The Music Mill’s experiment in mixing minors and drinking-age patrons is nearing its end.

The concert venue will go out of business following a Brett Dennen tour stop on Feb. 27, a little more than a year after it was OK’d to let music fans 20 and younger attend events in which beer and booze is served. To execute the entry-age wrinkle in a largely 21-and-older live music scene, the Music Mill installed an eight-foot-high wall to isolate its bar from the stage and audience.

Liz Haney, a 16-year-old Carmel resident, attended a Dave Barnes performance Feb. 19 — one of the final shows on the venue’s schedule. With the 750-capacity room exiting the scene, Haney said she won’t enjoy waiting years before she can see her favorite musicians in nightclubs.

“Before they’re big, bands always play bars,” Haney says. “It’s like, ‘That sucks.’.”

Music Mill co-owner Jake Schockman says the all-ages policy wasn’t in place long enough to be judged as a success or failure; he blamed low ticket sales in general for the venue’s demise.

But it leaves a void for concertgoers during what are probably their most impressionable live-music years. And if you’re an act that wants to attract them? Good luck, if your band is too big to play the 400-capacity Emerson Theater or too small to play the 1,800-capacity Murat Egyptian Room.

“When you’re 16, that’s when music matters the most,” says Vess Ruhtenberg, who will play guitar as a member of the Zero Boys Feb. 28 at ES Jungle, a new entrant on the all-ages scene. “When I saw bands as a teenager, that’s when it really made a difference.”

Few promoters work all-ages shows because revenue opportunities are limited, and Indiana’s “limited separation” guidelines pertaining to alcohol and minors can cause possible physical-space — and legal — complications for venues.

Kulture Entertainment co-owner Mark LaFay promoted local all-ages shows for six years before shifting his focus to artist management.

“There are definitely a lot of kids here, and those kids don’t have a lot of options,” LaFay says. “This is a cover band and bar band kind of town. That’s the way it’s been for years.”

For small-scale all-ages shows, aggressive punk rock and its offshoot styles typically fill the bills, playing to teenagers drinking soda and wearing T-shirts advertising the Ramones and the Misfits.

Promoters, meanwhile, often are on the move from one viable venue to the next.

Piradical Productions, run by Stephen Zumbrun and Ben Wolma, began presenting shows last September at ES Jungle, which is in the basement of Central Space, 6151 Central Ave. Zumbrun and Wolma previously had a home at the Harrison Center for the Arts until the Harrison couldn’t accommodate Piradical’s plans to expand its schedule.

Longtime promoter Bob McCutcheon, joined by partners Jason Tom and Chelle Menke, set up shop this month at the Sanctuary, part of the Crux church in Fishers. McCutcheon was displaced from his Attic venue in Plainfield after a bar opened in the same building, and civic leaders frowned on the proximity of the two businesses.

A list of defunct all-ages performance spaces includes Bubba’s Bowling Alley, which made a short-lived splash on the Southside — complete with beer sales in a side room — by opening in 2004 and closing in 2005.

The Irving Theater, which opened as an Eastside movie house in 1913, has been the site of all-ages shows on a sporadic timetable in recent years. New owner Dale Harkins presented a show in December, but an active concert calendar isn’t in his plans.

That leaves the Eastside’s Emerson Theater as a lone local constant for all-ages shows, which have been staged on Fridays and Saturdays since the early 1990s.

It’s acknowledged, however, that the Emerson’s neighborhood has seen better days.

“A lot of families don’t let their kids go there,” says LaFay, the 26-year-old manager of bands such as Haste the Day and Gwen Stacy.

Hey, big spenders

At the same time, there’s a reason few promoters work in an all-ages context.

“There’s no money in it,” says the Sanctuary’s McCutcheon. “That’s the bottom line.”

Liability insurance counts as a major expense, and the events can’t rely on alcohol sales for revenue.

McCutcheon says attendees spend an average of 50 cents once they’re in the door. Instead of beer on tap, refreshments are limited to soft drinks, popcorn, snacks and candy bars.

McCutcheon, who’s 57, cites two reasons for staying in the all-ages game: Kids deserve a place to hang out, and he’s a talent scout.

“You never know where you’re going to find the next good band,” he says.

In the late 1980s, McCutcheon managed the all-ages Ritz Music Hall near 10th Street and Arlington Avenue, where more than 500 people packed the former movie theater on Saturdays to catch local acts playing original music.

A bar across the street did big business, McCutcheon says, before and after shows. A no pass-out policy discouraged Ritz patrons from leaving between bands.

