Eden appearances. He just really enjoyed his Strangefolk.

Reid: He did. He was a big part of it. He was our Bill Graham or our Ken Kesey or some odd combination of both.

Dean: In his honor, you’ve released a live show that the four of you performed at the Cap on December 27, 1998. What are your memories of that night?

Reid: I remember being exceptionally proud to be playing that show because I saw a couple shows there as a kid and I knew the history of the room. It was a marker of legitimacy. Also, my parents were there. I remember my dad watching the crowd “undulating,” as he called it. I also remember him shaking my shoulders and saying “This is a phenomenon!” (laughs). I don’t think he’d seen it at that scale.

All The Years Combined…

It’s no secret that Pete’s a fan of The Grateful Dead and… kablam - so am I. At the time as Shapiro opened Garcia’s I was living 3 miles down the road and had the good fortune to “christen” the clubs maiden voyage with 3 shows billed as Reid Genauer & Friends. It was loose “pull it out of your ear” kinda thing with a squad of musical friends glued together by Pete’s trademark “it’ll be great” enthusiasm and some synchronous help from our old friend Brett Fairbrother. Full circle. As I write this, sitting miles away in California some years later, I realize it was also the inception of Reid Genauer & Folks. A passion project I’ve worked on for the last couple years and so the journey continues. Point Shapiro. The long and short of it is Peter has made a mark on the world by infusing the people and places he touches with his own colorful imagination and giving belief to things that don’t exist in plain site. He leads with his heart and is trailed by a bright parade of musicians, managers, fans and friends - relationships that span decades. The menagerie of media and memories I covered above are just a taste of the ways Pete has touched our lives, supported our music and actualized his own calling. Here’s to Peter Shapiro - long may you run my friend. -Reid