Why Does Gather Love Live Music?

“Having artists fall in love with our venue as much as we love it definitely feels like my proudest achievement,” says Gather’s co-owner, Tommy Everman.

Tommy and Jyll Everman moved back to Green Bay, Wisconsin, after building and establishing part of their lives in Los Angeles, California, and after having the provisions and aura of a bustling city at their fingertips for so long, their desire to bring that atmosphere to the growing Midwest city set center stage in their hearts.

‍

An event space for all occasions

While Jyll anticipated creating a space to showcase not only her culinary skills to the city, but also the teams’ she hoped to build and teach, forming a reliably talented and professional catering team the city could rely on, Tommy longed to form a venue with a focus on original live music from the area, as well as traveling artists looking to boost their listener count in the Midwest.

“When we moved here, I noticed there wasn’t a whole lot of original music happening, and I really craved that atmosphere and knew it would be a good investment for the area,” Tommy Everman disclosed. “I felt Green Bay was missing a primary location for those middle-tier shows, for those who are serious about their place in the music scene, but who maybe haven’t found their stride yet, even though they’re just as good as those bigger-name acts the city venues are booking.”

The Resch Center and the EPIC Events Center typically host those big name acts like Bonnie Raitt and Journey; and the Weidner Center presents plenty of traveling Broadway shows such as Legally Blonde, Hadestown, or Kinky Boots, but Tommy was looking for a place for those middle-tier artists who are writing original music, and are looking to put on a full, yet intimate, show.

“It’s important to find what you do right in the atmosphere of your business; Jyll and I always say, ‘if you’re going to own a space, you have to throw events that you want to attend’, and in LA, I was always looking for comedy clubs, concerts, and general live music,” Tommy explained. “I think these shared experiences are very meaningful and very necessary in today’s society, and having a venue where that can occur is very important to me.”

Gather has certainly flourished in these intentions, as bringing people together has become their business priority and standard in more ways than they ever thought they could utilize their space. With Chef Jyll Everman’s quarterly Taste events, the biannual Glitz and Gather Drag Shows, several annual events including our Breakfast with Santa and Mother’s Day Brunch, and the handful of live music experiences scattered throughout the venue’s schedule, the venue’s primary use as a beautiful wedding venue has far exceeded its original expectations.

“Every now and then, I’m reminded of where we were nine years ago with our business, when we were so new to the game and we didn’t know what we were doing, even though many times now we still don’t know what we’re doing,” he snickered. “Today, we talk more about other venues than we do Gather, because at the end of the day, everybody has their own approach. It doesn't matter where you go, as long as you find the one that is right for you. This is who we are, this is what we do here, and it's slightly different than some, but the other options are just as awesome!”

The crew is always happy to learn from others and their experiences, taking trips even to different venues and locations to learn how to improve different aspects of their events and offerings. Last year, they went to Kansas City, Kansas, to try and find out how they might prepare for and host the NFL draft, and they’ve just returned from a trip to Nashville to learn about how they might host and hone more live music events within their space.

"Last March (2024), we went to Kansas City as a team to research the Draft specifically, and talk to venues about their approach and how they experienced the Draft. It was immensely beneficial in learning about different event bases and their approach to how they find their format – so we said, 'Let's do it again!'” he laughed. “The girls picked Nashville this year, and we'll probably do this again next year, maybe Colorado or Oregon? When you get out of town, you're not worried about the competition."

Not only was this time away from the venue nice to find new approaches to their event setup or production levels, but it also validated their feelings in artist selection in their past shows, some years after their show! While touring venues to hear the variations and effects of the architecture and acoustics, they found both alumni performer Jordan Rowe (2023 Farmers’ Market Series) with his three-piece band, and the scheduled Kashus Culpepper (playing @ Gather 7/11/25), almost 700 miles from the Wisconsin venue, and this assured Tommy they were on the right track.

“It was exciting to see Kashus Culpepper, an artist we’re featuring this July on Gather’s stage, on a big stage like The Grand Ole Opry,” Tommy glowed. “I didn't necessarily find any new artists, but it was cool to see the people that we're having at Gather are playing in Nashville, a huge music scene, and to know that we're booking quality acts was reaffirming that we're booking artists that people want to come and see.”

