Friday, February 20, 2009

Duh.

I was on KRUI last night, during their weekly "arts hour." Nathan was a good interviewer - conversational, asked good questions.

One question was "If you could have anybody in the Englert, regardless of how 'big' they are or how much they cost, who would it be?"

Dead air space. Mumble, mumble... uh...

Total mental blank. Of course, I actually think about this all the time. I listen to a lot of music. I have a lot of answers for this. But live, on the air, I have nothing.

I buy time. I talk about how Iron & Wine was at the top of that list (which is true), and talk about the disappointment I felt when they played here last year but I had to miss them (on the way to Bonnaroo, where I would see them a couple days later).

Still nothing.

"Ya know, like, well, really, anybody who's big and you might think is too big to play the Englert. They would be cool. Like U2. Or Ben Kweller."

Huh? Now, I do think it would be cool to see U2 or Ben Kweller at the Englert. No doubt. U2 and Ben Kweller, however, are not even in the same galaxy in terms of "bigness and stardom." And that's the best I could come up with?

I manage to add Dave Matthews Band, Kings of Leon, then The National (which would be a dream come true). By this time, as ideas actually come to me, Nathan is ready to move on. Because really, it's time. He has a job to do. That job is keeping it interesting, keeping it flowing.

So, almost 24 hours later, I'd like to finish my thought:

How 'bout some Radiohead? TV on the Radio? Morrissey would be awesome. Elvis Costello. The Shins. Rogue Wave. Decemberists. Bon Iver. Ryan Adams. Silversun Pickups. The Hold Steady. Band of Horses. Or let's go back to high school (for me) and get The Cure, R.E.M. or Depeche Mode. Or turn the place into a club and get Girl Talk.

There. I feel better now.

Cool thing is, I don't think some of these bands/artists are out of reach. We certainly do our best to try.

As I write this, there are just a handful of tickets left to Mason Jennings, which is awesome. I really dig on "In The Ever" his new(est) release. If you can't make the show, tune into KRUI 89.7 or stream it at 3:00 today for his in-studio performance.

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