Lots of new stuff from The Barn these days…

We are happy to introduce some changes to our website to keep you informed, up-to-date and engaged with The Barn and its community.  By combining aspects of our blog with the information from our main site, we hope to offer a dynamic, multimedia web experience that allows our fans to relive our past events and get pumped for the next gig.  Visit soon to read a summary, view photos and listen or download the music from Mr. Blotto and Little Big Fat on December 12 and check back often for more news and views.  Of course, you’re welcome to join in the conversation with suggestions or views of your own in our comments sections.

In addition, The Barn has a new ticketing partner:  Brown Paper Tickets.  Let me assure you, TicketMaster it ain’t!  Just like us, they are inspired by their own experiences as consumers of tickets and attendees of events, and they’re trying to do it organically and personally, unbound by the demands of shareholders or venture capitalists.  They even have a Ticketing Bill of Rights and donate 5% of their profits to charitable organizations involved with human rights, children, animals, and the environment — and that makes us smile.

But would any of this matter if we didn’t have a new show to promote?  We’re gearing up to throw a rip roaring birthday party for one of the most universally beloved music icons:  Bob Marley.  On Saturday, February 6th, with help from the Midwest’’s finest reggae band, The Ark Band, The Barn will offer a memorable night of music to celebrate the life and enduring legacy of a true game changer and musical force.  On a mid-winter night, let The Ark Band bring you far away:  to the sunshine and decidedly different pace of the Caribbean.  We’ll have plenty of the Red Stripe on hand, some hot Marley tunes courtesy of the band, and at great crowd ready to keep the party going well into the night.  Bring your smile and your dancing shoes and we’ll see you in February.

Check out the scoop in this week’s edition of the La Grange Doings.  Under the auspicious headline of ‘Locals want to make La Grange a music destination‘, The Barn is featured in the Entertainment section.

The article effectively serves as a show preview and provides some insight into our operations and future plans.   Glad they didn’t employ gotcha journalism or serve up a hatchet piece.  The media gets it right!

I wanted to share this video from friend of Blotto and new friend of The Barn, Jim Quattrocki.  Jim is a filmmaker who is based in our neck of the woods and shares our passion for live music.  You can check out more of his work at his website.

He put this video together about Blottopia IX.  I love how it channels the energy of the festival atmosphere and comes from a true place of understanding about Blotto and their fans.

He’ll have his camera with him this Saturday night, so we expect great things from Jim in the future!

For many people, myself included, Mr. Blotto was the right band at the right time during the nineties.  With copious amounts of free time, a relatively robust entertainment budget, and residence near the beating heart of Chicago’s bar and club scene, we gravitated to Blotto to fulfill our insatiable desire for live music.  They were, in the most complementary sense of the word, a fixture; an endearing, reliable and stable part of our Chicago area scene.  They were the default when we weren’t on the road following our band of choice or catching a tour as it breezed through town.  When you had to get your live fix, Blotto was there.

In that spirit, and in anticipation of The Barn’s upcoming Blotto show, I present my top five Mr. Blotto moments from the mid-nineties.

1.  Street Festival Repartee

Mr Blotto is the unquestioned king of the Chicago street festival bands.  They got so many of these gigs in the nineties, I was convinced they had dirt on somebody from Daley’s Office of Special Events.  On some mid-summer nights, I was pretty sure I could catch them at two festivals along different stretches of Lincoln Avenue on the same night… at the same time.  This particular memory comes during one of Paul’s trademark raps during the Taste of the Lower West Lakeview (or some such event).  I vividly remember him rapping at the people hanging out on an apartment balcony overlooking the event, getting a reaction out of them, which included lewd and suggestive gestures.  This, in turn, changed the direction of his stream of consciousness rap, getting progressively randier and funnier.  This practice of involving the audience, and using it so visibly to shape the direction of the music was such a refreshing and engaging counterpoint to your typical level of crowd interaction at a festival.  The rapport was baked right into the improvisation and brought a unique experience to an otherwise very boilerplate event.

