Frequently Asked Questions

I’m confused.  What exactly is The Barn?  A venue?  A promoter? A website? A secret society?
What differentiates shows that the The Barn produces from other entertainment options?
What is a Spotlight Show?
The suburbs?  Really?
The Chicago suburbs are a big place?  Do you cover the entire region?
Why “The Barn”?  Please say farmyard animals will not be involved in any way.
I’m not from the suburbs, will The Barn interest me?
What’s with all the jamband stuff?  I thought hippies lived in the mountains and the country, not the burbs.
What are the features of your website and blog?
Why are you doing this?  What are you trying to prove?
How can I get involved?

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I’m confused.  What exactly is The Barn?  A venue?  A promoter? A website? A secret society? top

We’ve spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure this out ourselves.  We conceived of The Barn in the Fall of 2009 with the mission to produce and promote high quality live music events for people like us — adults with a passion for music who lived in Chicago’s Western suburbs.  Our goal was to showcase a city music experience, in the suburbs.

All along, our plan was to build a community around live events and our web assets.  We worked from October 2009 to June 2010, producing and promoting five shows and slowly building a core group of people who appreciated our efforts.

By the Summer of 2010, we began to shift gears.  Without our own venue, we felt we could accomplish our goals faster if we focused less on booking bands and producing shows and directed our energy into continuing to develop our community over the web and through social networks, and bringing that excitement to select live events.  Our electronic content now casts a wider net, but the focus remains on LIVE and LOCAL.  The best bet to cultivate a thriving live music scene in the suburbs is to identify the best of what’s around and get the word out.

In this vision, our website is the online home for this community; we want you to come back often to check out interactive and innovative web features.  We offer a multimedia hub for recent local shows and some classic shows of old.  We are dedicated to exploring the world of music through charts, graphs and other visuals, collectively called InfoGraphics.  And of course you’ll find items that are associated with the traditional music blog:  features, interviews, show recaps, links to upcoming area shows, band profiles and more.  We think these should have a broad appeal and will hopefully expose more people to our community.

That said, when the stars align, we still intend to produce and promote the occasional show and are always looking to forge relationships with the best bands and venues in the area.

We welcome and encourage active participation in the community.  Leave a comment on our blog.  Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter.  We’re doing our best to get the conversation started, it’s up to you to keep it going…

What differentiates shows that the The Barn produces from other entertainment options? top

The last thing we want a Barn show to be is just another bar with a band.  The Barn is a promoter of events and as such, hopes to create memorable experiences for our audience to share with other like-minded people.

What is a Spotlight Show? top

As a blog essentially dedicated to a celebration of the live music experience, it kind of helps to build our content around genuine local events.  With no permanent venue, and a commitment to growing organically, it became clear that we needed additional places to congregate and artists to celebrate.  Hence, the concept of the spotlight show was born.

So any show can become a “Spotlight Show” if will has one or more of the following characteristics:

- it is at a venue that we know, trust and are excited for our community to experience
- features a band that performs the music that fits The Barn aesthetic
- offers something unique, memorable or out-of-the-ordinary providing that “city-like” feel somewhere in the ‘burbs
- there is a buzz — amongst our community and the music scene at large — people are excited about it

The difference between spotlight shows and Barn Presents shows…

- There will be more of them!  Since we don’t book ‘em, we can showcase as many as we see fit
- The venues will book and manage the show and be responsible for the overall production quality (contact them for questions about the event)
- Our promotion will range anywhere from a brief mention on our site to some full blown articles, interviews and posters
- We may not always be able to capture and offer audio, video and photographs for spotlight shows — but we’ll try and, as always we welcome your contributions
- In most cases, we will not offer advanced tickets
- The performers can range from anything from a nationally known touring act to a solo acoustic performance or an open mic night.  We just want to get the word out!

The suburbs?  Really? top

Well, um… yeah.  Let’s face it, it ain’t the city.  Hell, some of our favorite bands won’t even play out here.  The population skews older (and parentier, and jobbier) than the city.

But that doesn’t mean we love music any less, and won’t go out and support it.  Our hypothesis, and we have proven it every step of the way, true fans of the music are everywhere.  Sometimes they just need an excuse to get out and need some great tunes closer to home.  Our goal is to provide both.

The Chicago suburbs are a big place?  Do you cover the entire region? top

We’re taking things one step at a time.  Our epicenter is La Grange and the surrounding Western Suburbs.  The plan is to branch out and scale as organically as possible.  We are always looking for correspondents from other areas of the suburbs to contribute to our site.

Why “The Barn”?  Please say farmyard animals will not be involved in any way. top

The Barn’s principals live and raise families in La Grange.  The Barn is the literal translation of La Grange from French.  We think it has a nice connotation for a gathering place with just the right hint of raucousness and unpredictability.  Don’t you?

