BY ALEX JONES

 

When Charles Carmody graduated from the College of Charleston in 2011, he grabbed his diploma and headed west. “I had no idea what to do. I had just graduated school, and I knew I wanted to get the beans out of Charleston,” he recalls. After a 10-day stint in Vancouver, Carmody headed for the alternative music mecca of Seattle. Things did not work out too well, and not too long afterward he found himself sitting in the passenger seat of his mother’s car, penniless and heading home.

      Fast-forward four years, and Carmody is now the manager of the Charleston Music Hall. So how did he go from a down-on-his-luck college grad to a venue manager? It was no easy task. It entailed a 10-page pitch letter, 60 to 80-hour workweeks and a lot of luck. In the end, Carmody not only landed a full-time job, but he helped resurrect the Charleston Music Hall as a treasured home for the arts in town.

      How did this all come about? After the aforementioned mother-son road trip, Carmody found himself waiting tables at the Mellow Mushroom downtown. “I couldn’t stand this, so I quit and went up to the mountains for two months and led hikes,” he explains. “I was just trying to figure it out.” Carmody was hopelessly lost between yearning for an adventure and staying at home where he was safe. But one day, while waiting tables at another establishment, he overheard Mike Bennett, owner of the Charleston Music Hall, and a hotel developer discussing the Music Hall. Carmody’s interest was piqued, and he asked Bennett several questions. but Bennett didn’t want to discuss it. The Music Hall was a sore point. It had opened several years earlier but was not making a profit.

      Carmody, however, wouldn’t give up. He went home and drafted a 10-page letter thanking Bennett for his time and sharing his ideas about the Music Hall and how he could run it. Soon after, Bennett threw Carmody the keys, and the Charleston Music Hall began its metamorphosis.

It was a sink-or-swim situation. Carmody had no experience, other than “Bean Night,” a music get-together that he used to throw in his yard for his friends in college. “It was one of those moments where an opportunity comes up,” he explains, “and I just went at it with all of my might and heart, and it actually worked.”

      For his part, Bennett believes there is greatness in Carmody. “Charles looked at the Music Hall like it was Madison Square Garden,” Bennett said in an interview with Low Country Today. “I could sense he really had a passion to make the Music Hall more than it was. I really wanted to make his dreams come true.”

      Six months later, Carmody opened the Music Hall to 45 shows. It grew from there, with 113 shows in 2013 and 220 shows in 2014. During the process, the Music Hall got a new logo, new website and a new social media presence. “I wanted the Music Hall to be a communal space and to make Charleston seem like a bigger family,” Carmody says.

      In July, it will be three years since he stopped waiting tables and caught the keys for the Music Hall. It seems to have been a great catch.