Nevermind that Kourt blogs more often than I do because I'm way busier than she is. It's still unfair. Yeah, Baby Girl... I'm looking at you. I'm the number one superfan. You don't even like feetball.
Precious ranch dust!!!
Anyway, so here's what happened. About midnight Sunday night I left the store to go home and pick Kourt up to go out for a middle-of-the-night dinner at Ziggie's. I had Q102 on in the car. And about halfway home I hear this song which I think is totally the coolest thing I've heard in a long time -- So Many People by Neurosonic. Of course, I had no way to know that at the time, since they don't say who it is or what the song's called (or if they said it before they played it, I totally wasn't paying attention.) So when I get home I made Kourt wait while I went to the computer and Googled the lyrics, because after one listen I knew I wanted to have that song.
With the mystery solved, we went to dinner.
Back at my store a few hours later, I looked Neurosonic up again to give some of the other songs on the album a listen -- just because you like one song from a band you've never heard before doesn't always mean you'll like the rest of their stuff. I've learned that lesson before. But yes, the whole album sounds great.
A little more surfing, and I end up on their MySpace page, and the first thing I see are the words "Springfield, MO" and "Remmington's" and "December 3."
Seriously, what on earth are the chances that I'd discover a kickass band less than one day before they play a show in Springfield?
Across the street from my own store.
A show that only costs a DOLLAR AND SIX CENTS! (That part's important, 'cause it also happens that right now I'm running low on cash.)
(And yes, Kourt already pointed out that perhaps the reason they played their song on the radio that night was precicely because they were doing a show the next day -- but I do have to point out that I WASN'T listening to the station sponsoring the show. Besides, I... um... whatever. Shut up.)
So, long story short, I pretty much listened to them all Monday morning while I worked at the store, and then I dragged Kourt over to see them last night. It totally sucked that I've had Monday nights off at the K&G for, well, the entire time I've worked there. And then last week they start flipping the schedules around, and suddenly there's something I want to do on a Monday night. Pfft. So I only got to see the first two songs, but for a dollar I guess I can't really complain too much. As Kourt pointed out, I couldn't even buy those two songs on iTunes for what I paid to get into the show.
Anyway, a few hours later I'm working through a strangely long line at the K&G (why everyone and their brother suddenly needed milk and lotto tickets at midnight is beyond me), and who should pop up in the line but Jason Darr. So, you know, that was cool.
Also cool: A while later a guy asked me to pick out a scratcher for him, and he won forty bucks, and gave me five. I like kickbacks.
So, anyway, check out Neurosonic. They rock.
And I suppose the moral of the whole story is that marketing anything is largely a total crap shoot. If, for instance, I'd decided to eat dinner at the store that night, or if Lindsay and I would have left the store a little earlier or a little later, or if I'd left another radio station on in the car, I never would have heard the song. I'd have spent Sunday night listening to the same old stuff I always listen to on my iTunes, and I'd have wondered all Monday evening what the line at Remmington's was for, and then probably when Jason came into the K&G I'd have just thought, "That guy looks like he's in a band or something. Yep, truck pulling a trailer. Probably a band. Maybe they played at Remmington's earlier."
Which makes me wonder to what deity I need to build a shrine to get the cosmic forces to line up and make people notice my store. How many times have circumstances conspired to make some potential customer miss noticing an ad or made them decide not to drive down Campbell or to skip an Art Walk or something?
Okay, gonna stop that thought train right there. Getting way off topic.
Anyway, shame on you, Kourt, for posting about it first.
(Just kidding. :) )
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment