Hello everybody, Tall Tom here… let me summarize what you’re about to read: I still want shows to happen here but I’m too stressed by my life and I can’t book them anymore. Will somebody please step up and take over? I will fill you in on all of the info and give you passwords to the OAF House myspace page and gmail account if those will be needed (I’m sure something can be worked out). After that all you have to do is coordinate with me and the gents at the house to see if shows work will work. May is taken care of. June, July, and August have shows that need organizing, if not, they’re canceled.

I’ve been booking shows here and there for the OAF House, as you know, for a while now (since Soda left and even a few while he still lived here). I’ve had to do all the organizing; that is, I’m the one who calls up/messages local bands to try to get them to play the shows, I’m the one that tries to coordinate between different touring bands to try to combine shows when they’re too close or overlap, and I’m the one who has to make, print, and hang up all the fliers (I get a teeny bit of help hanging them up, I hate fliering).

Well, there have been a lot more shows as of late, and a ton of people have started to hear about the house, so lots and lots of requests for shows keep piling up in the crappy little myspace inbox of the OAF House page. Silly me, I keep just saying “hey, yeah, you can have a show, let me just take on all of this work.” It’s really stressing me out because I suck at saying no.

May is pretty well full up and sorted out, I got that under control now… but then comes the daunting months of June and July… with August encroaching as well. Lots of bands wanting shows. I need some people to step up and take over, I just can’t do this anymore. I need to find job(s).

On top of all the booking, I do a lot of cleaning and general organizing before the shows and me and the roommates all have to clean up after the shows (often with mopping and whatnot inside). Very rarely do people from the community actually help to clean up… in fact I’ve seen lots of accidental and intentional damage occur to the house and venue because of drunkenness or just pure not-caring (apathy?). I’m sick of the fact that everybody just strolls in here so easily, they don’t always contribute a donation for the band(s), stuff gets broken, people don’t help clean up, and then they leave. There is almost no respect for the space, the house, those who have to clean, or the people involved in setting things up.

There have been some great ups and some not so good downs throughout, but I can’t say I’m getting anything out of it anymore. I just keep giving myself and I get nothing back other than stress and a short-lived fun time at a show (where I get to meat cool people with cool stories). It’s always a huge relief when other people set up shows and all I have to do is host it here. When all I have to do is clean up and enjoy the show, I’m happy… shoot, I’ll even help collect money.

Basically, if you want to still have lots of shows here, people need to start showing respect for the space, and somebody needs to step up to book the shows.