Sean Boney has big plans for Grand Rapids, the kind where he sees himself before age 40 helping the metro area get mentioned as a fun city in the same breath as Chicago by sharing his passion for electronic music.
With a dozen years left to reach that goal, Boney has racked up what he figures is his first win at Chicago-coolness -- Electro Bowl. It's the unlikely combination at the Wenger's Bowling Alley that marries the throbbing beats and synthetic sounds of electronic music with the thumps and rumblings of bowling balls and pins exploding.
Electro Bowl mixes entirely different Grand Rapids cultures together in the proverbial melting pot: hipsters in black with keglers in gaudy silk shirts, fans of the Doobie Brothers with devotees of Daft Punk, draft beer drinkers and Cosmo lovers.
And somehow, it works.
It's people like Boney who are enlivening the culture of metro Grand Rapids, says Todd Ernst, himself a DJ of electronic music and a well known promoter of downtown Grand Rapids. Boney, Ernst, Shannon Williams of Bangin' Promotions and a handful of others hope to boost the estimated 6 percent of the local population that enjoys local electronic music to higher levels.
For Boney, it's love of the music.
"Come to Grand Rapids for health care, art, and -- electronic music," says the native of Shelbyville. "I could see that."
Metro Grand Rapids possibly could get a foothold as a regional center for electronic music, which is only a few decades old as a genre. The music is characterized by the use of electronic instruments such as synthesizers, sequencers and drum machines, and electronic dance music has split further into different styles such as house, trance, and techno played by DJs.
Bowling for dollars
"I was a little pessimistic about it at first," says AJ Purdum, co-owner of Wenger's, 629 Leonard NW in the heart of the city's Westside. "I never thought it would grow into what it has."
Purdum hired Boney a year ago to come up with some creative events that would keep Wenger's -- a Westside icon operating as a bowling alley since Herbert Hoover was president -- open past 10 p.m. when most bowling leagues went home. One of Boney's responses was Electro Bowl, where the alley would turn off the jukebox and tee up DJs who play electronic music while people bowl.
Electro Bowl kicked off its first event this past December. "Our first night was fantastic," Purdum says. "We were stuffed to the rafters."
Since then, the event has exposed bowling regulars and a diverse demographic ranging from college students to young professionals to the panorama of electronic music.
As a result of Electro Bowl, Purdum has gained new regulars and enough revenue to keep the business open during the summer months, traditionally bowling's slow season. As Boney puts it, "Electro keeps the lights on."
"All his events have helped us make up for the summer," Purdum says. "He has a lot of integrity. If he says he's going to do something, he does it. He's honest, and genuinely throws himself into the stuff that goes on here."
Multitasking his life
Boney has multiple jobs not because of the recent economic downfall, but because he says it's not possible to choose between them – so he balances them. He works full-time as a risk assessor in the health field, but also manages his time between a position in the security field, as an Emergency Medical Technician, property manager, and general manager of DJames Productions.
Although he currently resides in Grand Rapids, Boney grew up in Shelbyville, a small farming town approximately 25 miles north of Kalamazoo. The oldest of six, Boney says his family and small town environment is what contributed to his work ethic. His father, Kevin Boney, would work eight to 12 hours a day, six or seven days a week at a paper company in Kalamazoo.
"My grandparents joke that I got my discipline from him," Boney says.
Before moving to Grand Rapids, Boney served in the Army for nine years. The movie "The Line of Fire" got him interested in the military – that, and his uncle is an Army recruiter.
"Even at some points when you grumble and you wonder, 'Why am I still doing this?' Boney says of his time in the Army. "Overall, it's been one of the most positive experiences in my life, definitely."
If it weren't for the Army, Boney may not be contributing to Grand Rapids in the way he is now. Not only did that branch of the service develop his passion for the security field, but it was also where he discovered another one of his passions: electronic music.
"I had never even heard it before," he says. "In my small town it was either country or rock. When we found Top 40, it was like, 'Whoa, watch out!'"
He credits the Army for introducing him to people from different areas with diverse interests. His roommate was the one who turned him on to electronic music. His gateway artist was French electronic duo, Daft Punk, in 2001.
"That would be the beginning right there," he says.
Entering the club scene
When Boney left the Army, he moved to Grand Rapids for a job in a security police program. In the meantime, he started getting more involved with the club scene, which is where he found other electronic music fans and started to promote electronic music events.
"I've done my time for my country as a whole, and now I need to focus is on this region, especially this city," he says.
Boney still works in the security field full-time, but he also promotes events, manages talent and organizes shows through his various connections.
"His profile is rising, but he's not doing [promotion] to raise his profile," says Ernst, resident DJ at Mixology in the JW Marriott, and owner of ActiveSite, an arts organization that takes vacant or underdeveloped commercial retail spaces and turns them into active spaces for single-evening, collaborative arts exhibitions.
Ernst, who Boney cites as one of his mentors in the electronic scene, says with confidence that any event Boney promotes makes money. Boney, on the other hand, is a little less boastful.
"Some people are like, 'I want to make some money,' and I always tell them, 'You're in the wrong business. We're in this for fun. I won't guarantee anything else, but you're going to have a great time,'" Boney says.
"There are no typical electronic music fans," he says. "I know millionaire CEOs of companies to freshmen in college that don't have a dime who would go to it. And all walks of life that all wear different clothing and circles of friends that all have different jobs, the music brings them all together."
Both Purdum and Ernst speak highly of Boney, not only as colleagues, but as friends. Purdum compares him to Batman, and Ernst says Boney is one of the few people he would trust with his children.
"I remember thinking in the early months of meeting Sean, 'If I could instill half the characteristics Sean has into my son, I would be happy,'" Ernst says.
Lindsay Patton-Carson moved to Grand Rapids from White Lake seven years ago to pursue her dual bachelor's degrees in journalism and Spanish from Grand Valley State University. She is an associate editor for Revue magazine, a West Michigan entertainment guide.
Photos:
Sean Boney at Wenger's Bowling Alley (5)
Photographs by Brian Kelly -All Rights Reserved