BalconyTV makes Las Vegas music come alive

Courtney Davis really rolled the dice when she moved to Las Vegas, and it paid off.

Ah, yes, a gambling metaphor. How cliched of me, I know. As admittedly trite as that trope may seem, though, in this case, I’d say it’s actually pretty fitting. See if you agree when you hear how Davis, the producer of BalconyTV, a biweekly webisode that puts local acts on something of a pedestal for a worldwide audience, ended up out here. It’s a classic Vegas vignette worthy of placing in such a well-worn package.

Soured by a relationship that went south, Davis moved to the valley in the late ’90s. Just like that. She didn’t know a single soul. She took an economics class in high school, one in which she discovered there was no state tax here, and apparently, that was enough to plant the seed. “The day I graduated high school, I walked across the stage, and I flew out with my sister,” she says, recalling now how she and Tasha left Chicago and landed here in the desert. “I’m kind of like that. I just go.”

The Davis siblings lived in Las Vegas for about three years or so before they moved to Los Angeles, where they shared a one-bedroom apartment and a job, as personal assistants to Eric Roberts. Tasha convinced the actor to hire her sister after she picked up the gig through a specialty agency. “We worked pretty much nonstop,” recalls Courtney. “We were shopping all the time. They had three houses in the valley and in the city. So I would just drive around all day to see if they needed anything. It was all very exciting to me.”

Courtney loved her life in L.A., she says, but the novelty had worn off for Tasha, who missed Vegas and wanted to move back. Realizing she wouldn’t be able to live in Los Angeles without her sister, Courtney came back to the valley with Tasha, and that’s when she found herself becoming increasingly immersed in the local scene. Going to shows several times a week at places such as the Huntridge Theater and House of Blues led to a job writing reviews for LocalMusicScene.com.

When that site, which was bankrolled in part by Billboard Magazine, folded sometime around the middle part of the past decade, Courtney did some freelance writing for a few magazines before moving back to L.A. on her own in 2010. She had an even better gig on this outing, though, she says. Working for AEG Live and Golden Voice in the corporate office, she eventually ended up being promoted to a position at the Fonda Theatre as an assistant to the GM and events supervisor. She held that job until last fall when she decided to move back to Vegas.

While the move back was prompted by more practical concerns — several of Courtney’s close relatives now live in Vegas and she wants her 2-year-old daughter to be around family — she put her passion for music together with her love for the scene and returned home with a purpose and a plan. Having previously crossed paths with BalconyTV during her time at the Fonda, Courtney sensed a solid opportunity to pitch a Las Vegas outpost. And so she reached out to the company, which was founded in Ireland in 2006 by three roommates and features bands from more than 50 cities across the world (including 11 cities in the United States) performing on various patios, platforms and perches with picturesque cityscapes providing bewitching backdrops.

Before the principles of the site gave Courtney the green light, she had to produce a pilot. That required plenty of work on her part, from picking a performer and putting together a production crew to landing a location and lining up a time to shoot. Robert Stokes, a local singer-songwriter, signed up for the first shoot, while Tasha, who works as a videographer with her own company, Angenoux Productions, lent her expertise and equipment. All that was left was finding a place to film the footage.

Enter the Hard Rock Cafe on the Strip. It was the perfect pairing right off the bat, says Courtney. Not only did the staff express excitement in being part of the project, but you couldn’t really ask for a more perfect setting to portray the Las Vegas music scene than smack dab on the Strip. With a prime place to perform, the production crew set about putting together the pilot. It was good enough to get approved and to make BalconyTV Las Vegas become a reality, but it isn’t quite as good as the videos that Courtney and company have produced since.

“It was a process,” she says. “I’d never produced or done anything like this on this side before. So it was a slow process for me. It took me a while to get it right, actually.”

But it wasn’t just her, she points out. Making sure that all the hard-working folks who help make the segments possible are mentioned, Courtney provides a list of people that deserve props. “I couldn’t make this happen for the scene without everybody’s time and them believing in me and themselves,” she says. “That sounds really cheesy,” she adds with a self-conscious chuckle.

But they’re all worthy of praise, she points out, Tasha, of course, along with the Hard Rock Cafe on the Strip, and H.A.S. Productions, who handles all of the audio, Art Dilla Films, who just signed on to help capture the live-action footage along with Angenoux, the photographers, Infinite Imaging Photography, Angie Ortaliza Photography and Krystal Ramirez, the hosts, Asia Jade and Brandon Toliver, and production assistant Brandon Kiser.

“It’s just sometimes I do stand there and I just look at how many people are involved to make this happen,” she says, marveling. “You know, we couldn’t do … no one could do this on their own. Like we all have to show up, and so far it’s just been great. They’re talented people. There are a lot of people who are willing to put time and effort into something without getting paid, so much, you know.”

Courtney’s included on that list, even if she’d prefer to keep that part under wraps. She’s worried that such an admission might somehow diminish or undervalue the efforts of her and everybody else, but as you’ll see from the series of videos posted on balconytv.com/las-vegas, such fears are unfounded. Courtney and her crew are making the brightest acts from our town shine even brighter.

Since posting the first videos this past February, BalconyTV Las Vegas has showcased a half-dozen local acts, including Mercy Music, Sonia Seelinger, Bee Master, Pure Joy, Cameron Calloway and Jessica Manalo, in addition to offering up a pair of performances from Matisyahu, who stopped by the third floor of the Hard Rock this past spring when he was in town. This week, a new clip featuring Rusty Maples was added, followed by performances in the coming weeks from the Reasn, Kerfoot and Dau, Trice Be Phantom, Mizz Absurd and Gregory Michael Davis. Some of the segments have been filmed at night, while others have been done during the heat of the day.

“When you see these next shows, the lenses that we use and how beautiful, you’re going to see that we can do both just as good,” she promises. “We’re getting pretty good.”

Given what I’ve seen of the series so far, I’d say that’s a very safe bet.

Viva Live Vegas runs every Wednesday. Contact Dave Herrera directly at dherrera@reviewjournal.com or find him on Twitter: @rjmusicdh.