National acts augmented the Ritz schedule, with the Black Crowes, 2 Live Crew, Living Colour and Iggy Pop all playing the venue.

At the Sanctuary, McCutcheon focuses on high school musicians and their supportive classmates. High-tech production includes video screens that flank the stage.

All ages are welcome at his shows, but it’s rare to see audience members older than 21. As McCutcheon says, a fan base built in bars will wait until a band plays a bar again instead of venturing to an all-ages setting.

“You’ll find that the 23- and 24-year-olds really don’t want to be there unless it’s an act they want to see,” he says.

Zumbrun says he’s seen the same thing at the Harrison and ES Jungle when he’s booked acts commonly identified with nightclubs.

Zumbrun says Piradical doesn’t need the headache of placing minors in an environment where alcohol is sold.

“It does take away from the music a lot of times,” he says. “And it would be harder to sell to parents: ‘There will be 40-year-olds drinking and kids here. Drop them off, it will be great.’.”

At ES Jungle on a recent Friday night, it would be a challenge to find anyone carrying a college ID, let alone a 21-and-older driver’s license.

As kids waited for show time, they chattered excitedly near a stage elevated 12 inches from the floor.

Opening act Pleasant Run played a handful of songs before guitarist Noah Droddy addressed the 50-member audience with, “How was your day at school?”

When following band Up! Scumbag ripped through a batch of authentic punk tunes, fans formed a healthy-sized mosh pit on the commercial-grade carpet.

Piradical relies on a 15-member street team to hand out promotional fliers at high schools. As word spreads, Zumbrun predicts higher attendance figures at the 200-capacity ES Jungle.

The 23-year-old is also placing an emphasis on booking national acts. Chicago-based modern rock trio Company of Thieves and long-running ska band the Toasters each visited ES Jungle earlier this month.

“They’ve been skipping Indianapolis a long time,” Zumbrun says.

Why not a wristband?

For touring acts that do make frequent stops here, familiar venues such as the Vogue, Birdy’s, Radio Radio, Melody Inn, Locals Only and Spin adhere to a strict 21-and-older entry policy.

Birdy’s entertainment manager Jeff Sample says booking agents are phoning in hopes of placing acts in nightclubs where 18-to-20-year-olds are allowed.

But the Music Mill’s policy has been one of a kind, thanks to meeting the state’s Alcohol & Tobacco Commission’s “limited separation” guidelines that commonly apply to restaurants. The key is to place an establishment’s serving area out of the view of minors. (The Murat Egyptian Room follows different guidelines. Because of the building’s various uses, a “civic center” license allows the selling of alcohol in the middle of the Egyptian Room’s floor, according to Tom Mendenhall, senior vice
president for Live Nation’s North Central Region.) Vogue entertainment manager Matt Schwegman says the Music Mill’s policy likely helped a segment of minors build an appreciation for live music.

“It would be nice for fans 18 to 20 to have a smaller place to see national touring acts,” Schwegman says.

If any existing nightclub pursued a “limited separation” configuration, some remodeling and increased security would be part of the bargain.

The Indiana State Excise Police, the law enforcement division of the Alcohol & Tobacco Commission, advises nightclubs to be cautious when considering such a change.

“If you do this, and it’s a circumstance where several adults are giving the alcohol to minors inside your establishment,” says Maj. Robin Poindexter, “you’re still responsible for it.”

In many Midwestern cities, a wristband policy is enforced when minors attend concerts where alcohol is sold. Either one group or the other wears wristbands to designate legal status.

David “Tufty” Clough, owner of Radio Radio and bass player in the Zero Boys, says this type of restriction should suffice.

“They should be able to trust an 18-year-old with a wristband,” he says. “They trust them with whatever gun they use in Iraq.”

Seventeen-year-old Alex Howell, who caught Dave Barnes at the Music Mill, agrees.

“If people are smart about it, check who they’re giving alcohol to and keep the security up, it shouldn’t be a problem,” he says.

Three noteworthy shows at all-ages venues:

Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s will perform Feb. 27 at the Emerson Theater, 3634 E. 10th St. For more information, visit www.emersontheater.com

Zero Boys will perform Feb. 28 at ES Jungle, 6151 Central Ave. For more information, visit www.myspace.com/esjungle

Stereo Deluxe will perform March 15 at the Sanctuary, 9030 E. 96th St, Fishers. For more information, visit www.myspace.com/sanctuaryvenue46256