The first ever Relix Live Music Conference is quickly positioning itself to be a must-attend event for anyone that’s interested in learning about the music industry. The event, which will take place on May 10th, 2017, is the brainchild of the teams behind Relix Magazine and Brooklyn Bowl, and will feature a variety of panels all centered around the live music business. Each panel will delve into a specific topic, such as talent buying, festivals, management, and more, with a slew of big-name representatives from the music business slated to appear. Don Strasburg from AEG Presents, Dan Berkowitz from CID Entertainment, Andy Bernstein from Headcount, Lee Anderson from Paradigm, and Vince Iwinski, long time manager of Umphrey’s McGee, are just a few of the many important music industry professionals who will be on hand to drop some knowledge and offer some insight into their respective fields under the live music umbrella.
Recently, Live For Live Music‘s talent buyer Gideon Plotnicki sat down with Brooklyn Bowl‘s talent buyer Lucas Sacks to discuss his role in the Relix Live Music Conference and what attendees can expect from the first-year event, while revealing a little bit of information about the “Agenting” panel that he’ll be moderating. He also explains his approach to filling the calendar at The Bowl, and the ever-evolving approach to producing shows at the venue. See below for a full transcript of their conversation, and don’t miss out on the Relix Live Music Conference at Brooklyn Bowl on May 10th.
Live For Live Music: Can you tell me a little bit about the talent buying process that goes into Brooklyn Bowl?
Lucas Sacks: Sure. The Brooklyn Bowl talent buying process is definitely a little more involved than most other venues, just because of the uniqueness of the room and the sheer volume of shows we do throughout the year. We do eleven shows a week, which translates roughly to at least 550 shows a year, so we’re pretty busy and it’s just a two-person team, myself and my assistant. So it’s basically constant volume at all times. Like most talent buying positions, we mix in a combination of agent outreach, dealing with agents reaching out to us, as well as reaching out to local bands and getting creative. We build a lot of series from scratch, whether they’re genre-based or decades-based or a tribute to an artist, we do a lot of things like that. We also host a lot of different sort of parties and late night events that we try to do monthly or bi-monthly. So, there’s a lot of nuance in booking this room, from that regard. We also do a lot of multi-night runs and unique performances where we get members of multiple bands playing together either for the first time or something unique that doesn’t really happen in a lot of other rooms. With that in mind, this room requires a bit more attention on a per-show basis because of those unique things, but also because of how many shows we book. There’s always something to do.
L4LM: Well it must be difficult – eleven shows per week, wow, it must be overwhelming at times.
LS: Yeah, definitely.
L4LM: As you mentioned, Brooklyn Bowl has a certain personality. Obviously it has the bowling lanes, it has the restaurant, there’s a very vibrant bar at the back of the room, and they all feel like they’re part of the venue, as opposed to being outside in a different space like in some other venues. Does that impact your talent buying strategy in any way?
LS: Certainly. On any given night we might have Google on ten lanes, a bowling league on a few lanes, and six or seven or eight-hundred people here for a band. The events department and the booking department have to really work very closely together, probably more-so here than at a lot of other places, because it’s not like we do many private rentals that stop us from putting on shows in the room. We do do that, but there are a lot of nights where we have some sort of event or something on the lanes and some sort of a show and people coming in for that show, so we need to make sure no one steps on each other’s toes and that we do it in a way that’s still financially viable for everybody involved.
L4LM: I can think of a few recent shows—the most recent one that comes to mind was a two-night run with White Denim—where the band wasn’t necessarily on tour, but came to the bowl for a multi-night run to headline. Often times, when talent buying, venues are approached by a band because it fits into their tour routing, as opposed to angling for a special play. How often do you reach out to specific bands like White Denim just because you know they’d be a great fit at Brooklyn Bowl, as opposed to them just being on the road and available?
LS: It’s pretty often. The outreach is a combination of getting blanket offers out to acts that we haven’t had yet or acts that have done well, or acts that we want to bring back at some point within the next twelve or eighteen months. There are times that reach out to bands and they take the offer that we’ve been working with for a specific date and say “hey we can do these dates, do you wanna do it?” and we just do it. So White Denim is one example of a band we’ve been trying to get back to The Bowl for a little while, they haven’t played the room since 2013, and we’ve been working on it and the timing just lined up and it worked out great.
L4LM: Well, those White Denim shows felt pretty special so it’s definitely cool when you get those bands at the right place at the right time, whether they’re on the road or not.