‍

Live music experiences

The live music experience within Gather has certainly shifted and adjusted through the years, as the demand has increased from when they first started, and the production quality was significantly less than where they strive for now. 

At Gather’s first show, they had little to no seating set up across the venue, the sound and lighting production they were working with had far less equipment and budget than what they pour into the concerts now, there was no stage design to the performances, and they were stooped on whether or not they would be utilizing their talented catering team for these events.

“It was a toned-down first experience in comparison to what we provide now, as we were still finding our footing within this venue, and what we could achieve formulaically. Now, we’re leaning into the stage production and design for our performers quite a bit more,” Tommy revealed. “For a recent show, we decorated our stage to look like a magical mushroom forest, and for Kashus Culpepper, we’ve hung music sheets around the venue and stage. We’re letting ourselves play with the theatrical.”

From Gather’s first performer, Green Bay musician, Grey Mercy, to hosting viral artists Richy Mitch and the Coal Miners, to their most recent show by Kashus Culpepper, Tommy is always encouraging Gather’s booking agent, Jolene Chevalier, to book the artists she wants to see. With two types of live music experiences, Gather is ready and happy to host many types of musical artists.

“Our booking and talent agent, Jolene, runs through a few things before booking an artist or band, ensuring their style fits our venue, their band’s size will be comfortable playing our stage, and what kind of crowd they might pull in. We’re always customer-oriented first and foremost, and we look to provide the best possible experience for both the audience and the artist(s).” 

“We’ve locked ourselves into two types of music experiences,” Tommy revealed excitedly, “We have, what we call our ‘listening room experience’ (no relation to Nashville’s iconic venue) where we host singer/songwriters who are here to tell a story, and the atmosphere is simply quieter and more tuned into what the artists really have to say with their time and stage presence.” 

With this style of performance, Tommy enjoys when the bands are a bit more scaled back, when there’s less to catch the eye of the audience, and more to encourage focus on the focal point, the performer. He leans into the singer/songwriter artists, the trios, duos, or even solo performers, finding interest in their storytelling and in the “why” behind the music the artists are performing.  

However, Gather knows how to elevate a show to a grander scale just as well as their toned down performances. What Tommy deems their “club setup” or “the forum”, brings an entirely new atmosphere to the venue. 

This “club setup” is reserved for the performances that require dancing space, and is all about that feeling of a fun night out. These performances include elevated decor coordinated to the theme of whoever is performing, allow for soundcheck and rehearsals with professional production quality lighting and sound design, and a large stage to accommodate a jam band or the energy the artists need to exude for their show.

“We had The 502s perform at Gather about a year and a half ago, and we completely flipped the room to add more dancing space for everyone, similar to the amount of space we provide for our Glitz and Gather Drag Shows,” Tommy explained. “We set up the stage toward the back of the room, near the kitchen entrance, with a priority in dancing space instead of lounging space, and out of all 150 tickets we sold, everyone was dancing and fully immersed into the evening and the music being played!”

“When booking a band, we always ask whether they’re a high-energy band, like The 502s, requiring little to no seating, or if this is a stripped-down, storytelling experience where people will be seated and leaning into the words of the artist, similar to when we host Rucksack Revolution.”

While they have the stage setup and variations down to a perfected science, and the staff and crew to execute it without fail or question, they are always open to suggestions for improvement from their event goers, bookers, and artists that perform on their stage, even prompting honest reviews after each and every event.

“We’re still figuring out the setup of our live music experiences, and whether or not we want to include a food element for these events, and if we do, how do we go about showcasing that in the least distracting way so we don’t pull away from the artist’s performance?” Tommy pondered, “When you're offering an open-door environment, people can come and go as they please, and we don’t want to distract or be disrespectful in anyway to our high-end acts and bands, so we have to decide if our food will be a pre-show experience, passed around during the show, or perhaps omit food all together – though that seems illogical because we need to display our talented kitchen and catering staff to the public; how we approach it is where we are still looking to improve.”
‍

President Obama approved musical artists

The process of trial and error is something of which everyone is familiar, including musicians, who have to frequently be prepared to face disappointment or failure when performing in a live setting, where anything could go wrong, from broken equipment, all the way up to a cancelled show; but some of the best shows, or our proudest moments of growth come from these experiences.

