Putting on a concert isn’t easy.
Concert promoters are regularly questioned by the show going public about the booking of certain acts, while a bulk of the time those people asking about the show have likely put little thought into what it takes to make a concert happen. Once you’ve decided you want to book Wilco or The Meat Puppets or Fuzz Cadillac and Tail Pipes, you jump into the real work. How much does this band want to play, and how much do I need to charge for a ticket in order to turn a profit for the venue? Will the band require a solid backline, and will they need food and lodging? Will I need security, and does the band really need granola bars and a vegetable tray along with nine other obnoxious requests in their rider? While an aspiring musician will take lessons to master their craft with the goal of playing those shows and having those ridiculous rider requests, there are places that will teach you what it takes to be a concert promoter.
Local music school iAM MUSIC remains an all-around music school, an organization that not only teaches students how to play but also what it takes to book shows. With hundreds of shows already under their music-loving belt, and another dozen or so multi-band bills scheduled to happen this summer and into the fall, it’s safe to say the local music-education nonprofit teaches the business side as well.
The iAM MUSIC Fest, which is a series of shows benefiting the organization, will kick off on May 22 and run through September with shows at Durango Craft Spirits, The Nuggett Mountain Bar, Buckley Park and the Springs Resort in Pagosa Springs.
“We’re trying to figure out creative ways to support music education, but we’re also a music production company as well,” said iAM MUSIC founder and Foundation Director Jesse Ogle. “If we can’t do as many lessons, we have less space, there’s online lesson fatigue, so let’s put some more weight in the music production aspect. It’s an ecosystem of music that we’re trying to produce. The students that are into music, they go into live shows. So why wouldn’t we produce live shows the same way? So it’s a full circle.”
For Ogle and his team, the wheels have been spinning since Day 1 of the pandemic for how to make shows in a show-less world. This time last year, they started the ball rolling on hosting socially distanced shows, with attendees having their own little space that had been sketched out on the field at Buckley Park.
It’s all about getting musicians back to making a living.
“We want to bring music to the community that’s affordable and put some of our local musicians and bands back to work,” Ogle said. “Bands are the hardest ones to get work in this economy; that’s where are big emphasis is, to put local bands back to work and to bring in some regional and national talent to bolster the lineups.”
The run of summer shows will feature many of Durango’s local bands, along with independent bands of multiple genres from around the country: Rock, soul, funk and jazz of the indie variety are all well represented.
It’s also all in an effort to stimulate some business, to give some business to the local organizations that put work toward helping to make these shows happen.
“We’re also here to cause some economic growth within Durango, to stimulate the economy through the arts,” Ogle said. “It’s not all about music, it’s about lighting and sound technicians, it’s about print companies, it’s about the city, it’s about supporting venues. That’s why we pick a lot of different venues to have these shows, so we’re not just supporting one entity.”
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
