‘The start of something really good': Channel 24 venue energizes Sacramento arts landscape

San Francisco Chronicle​

05-05-2025

For decades, Sacramento concertgoers have packed into cars or boarded trains to see their favorite artists in San Francisco or Oakland. But a new addition to the city's Midtown district could signal a shift in the region's migrational patterns.
Channel 24, a mid-size venue developed and operated by Berkeley-based Another Planet Entertainment, the powerhouse independent promoter behind San Francisco's annual Outside Lands music festival, opened last month with a clear mission: Keep Sacramento music fans local.
More Information
May-June lineup
Denzel Curry: 8 p.m. May 7
Madness: 8 p.m. May 14
Hippocampus: 8 p.m. May 16
Hermanos Gutiérrez: 8 p.m. May 21
Jack White: 8 p.m. May 26-27
James Arthur: 8 p.m. May 29
Charley Crockett: 8 p.m. June 8
Social Distortion: 8 p.m. June 14
Pachiko: 8 p.m. June 17
Ryan Bingham and the Texas Gentlemen: 8 p.m. June 18
Channel 24: 1800 24th St, Sacramento. For a full schedule, go to channel24sac.com.
'We'll go to the Bay Area for shows, like San Francisco, but it's hard to get out there with a job and stuff,' Jeannette Ho, 51, standing in the Channel 24 lobby just before electronic group Tycho took the stage Friday, April 25, as part of the venue's opening celebrations.
Ho's boyfriend, John Conley, 56, echoed that sentiment.
'It's harder now than when we were younger to drive to the Bay Area for shows, especially during the week,' he said. 'Having shows here in Sacramento is definitely nice. We're more willing to get out to a show during the week here in town and close to us.'
For fans who have long faced a 90-mile trek for mid-level acts, Channel 24 fills a longstanding void. While smaller indie bands regularly play the 530-capacity nightclub Harlow's and megastars hit the more than 17,500-seat Golden 1 Center, the state's capital has lacked a home for artists who sit comfortably mid-lineup on a Coachella poster.
'Over the years, we have had lots of artists ask to play Sacramento. They were bigger than Ace of Spades, and they weren't big enough to play Sacramento Memorial Auditorium,' said Allen Scott, president of concerts and festivals at Another Planet Entertainment, describing the goldilocks conundrum of downtown's concert scene. The former is an all-ages venue that accommodates 1,000, while the latter is a nearly 4,000-capacity space that books more graduation ceremonies than concerts these days.
The hole in the market often led the concert production and artist management company to skip the market and send talent to Reno.
That calculus changed with the 2016 opening of Golden 1 Center, managed by the Sacramento Kings and the City of Sacramento, that hosts cultural juggernauts like Paul McCartney, Janet Jackson and Kendrick Lamar.
'Golden 1 Center, 10 years later, is still in its honeymoon period,' Scott said, describing how the burst of energy and attendance for a new venue usually dissipates after a year or so. 'That's really a testament to what's happening in Sacramento.'
With Channel 24, Another Planet is betting on a city long seen in a perpetual state of striving — but one increasingly ready to stand on its own.
For pop culture proof of its underdog status, just look to the plot of the recent comedy ' Sacramento,' which hinges upon the city being a random and detached destination for its Los Angeles characters to find themselves in.
Local residents are accustomed to serving up reasons for it to be taken seriously: It's a culinary destination, a mecca for cyclists, close to a lot of (arguably superior) natural attractions like Napa Valley and Lake Tahoe.
But offering up the city's art scene might not be the most obvious move if one were making the case for it as a sexy metropolis.
The addition of Channel 24 might not completely turn that around, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.
Sam Kesh, 46, who has produced indie shows in Sacramento as a DJ and booker for most of his adult life, said he has long ventured out to the opulent Fox Theater in Oakland, Berkeley's open-air Greek Theatre and the more intimate room at the Independent in San Francisco well before knowing they were all owned and operated by Another Planet. When he learned of the entertainment company's latest venture in his hometown it was definitely welcoming news.
'All of those venues … they're huge parts of my life,' he said. 'It's just cool that there's something connected to that and means that if there's tours playing those venues, now there's an opportunity to have them in Sacramento.'
Serving up a premium sonic experience was, in fact, the dominant objective when building the 2,150-capacity space, which is Another Planet Entertainment's first 'from the ground-up' project.
'This was completely built from the dirt,' Scott noted. 'I think the results will speak for themselves.'
The structure, which was erected in place of an old electrical supply warehouse on 24th and R streets, was designed by Sacramento's Ellis Architects and the Bay Area's CAW Architects. With one wall adorned with a towering mural of a roving horse, by Sacramento artist Cheyenne Randall, and a modern auburn facade, the building — whose namesake references the electrical 'channels' of its warehouse days and Sacramento's converging rivers — is an unexpected addition to the mostly residential southeast corner of Midtown Sacramento's grid.
Frequent concert goer Nicole Grant Kriege, 46, is hopeful about Channel 24's influence on its surroundings.
'I think it could really grow into a little bit of a micro-hood,' she pondered while sitting in a booth at Round Corner bar, which was buzzing with activity just before Channel 24's Tycho concert. 'You have Round Corner, which is kind of this dive bar institution, you have Racks, a vintage store that's been around forever. I think there's the start of something really good here.'
Spotted among the bar crowd, huddled around the pool tables, was Tycho frontman Dan Hansen. The Oakland-based musician, who lived in Sacramento in the early 2000s, was mingling with friends and family ahead of the show.
Later onstage, Hansen expressed his appreciation for the city of trees.
'This is amazing and so meaningful to us,' he said warmly as he reminisced about making music in a garage-turned-studio just up the street from Channel 24. Those songs would become the influential 2011 album 'Dive,' which received the loudest cheers at the venue that night.
'It was important to have a local artist play,' said Scott. 'We always knew Tycho would be in that first week.'
Although the throng of mostly 30- to 50-somethings was enthusiastic about the chillwave indie rockers that night, Channel 24's roster serves a broad audience, including younger fans with a proclivity for country music. The venue's opening night on April 24 featured Tucker Wetmore, attracting a sold-out crowd outfitted in cowboy boots and wide-brimmed hats.
'Two very popular genres in Sacramento are country music and hard rock music — they perform better in Sacramento than they do in the immediate Bay area,' explained Scott, adding that shows featuring bluegrass singer Sierra Ferrell and alt-country artist Sam Barber were both sold out.
From gritty Americana crooner Charley Crockett, who last drifted through the capital city five years ago, to blues rocker Jack White, who has never stepped a booted foot into a Sacramento venue, there's a bit of a sea change coming for the land-locked town.
'I'm hoping it brings shows we wouldn't normally get in Sacramento,' said Conley.