I’m not from the suburbs, will The Barn interest me? top

If you live in Chicago, we welcome you to come on out to our neck of the woods once in a while.  We come to visit you guys all the time, you might find something you like out here.  If you live elsewhere, the bands that play here will hopefully be coming to your town soon… feel free to engage with our community to figure out what we’re listening to.

If you’re anywhere else around the world.  We know of no other place that collects and features the same type of web content that we do.  If you enjoy this type of stuff, stick around and we’ll try to make it fun.

What’s with all the jamband stuff?  I thought hippies lived in the mountains and the country…maybe the city… not the burbs. top

So we like jambands, OK?  Suffice to say, if you simply can’t stand that type of music, there might not be too much here that interests you.

Is it cliche to say that we like all sorts of music?  It probably is, but jambands have led us to so many different places that it almost feels appropriate.  Regardless of genre, if the music is genuine (not formulaic), is played with passion, and inspires the audience, you’re starting to describe Barn-approved music.

Sometimes that inspiration will take the form of opening up one’s mind, sometimes it’ll be ass-shaking grooves.  We appreciate music that has at least some element of improvisation or spontaneity — playing it safe rarely resonates with us.  You can leave the mindless fluff and banal pop at home; The Barn’s music sometimes takes a bit to wrap your head around, but it is well worth the psychic investment.

Within this framework, we intend to program The Barn’s content.  Our vision encompasses showcasing rock, jazz, funk and acoustic acts — but we won’t stop there if the mood strikes and the artist is right.

In the live setting, we work with a mix of original music and cover-oriented acts.  When we produce shows, we attempt to bring together unique combinations of complimentary acts in double and triple bills.  We encourage special guests, sit-ins, collaborations or anything that makes your experience at a Barn show something to remember.

What are the features of your website and blog? top

Across the top of each page of our site you’ll find links to the four main categories of content that we offer (scroll up…it’s even on this page)

Announcements This is where we’ll categorize news and other timely posts (like Friday Linkafication… our weekly collection of relevant and amusing links and videos from around the web). It’s also where you can directly navigate to announcements and news regarding all of our The Barn Presents shows and Spotlight Shows.  Click through and check out what’s going on in the ‘burbs.

Audiovisual This is about music, right?  In this section, we’ll deliver just that. Whether it’s the audio from our latest show, another notable recent show around town, an oldie but goodie from the distant past (our Retro Jamming feature) or some interesting multi-artist themed mixes, check back often for some great tunes to listen to or video to watch.  Most everything you’ll be able to stream directly from our site.  If you want to take the music with you, we provide downloads that are iPod ready (tracked, tagged, zipped and ready to drag directly into iTunes or your music of choice), without having to suffer through annoying ads or insufferable waiting periods.

Features Every now and then, we’ll produce something really special for the blog: in-depth interviews with our favorite artists, more detailed thoughts about musical trends or topics, or recaps / reviews of local shows.

Infographics Why are we so excited about InfoGraphics?  Because we feel that compelling charts, graphs, data analysis, even striking visual cartoons can provide yet another engaging way for us as fans to interact with, comprehend and get closer to the music we enjoy.  With so much data at our fingertips (song lists, timings, discographies, band histories, etc.), sorting it all out visually in creative ways comes naturally and can be a lot of fun.  In this section, we’ll showcase the best of these items that we have cultivated from around the web and, of course, our Barn original InfoGraphics, that generate insight into the bands and music that we enjoy the most.  We’re looking to make great strides in the ways in which we can collect and present information and statistics to our community, so stay tuned for some exciting announcements.

And of course, our most recent and relevant content can always be found on our home page, along with featured posts in the left sidebar.

Why are you doing this?  What are you trying to prove? top

We believe that music is best experienced as a part of a thriving and engaged community.  We intend to extend the live show beyond the hours spent in the venue, giving our audience a place to gather online to relive and discuss their experience at The Barn’s events, and elsewhere.

As true music lovers and connoisseurs of the live experience, The Barn is 100% fueled by our passion.  We seek to promote live entertainment in the manner that we love to consume it.  The Barn stresses performance as it should be, in a clean, comfortable setting, with top quality production values and reasonable prices.  We value each aspect of the concert going experience, and believe that every interaction with the audience is a reflection on our ability to create an outstanding and unique event.

How can I get involved? top

We encourage you to participate in our community!  We will set the wheels in motion, but The Barn will ultimately be shaped by the will of its audience.  Got an act you’d like to see?  Tell us.  Got suggestions for how we can improve or a question about what we do?  Please offer it.  Want to comment about the last (or next) show?   Visit the blog portion of this site and join the community in our comments sections or stay connected by becoming a fan on Facebook.

Want to get even more involved?  We’re also looking for people that can help us make connections to great bands, venues and fans.  If you want to volunteer online or on the street, drop us a line at info@thebarnpresents.com

And of course, you can come to the shows!