A few years ago, in the dark of Parish Public House’s stage room—a space that cycled through names and eras before settling on Ophelia’s—a musician on stage wished Greg Bell a happy birthday. The crowd answered with cheers, a few heads turning toward the back. One voice, loose with alcohol and confidence, called out, “Who the hell is Greg Bell?”
Greg Bell was the promoter of that night’s show—the name that secured the venue and brought the band in to play—and has been the promoter of hundreds (thousands?) of Capital Region shows over the last 30-plus years. At such a frequency, he’s become the Albany area’s sure indicator for a good show—the quiet orchestrator of a music scene one study found to be among the best in the country…