Earlier this summer, Bruce Lightner perused the spectrum of acts on Walnut Creek Amphitheatre's Web site. "I was looking for somewhere to take a woman," he recalls. "Some entertainment." He saw country (Kenny Chesney and Toby Keith). Rock (the Projekt Revolution tour with Linkin Park). Christian pop (Three Days Grace). But he found nothing on his bandwidth -- nothing, he felt, that might appeal to African-Americans.

Other music fans might have looked elsewhere and been satisfied to see Beyonce at Raleigh's RBC Center, or Earth Wind & Fire and Erykah Badu at Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary. But not Lightner, a longtime leader in predominantly black Southeast Raleigh, where residents endure the city-owned amphitheater's traffic, crowds and noise during concert season.

Lightner, the son of Raleigh's first and only black mayor, decided to make his displeasure known. Last month, he expressed his concerns in a letter addressed to the venue's corporate managers and copied to city officials. He contends that Walnut Creek is not living up to its lease agreement with the city, which stipulates "reasonable best efforts" for cultural diversity in the bookings. That set the stage for a meeting Tuesday between Walnut Creek management and Lightner, former Raleigh City Council member Ralph Campbell Jr. and other interested parties.

"I hope people understand that we want entertainment just like anybody else," Lightner says.

In a season with 23 shows projected, Walnut Creek so far has had two concerts with black acts. New Edition played there June 24 on a bill with R&B singers K-Ci & JoJo, and rapper Akon opened for Gwen Stefani on May 14. A third, teenage R&B star Chris Brown, is tentatively scheduled for fall.

Wilson Rogers is senior vice president for Live Nation, the company that operates Walnut Creek and dozens of similar live-music facilities across America. He says the proporation of urban acts at Walnut Creek is not out of line with previous seasons, when there were more concerts overall.

"In our best years, four or five urban shows were about the high-water mark," says Rogers, who was Walnut Creek's first general manager before moving up the corporate ladder.

He also notes that Live Nation is bringing urban acts to the Triangle -- among them Badu, who is one of 11 African-American acts playing the Carolina Music Festival at Booth Amphitheatre later this month, and Beyonce at RBC Center.

"If they're not all playing at Walnut Creek," Rogers says, "at least they're coming to the marketplace."

2001 a high point

Walnut Creek opened in 1991 as part of a nationwide boom that saw large outdoor amphitheaters go up all over the country. With a capacity of 20,000 (7,000 in covered seats, the rest on a general-admission lawn area), Walnut Creek was the area's biggest concert venue.

Not all of Walnut Creek's neighbors liked the idea of an amphitheater in their backyard. Lightner and Campbell were among the community leaders who tried to ease concerns.

"We had a lot of meetings with neighbors along Rock Quarry Road, primarily about concerns over noise, traffic, parking," Campbell remembers. "There were also concerns about alcohol. A number of people right around the amphitheater actually said, 'Rock music and alcohol will be the damnation of Raleigh.' "

The first year, with Houston-based Pace Concerts managing the amphitheater and South Carolina's Cellar Door Concerts doing the booking, 31 shows were staged at Walnut Creek. Three featured African-American acts, led by Whitney Houston. A fourth show, Patti LaBelle's, was canceled because of cold weather.

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