By Robzie Trulove
This Could Go Boom! is really excited to catch up with artists, allies and other industry professionals during this interesting era of Covid “recovery”. Among those folks, is The Girl At The Rock Shows aka Langen Goldstein. Langen is a writer for Twin Cities Media, owner of a booking agency called Distractions. And her blog, Girl at The Rock Shows, gives you a raw dose of her fix – live show magic. Langen reminds readers and fellow show lovers that being a musical person doesn’t mean you necessarily have to be on stage. There is so much ground to cover- and marginalized voices are needed on all fronts.
The addiction to live music started early for Langen. She followed her heart pursuing a musical dream.
“…I started dabbling in booking which turned into going to college for music business which has led me to this. I now book tours across the country for bands of all genres and even work full time for a boutique management firm as their main booking guru!”
When asked how the blogging started, she admits it kind of evolved and was not intentional in the beginning. “The blog thing was honestly just a fluke but a beautiful one at that…One day one of my co-workers looked me straight in the eyes and said, ’Langen, I love you but I don’t care about the show you were at last night. You need to put all of your stories into a blog so you can reach people who do care’ Shout out to Zach for pushing me to do the blog. Seriously one of the best decisions of my life.”
Live music is like air to Goldstein. The shows are frequent and the excitement plentiful. The live experience fuels that “specialness” about her blog that has spawned its appeal to so many music lovers. Her words on why a particular show holds a place in her heart, give a profound glimpse into why her blog is so gripping for loads of people. Shows are simply where beautiful memories are made. She reminds readers that live music is where the seeds of many awesome memories, friendships and relationships are sown.
“Oh man. I’ve seriously been going to shows on a nearly daily basis since I was a teenager, so it’s truly super hard for me to choose, but I think being able to see Lucero at Red Rocks on my birthday and having my brother surprise me there was the best…When they announced a show at Red Rocks in Colorado on my actual birthday, it was like all signs were telling me I had to go so I grabbed a friend and we drove to Colorado from Minnesota. It was great. I got to see some family that lives out there and got to experience the magic that is Red Rocks but it was my brother and his friend just showing up to surprise me that really made the concert memorable. I don’t cry often but I definitely bawled my eyes out through the majority of that show.”
One of the most critical things Langen brings to the music world is her passion for booking smaller acts. Those acts who need that chance at getting that tour booked. Her advice to these hard-working dreamers looking for booking agents, is to be smart about who you hire.
“Don’t just go for the first person that reaches out to you. Do your research and don’t be afraid to ask for references. When you hire a booking agent, you are literally trusting them with everything about your act from your brand to the venues you associate with and everything else. Also- make sure you can communicate well with them and have fun with them! Booking is a monotonous and honestly quite thankless job and it takes a special soul to really enjoy it and do it well. My biggest advice is just to make sure you click with the person you’re about to hire!”
Langen’s words for women and other marginalized folks looking to get into the worlds of booking bands and/or music blogging: “Do not, for the love of God, give up. I have been booking for over ten years and have had my blog for nearly five. There were so many points where I was told that nobody wants to go to the shows I book, nobody cares about the bands I book and nobody reads the words I write. Clearly, that’s not true. I’ve had a lot of people (specifically men) in the industry try to give me advice and, although I always listen, I always take it with a grain of salt. I really don’t think people understand how hard it is to be a woman in this industry but it’s far from impossible. You just have to believe in yourself and, as Taylor Swift would say, shake it off. You got this. You do! I promise!”