I am a DIY promoter out of Marion, Iowa working my hardest to provide a consistently excellent experience for artists both on the stage and off, whether it's the first time I've worked with them or the 100th time. I do what I do because the scene around Cedar Rapids and Marion, Iowa has fluctuated consistently in regards to available venues and talented artists within the last five years and the o
nly constant I've noticed is the venue called New Life Community Church. Shows at a church? It does seem weird at first, but I've been booking shows at NLCC since December of 2011 and I've only expanded and found success from there. I've worked alongside artists from all around Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and Ohio. The full list is as follows:
A Casual Affair
An Honest Year
Arkham
The Big Time
Cloud Gavin
Coiltap
Colossus
Desire My Difference
The Easy Mark
Eddie Piotrowski
Egypt Ali
Every Day
Faces Turned Ashen
Ghost of a Dead Hummingbird (formerly The Calm Before)
Havokkrier
Hunter Dumped Us Here
I Cry Wolfe (RIP)
Infinite Me
Kevin Schlereth
Layton White
Leven
Leviathans
Live to Conquer
Mark and the Owls
The Millennium
Moments Like These
Motives
Noah
Odd One Out
A Past Unknown (RIP)
Phinehas
Righteous Vendetta
Self-Proclaimed Narcissist
Senseless Beauty (RIP)
Signals
Sweet Ascent
Triple Stitch
Victory Heights
While We Were Lost (RIP)
Why Midnight
Widower
A Young Man
NLCC is equipped with four PAs and two stage monitors along with a full soundboard with 24 channels and accompanying microphones. If you have any further questions about what NLCC has in regards to sound equipment, send me an email.
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The following are several rules and guidelines that have been put in place to make shows go smoothly:
--I will almost always book at New Life Community Church unless it is unavailable and the following rules and guidelines are applicable to NLCC.
--If I book your band for a show, I expect you to promote it. I will promote the show as best I can, but I can only reach so many people by myself. I can't reach your specific following as well as you can. If you draw people to your shows, then utilize that!
--The number one rule for playing a show at NLCC is no foul language on the stage. If you can respect that rule, then everything else is easier to deal with and there won't be many problems.
--(Obviously) Don't break things. If your band has a crazy frontman that moves around and likes to hang from things, that's no problem, but anything that gets broken comes out of my pocket. So, please exercise caution when you think about scaling the wall.
--The music must stop at 10:00pm give or take five minutes.
--The bands play in the auditorium, which has chairs that must be moved and set back up before I can leave. There is an easy system to set the chairs back up, but it's time consuming, so the more help that I can get, the faster we can all leave at the end of the night.
--It is preferred that the lead vocalist have his or her own microphone, but if your band needs to use one for your vocalist or needs extras, they are readily available.
--New Life Community Church is a smoke-free facility. If you are caught smoking on church property, then you will be asked to stop. If you are caught more than once, you will be asked to leave without refund.
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I owe thanks for my previous success to many people and artists, but above all, I owe it to the man behind an organization called Group Dynamic, named Alan Feirer. The reason I am able to do what I do well is because of a leadership workshop I attended in August of 2011 led by Mr. Feirer in which I was instructed on how to lead a group of people successfully. The name Above The Line Booking is in reference to a point made in the workshop referring to four levels of maturity:
4) Giving
3) Cooperative
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2) Independent
1) Selfish
I will strive to be "Above The Line" when I'm working alongside an artist or band and provide an experience that makes them want to come back again. If you would like to know more about Alan Feirer and Group Dynamic, feel free to visit his website: http://www.groupdynamic.us/
Along with a blog post explaining the four levels further: http://www.alanfeirer.com/what-three-things-make-the-biggest-difference-part-one