2.  The Two Night Stand at the Cubby Bear

Don’t get me wrong, I love the words “Cubby” and “Bear”, but putting them together sometimes makes be bristle.  The Cubby Bear is a decent club in a prime location, but that location can often bring out the “tourists” and “amateurs” looking to spend a night at this iconic venue across from an even more iconic ballpark.  But when Blotto scheduled the two night stand, one night all Blotto and and one night all Dead, exceptions needed to be issued.  It takes a special kind of band to be not only able, but willing, to offer two separate shows at the same venue on consecutive nights, one focusing on its original catalog and one interpreting another band’s oeuvre.  There is a certain respect afforded to a band, not only committed to cultivating original music, but also paying tribute to the music they love and, as a byproduct, delighting their crowds.  The linkage between Blotto and the Dead, cemented in later years through collaboration with John Perry Barlow, has always been a special one.  Blotto is a band who knows where they come from, with enough room under their tent for all comers and an unabashed admiration for their influences.

3.  Blotto at the Vic.

Blotto always had the best sound of any bands that regularly played the clubs.  So, it pleased everybody to see them get the opportunity to take it to the big room.  Vic Theater is the official big time for bands working up the chain, a graduation from clubs to theaters, a jump made recently by Phish and Widespread Panic.  Scheduled on a perfect night (more…)

At The Barn, we know how good it feels to hold that ticket to an upcoming concert.  At various times, we’ve camped out for tickets (remember those days?), frantically dialed through endless busy-signals, meticulously followed  complicated mail-order instructions (and decorated those envelopes just-in-case), and navigated multiple broswer windows and “virtual waiting rooms” on onsale day, just to secure that coveted ducat for the show of choice.

When it came time to differentiate The Barn’s productions, we just knew we had to offer advance tickets to our events.  It just made sense to offer our audience the security to know that you are “in” and provide the hard, physical representation of your night-to-come.  With a little work and a little ingenuity, that vision is now a reality.

We are happy to announce a special discounted pre-sale opportunity to purchase tickets to our inaugural event with Mr. Blotto and Little Big Fat on December 12.  As an added incentive, we are offering  tickets now through 11/22, online only at http://tickets.thebarnpresents.com, for only $11 — no fees or delivery charges.  The password is mambo.

This won't get you into the show

Tickets will be delivered via email and will be print-at-home in PDF format.  Don’t worry if you leave them at home or can’t seem to open or print… we’ll have your name at Will Call, too.

This discount offer lasts for just over a week, so don’t delay.  And you never know, these could fly off the shelves… you’ll want to get yours early.

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of anticipation as you hold tickets for an event.  So, pin those tickets up on your fridge.  Give them a good look now and then and think about being there when the lights go down.  Yeah, that should get you through even the most ho hum of days — the show is a-coming, and this is your ticket to ride.

More and more details are falling in to place for our first event.   Of course, we’ll reveal them all in due time, but in the meantime it’s time to crank up our promotional efforts and get the word out.

You may have noticed some of The Barn’s posters popping up at strategic locations around town.   We’ve got two designs and are very excited about using each of them to broadcast our message.  This first one was created by Friend Of The Barn Andrew Keefe.  We think it captures the spirit of the event nicely and we absolutely love the eye-catching color scheme.

The Barn Presents... Mr. Blotto / Little Big Fat 12/12/09 - Poster 1

Our other poster gets points for its sleekness — its sophisticated and stylized approach is a nice fit for the downtown shops and restaurants where you’ll see it hanging in store windows and on community message boards.

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It occurs to me that you’ve got to really love concerts to attempt to put one on.  Most people are pretty much content just going to see shows, and aren’t compelled to start booking bands and putting up posters around town. 

Admittedly, we at The Barn love concerts.  That may be putting it midly.  We’ve got live music pulsing through our veins and this has somehow translated to a steadfast belief that we can do this…  That we can do better and we can do it locally.

And why not?  With thousands of hours invested criss-crossing the country, experiencing music in venues big and small, and taking in the highs and lows of each event we have attended, we’ve got a pretty good idea of what makes a successful show.  Now, our objective is to bring it on home.

And so, please mark your calendar for December 12th.  We are thrilled to announce The Barn’s inaugural show featuring  Mr. Blotto and special guests Little Big Fat.

We wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t think we can do it right.  Knowing these bands, the music will be off the hook, and we’ve got an incredible venue lined up.   It’s exciting to think that we’re doing something that’s never quite been done before in La Grange.

We’ll use this blog to provide all the vitals up until, and then after, the event.  You’ll get The Barn’s take on the artists, some thoughts about what its like to put on a show for the first time,  and of course, lots of music, pictures and video to capture a slice of what a Barn event is really like.

Feel free to grab a WordPress login and join us in the comments section — it’s sure to be a fun ride.