Don’t let the title of this post fool you. Even if it IS Spooky Season.
This has nothing to do with pumpkins (or David S. Pumpkins).
But it IS about strangers inside our house.
They show up when I host a house concert. Which has been roughly once a year since 2017.
This is all my friend Joe’s fault. He’s the one who — way back in 2017 — told me that Craig Finn (lead singer of The Hold Steady) was looking to book a house concert in either Cincinnati or Louisville to promote a new solo album.
That house concert tour was booked by a company called Undertow, which helps all sorts of artists book similar shows from coast to coast. They’re good people doing a great service – helping artists go the DIY route and play intimate shows attended by (and hosted by) enthusiastic fans.
Since that Craig Finn gig in ’17, we’ve also hosted Eric Bachmann, Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker of Wussy (four times – including one trio show with their Wussy bandmate Mark Messerly), Jason Narducy, and last Thursday’s show featuring Lisa Walker and Elizabeth Nelson of The Paranoid Style. (On a tour they’ve jokingly called “Walker Nelson Overdrive” or WNO for short.)
(Jason’s show wasn’t via Undertow, he goes full DIY – but he knows and respects the Undertow folks.)
Some people think I’m crazy for letting 25-40 strangers into our house. (And my wife sometimes falls into that category.) But the folks who attend these sorts of shows are not beer-swilling hooligans. (They swill beer – shows are BYOB – but they aren’t hooligans.) They’re true fans who appreciate the opportunity to see artists they love up close and personal. They’re not going to mess that up by creating a ruckus (or stealing the silverware).
Last Thursday’s show included an audience member who lives in Florida but has clients in Ohio and Michigan. He planned a sales trip around the show! And another super-fan brought a cake to celebrate the start of the tour.
And I keep signing up to be a host because:
- I’m a superfan too.
- Undertow makes it super-easy to host a show. (Check out their “hosts needed” page for more info.)
But the biggest reason is goosebumps.
No, not the YA book series. The kind on your skin. Every show provides multiple goosebump moments, when the singer (or better yet, singers) play a favorite tune of mine, and you’re right there, and the moment feels magical.
Goosebumps!
It’s well worth the extra effort to rearrange the living room furniture once or twice a year. Speaking of which, a huge hat-tip to Mrs. Dubbatrubba for making the house clean-clean instead of just Dubbatrubba-clean, and to our son Peter for being an unpaid employee of Dubbatrubba & Sons Moving & Storage.
See you at the next show!
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