Matt Hansen is now the sole owner of Broad Street music venue and bar The Camel. (Photo by Jay Paul)
Matt Hansen wants everyone to relax. Nothing’s going to change with The Camel. “It’s the question people keep asking me, but we’re going to book the same bands,” says the proprietor of the music venue and bar on West Broad Street. The space has long served as a showplace — and training ground — for up-and-coming local and regional talent.
Hansen and partners Lucas Fritz, Georgia Thornburg and Xavier Beverly co-owned The Camel together for nine years. In January, Hansen’s partners announced they were selling their shares, making him the sole owner.
“Ultimately, nothing will change,” he says. “The Camel is a well-oiled machine and has been for quite some time, but there are things that need some tightening. ... We’ll be able to make faster decisions, too, because it won’t have to go through a committee.”
“The Camel is in good hands with Matt and the other employees that will now have greater leadership roles,” says the departing Fritz, who is also an owner at The Broadberry music venue and its outside promoting arm, the Broadberry Entertainment Group. Fritz notes The Camel has gone through several iterations since its founding in 2007. “Each one has brought about new ideas, fresh employees, fresh perspectives. I don’t see this as any different. It’s just allowing another generation to grow up in The Camel.”
Fritz filled a lot of roles in his 16 years at the venue, including intern, employee, co-owner and promoter. He says, “There’s no plan to stop producing Broadberry Group shows at The Camel. We still want to maintain a professional relationship when it comes to booking artists. I just won’t be booking shows in-house anymore.”
“We’re going to work together,” Hansen says. The venue has long had its own booking team (now headed by Peter Cason) that handles local and regional talent, while Fritz and BEG brought in bigger touring acts. Over the years at The Camel, Fritz has booked everything from then-up-and-comers Orville Peck and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, indie rock breakouts Japanese Breakfast, and Young the Giant to cult singers such as Jonathan Richman.
Hansen got his start with The Camel as a musician, playing guitar in bands including Roma and Industry Standard. He soon joined the staff as a bartender and in 2015 partnered to buy the place from former owner Rand Burgess.
He says that, if anything, The Camel will become even more concert friendly with this ownership change. “When it comes to our menu, we’re getting rid of a lot of knife-and-fork options and making it more food that you can eat with your hands while you stand and watch the show.” Sports on TV will also go away at the self-advertised “social oasis” (which has a seated occupancy of 140 people, 250 standing). “We want to have people focus on the stage.”
“Small rooms like The Camel are important for the development of artists,” Fritz says. “Without them, you don’t get your larger artists. The health and longevity of rooms that are managed well and run well and treat artists well are really important if we want to keep fostering a growing arts community. Places like The Camel are important incubators for that.”
Hansen finds it “rewarding” to serve that role, citing regional acts such as Illiterate Light, No BS! Brass Band and South Hill Banks that helped to build a fanbase at The Camel. “I love to find these unknown or smaller or starting acts and help them to the point where they outgrow The Camel. We are a stepping stone. I mean, we sometimes even have bands that have never played a show before.”
