I want to be a booking agent when I grow up

Somehow I have spent twelve years as a professional musician, playing hundreds and hundreds of gigs, without ever booking a single one. Why? Because, unlike most artistic and creative people, I'm not that great at organization.

I know. Shocker, eh?

So I've decided I'm going to make the most out of my unexpected free time in March and book some house (or other structure) shows, play some new songs, see the friends I've missed while spending a year at home and put some food on the table back home.

I got a great response to my initial foray into booking these shows via twitter and facebook, so I'll be following all those responses up with a link back here. Hopefully this will make sense.

I've mapped out four runs based on people who seemed excited to have me come play. This means I generally have somebody who's already inquired about most of these dates. I'll give those people first dibs if more than one person would like to host a show in the same area.

I thought doing house shows would be fun because A) I've never really done them and they seem very cool, intimate and loose, and B) it seems like a pretty non-threatening way to help people move from "I wish you played in my town!" to "I'm inviting you to come play in my town!" without having to worry about venues and sound systems and thick contracts and all that.

Following in the great footsteps of my friends Jon Troast and Andy Gullahorn I'll pack up my little Toyota with some guitars, some CDs, some lyric sheets (those of you who have seen me play before know why...) and a couple changes of clothes.

What I'd ask of you would be to invite your friends, provide me with a clean, quiet place to sleep (like a hotel or a guest room) and an evening to hang and enjoy some music and stories. I think an asking price of $500 a night makes sense, enough to pay my bills and justify leaving my wife and daughters, but lower than a usual venue show. If that seems impossible let me know and we'll figure something out. If you feel like paying more to help cover other shows, you would be more than welcome.

So here are the dates I'm thinking. If you see a date that looks like it would work for you, shoot me an email at andrew(at)andrewosenga.com and put something like "house show in Cleveland" in the subject.

March 3 - Huntsville, AL
March 4 - Birmingham, AL
March 5 - Atlanta, GA
March 6 - Greenville, SC
March 7 - Knoxville, TN

March 11 - Champaign, IL
March 12 - Chicago, IL
March 13 - Cincinnati, OH
March 14 - Indianapolis, IN

March 18 - Charlottesville, VA
March 19 - Teaneck, NJ
March 20 - Fairfield, CT
March 21 - Intercourse, PA
March 22 - Akron, OH

Weekend off

April 7 - Memphis, TN
April 8 - Arkansas
April 9 - Dallas area
April 10 - Austin/College Station
April 11 - Houston, TX
April 12 - Louisiana/Mississippi

So I think that's about it. Thanks for helping me put this together. Booking is usually a backstage shroud-of-mystery bargaining type of thing, and thus it's always seemed threatening to me. I hope putting it all out in the open like this makes it easy for all of us, and I hope to come play some songs for you soon!

(Quick note: I was just informed I was trying to book a show in Houston on Easter, so I moved the whole Texas run back a week. The dates should be better now.)

Just like riding a bicycle...

I hope.

Mid-January, 2010. In 2007 I had almost 200 blog entries. In 2009 I had almost 20. This year I'll aim for something in the middle.

First up, I'm going to try to put together a run of house shows in March and April. A record I was scheduled to produce disappeared and so I've got time to fill and bills to pay. In 2008 I felt a deep calling to leave the road and stay home in 2009. And it was awesome. I plan on staying home much more now, but that feeling of being called to NOT go on the road is no longer there. I'm actually kind of looking forward to playing some shows, then coming home and staying put.

I'll try to do three or four weekend runs, one in the Southeast (Alabama/South Carolina), one Midwest (Illinois/Indiana/Ohio), one Texas/Arkansas and one Northeast (Virginia/Connecticut/??). I'll post more details tomorrow, or maybe just here in a few minutes, but if you see yourself there and think "I'd like to have some folks over to my house/my friend's house/my church/my coffeeshop/etc and have Andy O play some songs, hang out and send him back home with a little dough" then shoot me an email!

Like I said, more on that tomorrow.

Now, for a more traditional blog-type-thing:

Conan. Dude, I love that guy. Watching his last show was hard to do. You see somebody so good at what they do and you watch it get thrown away, it's just sad. Like so many things in this world, you see something great unrecognized and wasted.

Sure, he's not Beethoven or anything, he's just a funny dude who is worth a ton of money, but to see a man handed his dream and then crushed, no matter the circumstances, is and should be painful to watch.

However, that last few minutes with the pseudo-all star band playing "Free Bird"? It was odd, no doubt, and felt like it wasted some precious time, but when Conan, who is NOT a lead guitar player started taking solos, I started crying. Freaking ZZ Top dude looks at this 45-year old gangly redhead who just got publicly humiliated and gives him the nod, the sound guy turns it up and this guy, holding back tears, just goes for it!

No one needs to tell me that playing a guitar solo is a holy moment. Few things in life are more spiritual, more honest or more fun. My perspective on this may not be universal, but just watching this guy miss notes left and right, bad tone, no phrasing, going out in his own bizarre blaze of glory? How can you not love that?

I ask you, America! How can you not love that!?!

I loved it, anyway. Obviously.

And I feel about Conan like I felt about so many bands I loved, who were truly great, and were misunderstood and cast aside for something that would make a company more money. I feel this peculiar sense of longing.

I've been cynical, and he's right, it's a waste of time. I don't want to be cynical. I want to believe that there will come a day when the people who really put themselves out there, exploring their craft and their heart to the best that they can, will be embraced and celebrated. I want to believe there will come a day when we will all "get" the misunderstood genius and all enjoy the catchy pop hook with the same level of holy intentionality.

I saw in the last few nights of that show what I feel when I hear Achtung Baby or A Liturgy, A Legacy. I saw what I felt the last few shows we played as The Normals (not necessarily because we were so great but because of how fully "present" we were in those moments). I saw a glimpse of the divine that is so precious and so true that it reinforces my belief in a Holy God.

Rich meant to show me that. Conan didn't. Who knows what Bono meant. But I saw it nonetheless, and my heart responds:

"I have seen Your creation amid the fallout, and yes, it IS good. Thank you. And come soon."

Let's make a pact

I will blog before I go to sleep tonight.

Possible topics:

- songwriting with Jason Gray today and tomorrow

- March opened up, might try to play some house shows?

- Probably going to a YoungLife camp for a month this Summer

- released an album in December

- Conan's guitar solo made me cry

- "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" was one of the best books ever.

- I love watching "The Soup".

- Any suggestions? Anybody out there still see when I post stuff?

See you tonight.