Doin' the best I can... (to get them booked locally)

Discuss any aspect of Soul Asylum, their music, and the band's members.
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dells
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Location: rural Richardton, North Dakota. A/K/A the hind end of nowhere
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Doin' the best I can... (to get them booked locally)

Post by dells »

10+ years or so ago, I used to work in a little print shop located next door to a small friendly biker bar owned by an awesome guy who loves live music, and at the time he was interested in exploring the possibility of booking them in his lil club. (For those familiar with the web cast of the call in radio promo where Dave & Dan took my call, this was around that time when Dave said on air that they'd come play for beer, water and gas money, lol) But I don't think I had managed to locate the correct booking agency mentioned in an article I read somewhere, because Bernie never got a reply back from the inquiry he faxed.

I haven't seen Bernie, the club owner, for years, since I left the print shop, and I've been thinking hard lately on how best to reconnect with him to revisit this idea, now that I have the correct booking info for Soul Asylum.

So I just found out that Bernie does use the internet, and is on Facebook, so I sent him a message via Facebook, and gave him the booking agent's info. Now I will be biting my nails until I hear back from him. We're not actually friends, I'm just an old workplace acquaintance to him, but we talked music often when he came in to order printing from us, and Bernie is always up for a good time, and a profitable show in his club, so we shall see...

I know it's a REMOTE possibility that his little club could afford to book Soul Asylum and earn enough to cover the expenses & turn a profit, but I did the best I could to at least reach out and ask him to again consider exploring the possibility of booking them, either in the club, or for an outside street fair type thingy next summer. If Bernie's no longer interested, or doesn't think it's fiscally viable for him to persue, then I will re contact a casino 100 miles from me.
I'm getting desperate, because I'm unlikely to be able to arrange winter transportation to any more holiday shows at First Avenue, after our last harrowing drive home after the 2008 show, with nightmare roads, & getting rear-ended on the icy interstate.

Doing what I can
Working without a plan
I'm beginning to understand
I'm getting out of hand

Wish me luck!

dells
dells

Look into your heart before it sees its final hour
Live today like there is no tomorrow
- wise advice from the brilliant Dave Pirner

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zany
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Re: Doin' the best I can... (to get them booked locally)

Post by zany »

good luck!! if you __build?___ it, they will come! :)

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triumph3434
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Re: Doin' the best I can... (to get them booked locally)

Post by triumph3434 »

Where are you?

dells
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Location: rural Richardton, North Dakota. A/K/A the hind end of nowhere
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Re: Doin' the best I can... (to get them booked locally)

Post by dells »

triumph3434 wrote:Where are you?
Location: Dickinson, North Dakota. A/K/A the hind end of nowhere

it's in the Southwest corner of my sparsely populated (& therefore ignored by almost all touring groups) state, so a good 10-11 hour drive from Minneapolis, and about the same, (actually longer I think, due to several 2-lane highways heading south, to Denver) so I'm a helluva long way from venues who regularly schedule rock shows. :( I used to do as many concert road trips as I could afford, and get time off of work for, but now that I'm permanently unemployed with all the time off I'd ever need, I'm also unable to independently roadtrip, and also FAR less able to finance the necessary transportation and lodging :(

btw, I did hear back from Bernie. He thanked me for contacting him, and said he would deliver the info I gave him to his grown kids who have taken over running the bar for him. His kids are women, so now I'm hoping that they had crushes on Dave to improve the odds of them being motivated to book SA :D

Still hopeful...,
dells

If this ends up not happening, I might resort to attempting an Astroturfing campaign. While reading the wiki definition of it that Jacob posted in another thread, an idea popped into my head to buy a small ad in the paper (or put up flyers around town) asking if ppl want to see SA locally, to email me, then the next time I email an event coordinator, or the Prairie Knights Casino, I'd have more "ammo" to use in my plea/request, or even have the ppl who email me, also contact the same events/casino that I do, and/or suggest events/venues that I'm not aware of. I figure for every 1 person who makes the effort to email me after seeing an ad or flyer, there'd likely be many more who wouldn't pick up a keyboard to email me (because they think my quest is lame), but would turn up to a show that ends up booked as a result of it.

Am I off my rocker for trying my possibly lame attempts to get a local show booked?

Lame or not, I don't care, but I feel I have to do whatever small thing I can do to realize my dream of a local show. At this point, with my travel limitations, I'm possibly even more desperate than I was back in '95 when I ended up on the phone with Dave's mom, trying to find show dates.

dells
dells

Look into your heart before it sees its final hour
Live today like there is no tomorrow
- wise advice from the brilliant Dave Pirner

Nina
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Re: Doin' the best I can... (to get them booked locally)

Post by Nina »

Good luck dells. I hope you can make it happen :)

CULater
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Re: Doin' the best I can... (to get them booked locally)

Post by CULater »

The way I figure it - it never hurts to just ask. What's gonna happen? You can't make it work and then life pretty much goes on the same. Best case scenario - you get to have the boys do a show locally with hopefully some VIP treatment. I'd say it's worth the askin'!

Best of luck to you, Dells - I hope it happens for you!
"I've learned to accept and not to expect - the respect and neglect that I get. And I try not to forget about what hasn't happened yet.....""

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