Our live booker, Jeff Klingman, first got a text message from an agent on Friday the 26th at 3pm, right as the work week was wrapping. “Do you have Thursday 2/8 open?” An innocuous query, though it raised some eyebrows for its affected nonchalance. By any metric, this is a last minute booking. Starting the conversation off-email, right before the weekend let us know that something was brewing.
Being a Thursday, the date was free, although we were skeptical they weren’t actually asking about the weekend in a sideways fashion. After some light back-and-forth, we learned a larger artist, still unknown, was looking for a pop up show. Sussing out followed, and it was finally made clear that Fred Again and Overmono wanted to pop in for a special Thursday night show. Of course we were in.
Having confirmed our availability, the agent went dark. It’s a typical, if nerve wracking, move. There are a lot of ducks to line up. On our end, we had to decide how much leeway to give them - there are many moving parts at Knockdown Center, and we have to plan full production teams, stage builds, a box office crew, security and more for every event. Even with our systems in place, we can’t just wait until the last minute and then go. On their end, they likely checked other offers and availabilities, weighing each option based on location, sound and vibe - asking all their artist production teams to weigh in. Whatever was going on (all still being communicated by text), it finally came together on Monday. The show was on.
The whole while, we had to keep it secret, even within our own team. “That thing” was discussed in hushed tones in the office, lest someone hear about it from across the room and mention it to a friend. Call us paranoid, but it’s more exciting when a reveal is actually a surprise. It even went so far as building a redacted ticket link on DICE. Instead of listing the artists, we filled in those slots with “TBA,” used a black square instead of a flier, and, when on calls with our ticketing team, we spoke in generalities. It wasn’t until yesterday afternoon that our DICE rep confessed “I don’t want to freak you out, but Fred Again’s team reached out about some marketing for this one.” The seal had been broken.
At 1pm today, the announcement went live, and tickets were snapped up with a fervor that surprised even us. The excitement around these artists does feel unique: Fred Again straddles the line between soulful house and a post-EDM, exploratory big room sprawl, while Overmono are legitimate underground heroes made good. Both meet in the middle, creating genuinely massive, undeniably affecting tracks that still hold the interest of headier fans. They’ve got some special guests planned for tonight, and, with any luck, you’re already in the venue, ignoring your phone, and will read about this after it’s all over.