Booking

James Larsen books live music for Husby’s in Sister Bay. This summer he put together a slate of that blends different sounds from Milwaukee and the Fox Valley with local stalward DC bands.

The 27-year-old Sturgeon Bay native (and Sister Bay Bays catcher) talked to the Pulse about the challenges and rewards of hosting live music in Door County.

No man is an island: You have to work with others. Bayside always does music Saturdays, so we stay away from those. I’ll go to the [AC] Tap and go through my calendars with them to make sure we don’t step on each other. Door County is too small a community to have a bunch of bands in one night.

You get a couple double bookings and things die. One bar stops doing it, and then there’s no scene at all.

Husby’s sound: I try to mix it up [this summer’s slate features rock, jam, reggae, bluegrass]. It’s a difficult job; but I love live music, so I really enjoy it.

On filling the holes: The local guys are really flexible, so we try to book a few bands from outside the area and then work the local guys around them. We’re fortunate to have so many great local musicians; it makes my job a lot easier.

What the customer doesn’t see: The amount of work that goes into it behind the scenes. You get there as the show starts, and you don’t know that it took two days of phone calls, searching, and preparing to make it happen.

Our budget is tight, so we have to turn away a lot of bands that call us. To book bands from out of the area, you have to get them hotels and it gets expensive in a hurry.

Cover: We won’t charge a cover this year. People should be able to enjoy live music in Door County, and our idea is if we can make enough extra money, we don’t want to lose people who might just stop in for one drink.