With that in mind, I wanted to ask about a few more specific things I’ve noticed at The Bowl in the past few months. Recently, I was there seeing Khruangbin and bowling was shut down during their set. Also, during the recent Joe Russo’s Almost Dead runs, the bowling lanes have been turned off and transformed into a VIP area. Does a request like that come from the band and their agent, or is that something that the venue has started actively deciding on a show-by-show basis. As a Brooklyn Bowl veteran at this point, I’ve noticed this change and a more concerted effort to present some of these performances in a different way.
LS: You bring up a good point, unless you come to The Bowl pretty frequently, it’s not something that you would necessarily notice. Requests like that come mostly from the bands. Acts like Khruangbin, we really wanted to have them and we had been pushing hard to make it happen, and that was one of the biggest deal-breakers for them. So, we made it work, and the value of doing it in the middle of the week was that people were really there for the show, as opposed to people who come on Friday or Saturday just because it’s The Bowl and it’s the weekend. You know, the JRAD thing is a little different, we do that because it helps us meet the demand for the shows. You know, It’s creates the private thing kind of unrelated to the public but directly related to the band and their relationship with their fans since they formed.
L4LM: It’s cool to see you guys evolving and figuring out different ways to present shows with specific bands. It makes a huge difference as a patron, regulars at the venue can tell that thought has been put into it.
Moving on to the Conference, what can you tell me about the Relix Live Music Conference, how can attendees expect the day to flow? What can we look forward to?
LS: We’re really looking forward to it. It’s something that’s come up for quite a while within the company, and we always love to cross-pollenate across the whole company. When Relix and The Bowl can do things together, when we can tie in any other parts of it, it really is going to be an intimate experience. It’s not as big as the Billboard Touring Conference or Pollstar or South By Southwest or other conferences or award ceremonies that have panels. It’s going to be more intimate so people are going to get to hear more directly tailored responses. There’s going to be good Q&A, I think there’s going to be a lunch and a happy hour where attendees will be able to mingle with all of the panelists and moderators. I think it’s going to feel great, it’s going to be a good hang more than a conference setting, which usually takes place in the banquet hall of a hotel. It’s going to be a lot more approachable and a lot more of a “Shapiro” vibe.
L4LM: Well I know all of Live For Live Music is excited to get to the event and check it all out. There are a ton of cool panels, specifically the talent-buying panel has some big heavy hitters: Don Strasburg from AEG, Ben Baruch from Okeechobee, John Moore from Bowery Presents, and obviously Dayglo’s Kirk Peterson is moderating. How did you guys go about selecting this roster and is there any one talent buyer or team of talent buyers that you guys at The Bowl look up to or are inspired by?
LS: In terms of the actual organization of who was on it, when Brad [Tucker, who works closely with Peter Shapiro] and Pete came up with the idea, everybody Brad initially reached out to agreed to speak. What we wanted to do was look at “who are the heavy hitters in the world that Brooklyn Bowl and Relix fits into around the country?” People like Don and Ben and Jim Glancy and John Moore, these are guys that are all key players around the country in jam, indie, rock, multiple genres. Regardless of their specific focus, these are all heavy hitters and that’s what we wanted to go for for this. We wanted panelists that have a lot of experience and have gone through many years and iterations of their own companies and their own careers, and who have a lot to offer to a panel like this. I think pretty much every panel has a lot to offer. There’s little presentations that will be interesting too. Andy Bernstein from Headcount is doing an activism presentation, Josh Baron from SongKick is going to do a more in-depth ticketing tech presentation, and there’re a few other ones as well to give a break between the panel discussions. Justin Bolognino, who helped start the marketing division for Brooklyn Bowl when we first opened, he’s going to have a great technology presentation. And, obviously, Peter’s discussion with Ron Delsner with David Fricke moderating, I don’t think that’s something that would happen anywhere else. Pete and Ron have a unique relationship with each other and people are really going to love that, it’s the icing on the cake.
L4LM: Well to have Ron Delsner talk to Pete is a music business nerd’s fantasy. I’m wondering, as someone on the team that helped organize this, which panel are you most excited for (outside of talent buying)
LS: I am moderating the agent panel, and that’s exciting, Most of my job is arguing back and forth with agents, so I think that one is going to be interesting. We do have Jordan Wolowitz from Founders Entertainment who created Governors Ball and Meadows Festival on that panel, so I think it will be interesting. I think that panel is going to combine aspects of the talent buying panel and the festival panel, with agent and promoter and festival buyer all in on the conversation, that’s going to be cool. Every panel, to me, is valuable in these scenarios. I’ve spent a lot of time at Billboard Touring, and CMJ and SXSW, there’s so many panels these days with very small, minute focuses, but I think that this is about live music, and there’s so many different aspects of it, and I really like that these panels will be an in-depth focus on live music presented by experts.
To learn more about the Relix Live Music Conference, visit the event’s website