Brains behind the booking: Brian Ostrander continues to deliver
By Jen Kessler, Entertainment Staff Writer
February 12, 2008 | 2 p.m.
It is an inherent fact that the music scene in Athens is swollen with talent, teeming with life, rife with opportunity and overflowing with a seemingly endless string of shows. Fantastic musicians alone, however, cannot efficiently carry a prospering music scene.
Standing in the shadows of every sweaty bar show, responsible for the elation of performers and concertgoers alike, are people who devote endless amounts of time to wrangling with the swift politics of the entertainment business in order to make these shows happen. In Athens, one of those vitally important people is Ohio University senior Brian Ostrander.
In addition to being the master architect behind the All-Campus Radio Network's booking as the station's promotions director, Ostrander operates his own independent DIY booking agency, Insomniac Booking. Through Insomniac, Ostrander not only promotes shows around Athens, but secures tours and shows for a small, yet incredibly talented roster of bands that includes, among others, The Gunshy and Nostra Nova.
"I started booking shows because the shows that I wanted to see weren’t coming to town," Ostrander said. "Bands that I wanted to see weren’t coming to town. So I just kind of started doing it myself."
The DIY sensibilities echoed in these words construct the very backbone of Insomniac Booking. A DIY music scene puts quite a bit of emphasis on community, calling anyone and everyone to get involved in some manner. Involvement may range from feeding a hungry band to offering up a basement for a house show. A DIY community requires extensive care and infinite passion, and Ostrander embodies both.
"[Ostrander is] the always chill, always composed dude that can take on the greatest of tasks without breaking a sweat," said ACRN General Manager Bryan Olinger. "He has this ability to treat every act, big and small, with the same relaxed attitude. Brian knows how to talk to people and make them feel comfortable. I think that's a big part of why artists and promoters keep coming back to Brian. He's more than another agent. He's the agent that treated them as people, not commodities. I think that's greatly appreciated in this industry."
"I’ve had times when I’ve had a band stay at my house for two or three nights because they didn’t have a show the next night, so it’s just like, ‘Here, you guys can stay and hang out; I don’t want you to have to drive and sleep in your van somewhere,'" Ostrander said.
Ostrander was, until mid-fall, also the booking manager for Baker Center. Baker decided to split with him in an attempt to move away from the "indie rock" vein and diversify their entertainment opportunities, Ostrander said. Diversified they certainly have, now offering acts that range from In The Light, a Led Zeppelin tribute band, to Matt Wertz, a pop-rock artist who has toured with the likes of Jason Mraz and Gavin DeGraw. For a full listing of events at Baker Center, visit its calendar of events.
"They’re moving forward in that direction, and that’s fine," Ostrander said. "It’s not really my…I’m not going to say it’s not my thing to diversify, because that sounds terrible [laughs], but it just wouldn’t fit with me in that position. So it was amicable and fine."
Whether this decision proves to be a successful venture on Baker Center's part remains to be seen, and Baker Center declined to comment on the matter. Luckily for Athens' indie fans, Ostrander’s job at Baker was only a small segment of the comfortable niche he has carved himself as Athens' booking mastermind, and he plans to continue unfazed.
"Now, I can focus more not only on ACRN, which is really how I got started booking shows two years before I even started working for Baker, but also on Insomniac stuff -- [focusing] not only on touring bands and getting them out on the road, but also on doing shows in town," he said.
Ostrander's split with Baker does not mean the end of the relationship between ACRN and Baker Center, Olinger said.
"Brian's split from Baker doesn't impact what ACRN does since we still have Brian and we still have resources," he said. "It was definitely a great convenience to ACRN to have a Baker employee on board since we deal with the Baker administration on a regular basis, but as far as booking shows goes, things continue to run smoothly. We will still have Lobsterfest at Baker."
Ostrander is a senior with no foreseeable plans that involve sticking around Athens after graduation. One can only hope that the passion and ideals in which he so firmly believes will stick in the collective mind of the community and continue to blossom, and that shows will manage to keep getting booked without him.
"A lot of people are like, 'you’ve got to find someone to take over, you’ve got to find someone to do shows,' but you can’t find someone to be passionate about something," Ostrander said. "A lot of things that go into doing this are things that you can’t teach; it’s just something you have to put in. If you really care, you’ve just got to think on your feet and just do it.”
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Be sure to check out Insomniac Booking’s MySpace for show dates. Keep the weekend of March 6-8 open for "A Very Insomniac Weekend," a mini-fest featuring every band on Insomniac’s roster. All shows that weekend are free, but donations for The Wire will be encouraged.