Why people love live music

Don Strasburg is a major fixture on the Colorado music scene. He is co-owner of the Fox Theater and until recently was vice president of Live Nation’s Rocky Mountain Region. He has just gone to work for rival AEG (Anschutz Entertainment Group) Live.

He's been involved in booking most of the major acts coming through Colorado over the last 15 years, first as part of his responsibilities for the Fox Theater and then more recently for Clear Channel/Live Nation.

Here he explains what has motivated him.

Marquee Magazine, October 2006: "Strasburg: To me this is a culture of people who love music and love the live music experience and love to dance. And it’s a culture of people that feel that it’s their job to produce these events and make sure they’re done properly. We can make a living doing it, but there is also a sense of personal pride in knowing that we’re responsible for helping our community have that kind of outlet and I feel like it’s a political outlet. I believe that hundreds or thousands of people dancing in a room together is inherently a political statement, even if it’s just one of having fun. It says that we believe in being human people with love and communicating with each other and letting go of the bullshit to just enjoy each other and be together in a larger group. Sometimes people want to go listen to punk rock and vent and God bless that they can vent together and it’s a great outlet to express it. I’ve always felt I was given a God-given responsibility to protect our community’s live environment and as I get older, my role changes and I go from being on the front lines to the back room, but either way my job is to nurture the other people that do what I’ve done and set an example for the community."

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Here's some info on Strasburg's background with the Fox.

Westword 2002-02-28: "The Fox's early detractors now have about ten years' worth of crow to eat. In the course of producing approximately 4,000 shows at the theater, Strasburg has morphed into one of the city's more daring promoters, with an ear for emerging talent. The Fox was the first venue in Colorado to book bands like Radiohead and White Zombie, and among the first small halls in the country to feature Phish as a headliner. It was also one of the only Colorado venues willing to take a chance on the then-burgeoning hip-hop movement. Nowadays, the Fox has a reputation as a proving ground for underground acts like Jurassic 5, Kool Keith and Ludacris (who sold out the theater last Sunday), artists that stop in Boulder on their way up. (As a consultant to Clear Channel Entertainment, Strasburg helps place bands that have graduated from Fox-sized spaces to larger ones, such as the Fillmore.)"