By Rick Polo (Editor-in-Chief)

What may very well be the best kept secret in the Youngstown Music Scene is celebrating a milestone. For the last decade, Erik Engartner has been hosting DIY underground shows in the city in a former funeral home. Best known today as Wickyards, their DIY aesthetic has kept things raw and pure, giving bands not only the limelight of a live performance, but the bare bones comfort of the rehearsal space. 

 While either launching the careers of some notable area acts, or welcoming area favorites to throw down, Wickyards has had a slower rise in the scene’s collective consciousness. 

However, the slow burn has helped the venue go from underground sensation to blossoming hot spot with limitless potential.

“Definitely been a slow burn for sure. Our first year was big but took a decline over the next year or so as interest waned and I got, let's say, a little too safe with lineups. I was booking a lot of the same ones over and over, and while we invite them back for a reason we need to switch it up a bit,” explained Engartner.

“I wanted more genres more different crowds of people to discover the place. Over time I think that did lead to some more success as I grew in my lineup construction knowledge. Some of our biggest shows have been Rap concerts, so we dove into that a bit more while still balancing rock shows with good amounts of local and touring acts.“

Engartner said the DIY feel of Wickyards has lent itself favorably to the artists who have booked gigs, despite not functioning like the usual music venues.

“The people who discover the place I think feel invested, they see the DIY attitude in action, they buy-in. We realize we aren’t a normal ‘bar’ venue and we aren't trying to be, nor can we. So we have to position ourselves differently from other places. In a way, it’s a house-show environment without having to deal with someone’s dog potentially escaping,” said Engartner.

In an extensive conversation, we sat down with Engartner to cover everything from the venue’s earliest incarnations, the various challenges it’s met over the years, and how their relationships with artists and fans have rippled throughout the area’s music scene.

RAW ALTERNATIVE: Walk us through a brief history of the Wickyards: When did you hold your first event and who all played it? When did you decide to host more shows?  

ERIK ENGARTNER: So Wickyards started as "The (Former) and Billiards in Boardman, Ohio across from the Boardman Plaza in 2011. I was 16 at the time and I was cleaning out the building that my dad owned after the swimming pool store vacated the building. The sign however remained so we kept the name. Around this time I started going to local shows and meeting people in the local Punk scene. Some of us younger musicians and fans couldn't get into some of the downtown Youngstown bars at the time late at night, and that's when I had a ‘Eureka!’ moment. What if I started a venue right here?! I asked a couple of buddies that were in bands about it on there thoughts and they loved the idea. Notably Scotty McMaster (formerly of Big Ginge and The Nobodies) and Albert Chizmar (formerly of the Face Cards), and we got an event going! We were DIY right from the beginning. So we had our first show there on November 26, 2011 and it featured a lineup of three punk acts Sunk in Ships, The Face Cards and Big Ginge & The Nobodies. We had probably like 40 people that night after Thanksgiving, and we thought it was an overwhelming success. 

So we made it a monthly deal with notably The Face Cards and or Big Ginge playing nearly every show over the next year. We primarily catered toward punk acts but booked a fair amount of just general Rock, Metal, and some Ska acts too. The Backyards as it came to be known over the course of its existence, operated from November 2011 to March 2013; shut down due to fire, and zoning code issues. Outside of an undercover one-off event in January 2014, The Backyards was over. So as far as I was aware my days as a venue owner were over. A few years later though a new opportunity sprang up. My father bought the former McVean-Hughes-McClurkin Funeral Home in late 2015. I got a tour of it and thought this place was way too nice to be a venue. But the more I thought about it, I thought that's exactly why it should be! So I got right to work, reviving it. We had begun in 2012 to really get a loyal base of people that would come to every show. So I wanted a name that would keep the branding alive a little bit. So Wick Avenue + Backyards = The Wickyards. 

Our first show at this location was March 19, 2016, and featured Big Ginge & The Nobodies, Dead End Job, Where's Winona Now?, and The Leffingwells. Again the show was a big success! Began doing show there once or twice  month for years and this was easy to balance while I was attending college at YSU and in bands of my own. So time passed and Wickyards has just kept growing in reputation and scale. Not only that but also grown in the number of genres and services we offer from film/music video shoots, and hosting Private Parties. We also host now 2-3 events a month, while I still balance a full time job to support the financial side of the venue.

RA:  Wickyards has carved a unique niche in the Youngstown music scene. Perhaps even birthing its own subculture, would you agree? What's your opinion as to how you fit into the scene?

EE: Its a subculture of sorts for sure. There's a crowd for the Federal Street area venues that's somewhat different from the crowd we get here less than a mile away. Part of it is because we're entertainment-focused, and aren’t relying on a bar that carries with it a certain feel. An old funeral home is almost the complete opposite environment. Not that what those places do is bad or anything, we’re just doing our thing. 

I think we fit into the scene in a way that is flexible to any act that may not necessarily cater to a mass audience (at least on the surface), or those newer acts that may have trouble getting into other venues and we give them opportunities to earn their stripes.

RA: How do you feel Wickyards contributes to downtown culture? In what ways would you like it to do so? 

EE: Unfortunately, I don't think Wickyards contributes an awful lot to the larger downtown culture. In the music scene, I'd say differently because we have been around for a while and hosted a large amount of the area’s local rock-oriented acts not to mention the other genres we book. But because we are removed distance-wise from a lot of the downtown nightlife, we don't get much pedestrian flow, so we’re really at the mercy of people discovering the event on social media or through word-of-mouth. I'd love for it to serve as a place for people who don’t really want to be in a crowded downtown bar, can come here still for some nightlife energy, but a different, alternate energy. 

RA:  Do you have any plans, or would you be open to, host any YSU-related events?

EE: As someone who used to book events with YSU, when I was a student, I'd love to do stuff with them. This past October, Wickyards hosted a couple of dozen students as part of a Haunted Walk they were doing, and I gave them a tour of the building. So hopefully some more events of substance are not too far in the future especially considering how close in proximity YSU is to us.

RA: What challenges have you faced along the way while booking, managing and hosting live music? And how have you overcome them?

EE: Where do I begin?! Everything from last-minute cancellations and no-shows, to non-fixable sound issues, that we have to adapt to. But that's the trick: We adapt and persevere. That DIY mantra. If something’s wrong lets all come together figure out a solution, and more often than not we do. We may have acts play longer/shorter move times around, combine pa's, play lighter, any and all options we think of. Very open to anything to keep the show alive. 

At Backyards, we used to have a bad time with property damage with the drywall not being the best for mosh pits but we filled holes and made rules. When I do have to buy new things I make sure I budget to have that reserve cash. Also, in a venue that mostly hosts shows for $5, having enough five-dollar bills on hand for change is tough (even though we do take cards, and Venmo/PayPal/Cash App as payment too). 

We also hosted a rooftop show in October 2020, which was logistically challenging but we did the best with what we had available to us. A few times because of our underground nature, the word hasn't gotten out and the crowd size is less-than-stellar. Which I feel bad for the artists most of all less than the venue. Everyone deserves to have a good, high energy crowd. Only once have I had to cancel because of that though. RA: Let's talk about the music... Who are some of the artists that have helped shape and establish Wickyards? What are some of the most significant and memorable shows that you've hosted?

EE: Like I said, for the first few months of our existence, Former Boardman Punk bands The Face Cards, and Big Ginge & The Nobodies, were foundational to the very definition of the word. Some other acts that were pivotal during those Backyards days were Nervous Aggression (the only act that played the venue that's still around in name) , The Glow Pop Jiggly Jams, Resisting Reason, Dead End Job, and Rayne. The latter of which I think embodies what the venue is all about Rayne played her first show at the venue in 2012, and played a few more prior to forming Human Petting Zoo, a project that has had good success in the Indie-Folk/Punk world. 

As we move to Wickyards, The Service Monkeys and Where's Winona Now have played the venue more than any other act by far. Chris Lombardii is largely responsible in bringing to life many of the Rap events we've hosted. Some of our biggest turnouts have been thanks to promoters like Paul Goon, and Dizzy Hendrixx. A few other acts that have really warmed up to the venue in booking their own shows and music videos include Three Vultures, Drifting Thing, Obisian Earth, Heck Vector, We, The Creature, and The Safest Ledge. 

A few shows that have been memorable include We, The Creature's rooftop show, "Ted’s engagement proposal/one-man show which was the debut of our lighting rig that Ted built. The two Halloween covers shows we've hosted. Really too many to name.

RA: Describe the kinds of relationships you've built with artists over the years. What does Wickyards have to offer to emerging artists, and established artists?

EE: I think because we do operate so closely with the artist every step of the way, we develop strong relationships with a lot of them, especially more local ones who are able to utilize the space more often. I’ve built so many good friendships with people through doing this. If I go out to a show at another local venue, I'm recognized by a lot of the musicians in the room. There are some acts that come and play, and realize its not their thing, and that's fine, we understand, but some really buy-in and see what we have to offer with the grandeur of the building and the kind of show environments we are capable of. Especially if they stick around after the show or get to the show early and I get to give them a tour, where I explain the 114-year history of the building and what different rooms and tools were used for when it was a mansion and then later on a funeral home. People see the potential and then to want to book shows themselves, or film videos, or book the space for practice. If you have an idea, we cater toward trying to bring it to life the best we can.

RA: What is in the future for Wickyards? What are some of your goals and what would you like to see happen in the near and distant future?

EE: Currently hard at work on a Haunted House Attraction. We will be turning the whole building into an attraction in October 2022, filled with scare actors, and a brand new unique story that only we can tell. There aren’t a ton of haunted attractions in the area, and we think it could be a massive success! Be on the lookout for promotions for that, and a call for hiring actors (no experience required, but helpful). Work is ongoing in that department now, and we will be stopping shows in August 2022 for a few months while we prepare. The plan is to contract one act per night play in the queue for the Haunted House.  In the meantime hosting more shows like always have, bringing in new acts, and keeping it alive! 

Eventually, we want to flip the upstairs into livable apartment units. Really just expanding and growing in all of our services and maybe offering more snacks and merch.

The Wickyards 10th Anniversary Party takes place Saturday, November 27, beginning at 6 p.m., and featuring area mainstays like The Service Monkeys, The Smokey Honey Blues Band, Where’s Winona Now?, Drifting Thing and We, The Creature.