"Years ago, we sold tickets to our first ever concert on a Wednesday during the Farmers’ Market, yet before our Farmers’ Market Series, for a band called The Beths,” Tommy reminisced. “We had people coming in, eating food, and listening to The Beths, and the Farmer's Market organizers had everyone who had not yet purchased a ticket leave due to existing music arrangements made by the organization. It being our first foray in coordinating with the Farmer’s Market led to some slight confusion, but everyone who already had tickets was allowed back in to finish the show.” 

“We've since found the system that works best for everyone,” he laughed, “though, as of right now, we're no longer offering the Farmers’ Market Series due to our full schedule. It was an interesting experience, but The Beths were fantastic! Funnily enough, the summer after we hosted The Beths, Barack Obama's annually announced Summer Playlist (2023) on Spotify included The Beths, and it felt so amazing to have that confirmation that we had booked a solid group. Barack Obama approves of The Beths!"

If you’re looking for an official seal of approval on Gather’s live music lineup, look no further than a respected former president’s publicly announced summer favorites, and to the many nationally touring bands and artists we’ve had the privilege of hosting (which can be found listed below). Gather has booked and continues to book many amazingly talented artists, Tommy has two artists in mind he longs to cross off his hosting bucket list:

“I saw Keb’ Mo’ at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, and his style with just the guitar and his voice was so intimate and memorable, I’d love to host his bluesy tone,” he revealed. “And Sara Bareilles would feel like such an accomplishment to book, her piano playing and storytelling are so admirable. I’ve seen her a few times in concert, and I just love her crowd work; she seems so authentic.”

As Gather has reminded so many of the couples married within the venue, and organizations and families who have hosted and attended events, both private and public, nothing is impossible to achieve when booking with the venue. 

Gather’s attendance in events is only going up, the bands being booked are only getting bigger, and the desire to book the venue for special occasions such as weddings and bridal or baby showers also continues to rise – whose to say Jolene can’t book Keb’ Mo’ or Sara Bareilles for the intimate venue?

“Jolene books artists in Green Bay not because it's a money driver, but because she wants to book cool artists! The conversation with her has shifted since the concert series is no longer in action, so we're not focused on the money these shows make. Our first priority with our live music events is to put on a fantastic show! I like to remind Jolene, and think to myself, ‘Are you going to walk away five years from now and be excited and proud about who you booked?’”

Tommy certainly remembers those who have played on Gather’s stage, especially those who were more than grateful for the opportunity and saw the vision separating it from other venues in the music scene.

"Last month [June 2025], someone told me they ran into Leah Marlene, and mentioned her trip to Green Bay, and she just glowed about her performance at Gather, saying 'Oh my gosh, I loved that space! It was one of my favorite concerts I've ever played – the vibe, the building, the sound, the crowd – I felt like I could connect with everybody and tell my story, but I also felt like I was playing in a beautiful building.' So two years after her performance with us, and she's still reminiscing about it like that is so amazing to hear.” 

Hearing these great reviews from third-party sources and audience goers alike fuels the drive Tommy has to keep finding and approving the bookings for more live-music performers, ranging from bands to smaller duos or soloists, but nothing quite beats hearing the good reviews directly from the artist(s) who performed at the venue. Currently, Tommy aims to schedule about four to six artists in a single year, and remains excited to find who Jolene brings to the stage.

“During our last Farmers Market concert series, after her performance, I spent an hour and a half talking with Adriel Denae in the parking lot, and she mentioned she had been to so many different places in the United States, but this building felt special to her. She was so appreciative of the experience and the atmosphere she got to conjure with us, and having artists fall in love with our venue as much as we love it definitely feels like my proudest achievement."

Sign up for updates and exclusive event news, including announcements about more live music, on Gather’s website!