Get Lit
Toad’s Place — “Where the legends play” and where Yalies get their midweek dance party fix. Varsha Raghavan, TC ’20, interviews Marty Weiand, long-standing lighting director at Toad’s Place. He tells us about the development of Toad’s as a cultural icon both at Yale and around the world.
VR: So, a little bit about your background?
MW: I started here in ’81, and there was this big music scene in New Haven. There were at least seven different clubs open from Tuesday to Saturday with really good live bands every night. I worked at a couple different venues, and then I came here, where I kind of got into the lighting stuff.
The light show was in absolute shambles. Word travels through this industry, especially through technicians on my end, and it was ‘Ugh, Toad’s Place, the light show’s a mess.’ So I spoke with Brian (Phelps) and was like, ‘Look, let me get this place back up and running because you’ve got a bad name in the business, so far as the light show goes.’ Fast forward, it took me about a year; I redesigned, redid, rewired the entire lighting show to what it is today.
I am the lighting director, the designer. Anything that breaks, lighting world or electrical, I fix. I keep everything up and running: the smoke machines, the CO2, the laser.
We have a pretty big light show that’s up there now. And I’m still adding to it as we go on. These people come in now — the national acts that are touring — and are like (*gasps*). Because I know, from being out there, how bad it sucks to do clubs. When it comes to clubs, it’s either going to be a great night, or it’s going to be a horrible night. But I changed all that. You come in, boom: everything you need is right there: Cat5 lines, extra data lines. They don’t have to run a single wire. There’s all the power they need on stage.
VR: What is the biggest difference from when you started out in ’81?
MW: The music has majorly changed and, for me, not for the better. We have been here for 43 years. We’re a mom-and-pop company. We’re not backed by Live Nation; we don’t have anybody. This is strictly Brian’s baby, and he has to have a good night every night in order to stay afloat, and how he’s done it? He’s a fucking, believe me, genius for what he’s done in here.
1981. Drinking age was 18; the licenses in CT had no picture. In the very beginning, the place was mobbed every night, no matter what was here. Once the drinking age went up, that’s when you started seeing all these other venues in New Haven just closing down because they were losing their crowd.
There were a lot more local bands back then. It seems to be more DJ stuff now, more of light shows that are blasting in your face as opposed to accenting the music and the song, and a lot of video stuff going on.
VR: Do you do the lighting for the dance shows?
MW: When the DJ drops, the CO2 cans go off, and the strobes, yeah, that’s me up there doing all that. Every night. I’ve designed the show in here specifically for his (Phelps) dance parties, because that was not only his biggest night, but the dance floor was lacking major lighting. There were four of those lights on the dance floor. Now there’s 24. That was my first thing: let’s get the dance parties looking kicking.
Any time crowd lights come on, and I’m flashing you guys to sing? That’s all done by me. The strobes coming on? That’s all done by me. At the end of the night with Bon Jovi and all you guys singing? That’s me. It’s trying to get everybody involved, everybody having a good time. That’s the whole thing behind this, the lighting system. You’re a part of the show.
VR: Whoever walks in here sees the wall with all the paintings of the artists who’ve been here: Talking Heads, U2.
MW: (*laughs*) U2. The first time they were here, there was a blizzard, and a very small amount of people that came. A couple of other production guys and I were like, ‘Ugh, this band sucks. They’re going nowhere.’ Whoops… whoops, were we wrong! But they came back a couple other times and the next thing you know, boom!
There’s a lot of music history here. We’re one of the very few venues that are still open that have been open this long, and this is all Phelps’s doing. He’s got good people on board that care about what they do. We want everything to be perfect in our production world.
Everybody knows Toad’s Place, no matter where I’ve been in the world, all over Europe, anywhere: ‘Toad’s Place? Oh yeah, I was there with this band, or I was there with that band. That place is still there?’ I think we, the Whisky a Go Go in L.A., and The Fillmore are the only three-standing original nightclubs that have had these big huge acts that are still here. The Stones came in on the Steel Wheels Tour. Billy Joel recorded a live album here. A lot of these bands were on the up and coming; a lot of them were like, ‘Let’s do Toad’s because it’s Toad’s! It’s Toad’s Place!’
The stop between Boston and New York is Toad’s Place; there is no other place.
VR: I heard that Toad’s used to be a Hungry Charlie’s? How would you say the general area and scene has changed at Toad’s?
MW: Yale has taken over a lot of stuff. Cutler’s Record Shop — they’re gone. My aunt had a record store way back in the ’60s and ’70s. A lot of the mom-and-pop places are gone. This place and Yorkside are pretty much the only ones left.
VR: When you were here in the early 80s, were a lot of Yale students coming to the shows?
MW: Has it always had dance parties? Yes. It’s always been a college attraction. They started out with Wednesday night video dance parties, when MTV first came out. That took off, then it became a regular dance party to what it is today.
Student-wise, we’ve always had Yale students. We’re surrounded by Yale, UNH, Southern, there’s a lot of colleges around here.
VR: Were we pulling more of hip-hop/rap acts in the early ’80s, or was it strictly rock-and-roll?
MW: It was never strictly anything. It was always open to every genre. It wasn’t just a rock venue; it wasn’t just a DJ venue. It was a venue that catered to every genre.
VR: Energy efficiency — does that ever come into play?
MW: Yes! Which is why a lot of our stuff is LED. 90% of the rig up there is LED. It has seriously dropped the electrical bill.
VR: Do you mainly do the shows that go up on Toad’s?
MW: I certainly stay here. I’m very loyal. The owner, Brian, is a very loyal guy too. It’s like family here. It’s home. It’s my baby up there. We’re all a little kooky — to be in the production business.
Someone asked Henny Youngman, ‘What do I do to get into show business?’
And Henny Youngman said, ‘You fill your mouth with marbles, and every day you take a marble out. Once you’ve lost all your marbles, then you’re good.’
That’s pretty much true, because we’re not quite right, but it’s all good. It’s all good.
