Have you ever tried to book a show? Despite what you might initially think, it's really hard to do. First, you have to find a venue, then you have to get some bands on board, and finally, you have to find some people to come out to the show. Planning a show is a big responsibility and sometimes no matter how well you plan it out, something goes wrong and you can get burned. The art of bringing live music to Detroit is hard to learn and even harder to perfect. Most booking companies only make it a few years and are rarely able to turn a profit or expand, but Fusion Shows has managed to build a booking company that has been able to maintain a meaningful presence and expands to all different areas around the mitten.
Fusion Shows is the brainchild of Nate Dorough and Irving Ronk, two passionate music lovers who began throwing shows in their hometown years ago. The two friends were able to turn their passion for music and live events into a full-blown business that expanded from Lansing to make a name for itself in the Detroit and Grand Rapids market, before joining forces with the team at The Crofoot Presents. You can hear the entire backstory from Nate himself during our interview on podcastdetroit.com a few months ago.
While Fusion's story is interesting, it's Nate himself that has always fascinated me. He is passionate about music, politics, and about being a father. His passion for creating positive experiences revolving around live music is what makes his booking company and his events so successful. Over the last 10 years Nate and Irving have built a solid team of workers, volunteers and loyal show attendees that support what they do.
So, in honor of the 10th anniversary celebration of Fusion Shows, taking place at The Crofoot this Saturday, I asked Nate 10 interesting questions about himself. Check out what Nate had to say after 10 years in the business and read below to find out how to win tickets to celebrate Fusions 10th Birthday, featuring Twin Peaks, PUP, The Flatliners, Ratboys, Nnamdi Ogbonnaya, Kississippi, Narco Debut, Michigander, Mover Shaker, Shortly, Greet Death, Stefanie Haapala, Vagabonds, Vital Sea and All Is Well.
HID- What job would you be terrible at?
Nate Dorough- "I'd be terrible, at this point, at anything that wasn't booking shows. It's amazing how my skills have slipped in pretty much everything else I've ever done. If concerts go away, I'm in deep shit."HID- What takes up too much of your time?
Nate Dorough- "Social media. I spend way too much of my life just flipping through garbage on the internet. I think, in retrospect, the reason that Facebook has taken our news feeds out of our hands and buried them in clickbait is that we still crave the ACTUAL updates our friends give, so to keep us on the site longer, they bury our friends' updates in between cat videos, memes, etc."
HID- Who’s your go-to band or artist when you can’t decide on something to listen to?
Nate Dorough- "I don't know if I have an artist so much as an era. I'm a child of the 90s. Alternative, grunge, hip hop, etc. If I'm having a hard time in the car, I flip on "Lithium" (90s grunge) or "Backspin" (old school hip-hop on Sirius XM. In the office, or at home, I have this crazy playlist called "My Favorite Records" which is literally every track from every record I think I've ever really enjoyed. It's something close to 10,000 songs, and I throw that on random. I had another one called "Nate Radio", which was similar, but wider reaching in that I'd just toss albums in there I was intrigued about, but apparently, Spotify playlists cap out at 10,000 songs. Whoops."
HID- Who has impressed you most with what they’ve accomplished?
Nate Dorough- "I'm surrounded by people who impress me. What Garret, Nicole, and Seth have done at Assemble Sound, bucking the system and just building a community based on love and art, I'm so proud of my friends. Drew Drialo, what a hero. Giving up his kidney for Marty Sheedy, incredible. Jax Anderson is a leader, and people just rally around her. She played Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and is currently in Australia just destroying."
HID- What TV show or movie do you refuse to watch?
Nate Dorough- "X Files. I hate it so much. I want to like it, but the acting by those two is just so bad."
HID- What could you give a 40-minute presentation on with absolutely no preparation?
Nate Dorough- "Besides the live music industry? I don't know. I collected baseball cards when I was a kid, and I have a lot of thoughts about how that industry got ruined. I was an early Napster user and loved it. I can probably go through the differences between every year's NHL Hockey game on Sega Genesis from 1992 to 1997, which teams were best, the tricks, etc. Wow, that's lame. I played a LOT of those games."
HID- What is something that a ton of people are obsessed with but you just don’t get the point of?
Nate Dorough- "Drinking. Oh my god, I get it, you fucking drink. You should tweet more about how drunk you are. And then you should go to a party, and you guys can talk about drinking while drinking. UGH. Part of me, being a non-drinker, is jealous of some of the cool things that come along with wine (comparing types and years) or craft beer (just trying a million different flavors and types), but the worst thing is people who just have to tell you about their drinking escapades."
HID- What fad or trend do you hope comes back?
Nate Dorough- "ROCK AND ROLL! I know that rock, traditionally, has been a masculine-dominated field, and the fact that it's lessening its importance in the world because there are so many powerful women (who absolutely rock, but maybe not in the way I was raised). I don't know. I'd love a world where rock was dominant, but while not treating the non-dudes of the world like shit. Does that make sense? Don't kill me on this one!"
HID- What did you think you would grow out of but haven’t?
Nate Dorough- "Kraft Mac N Cheese?! I literally could eat that every day if it wasn't so bad for you. Having a 2-year-old has significantly re-introduced it into my life, and I can't say I'm upset about it!"
HID- They say that everyone has a book in them. What would your book be about?
Nate Dorough- "I think my book would mostly about it just doing it your way, finding happiness where you are, and would certainly point to music, entertainment being vital to my happiness, along with the idea that finding a career you love and loving your work is far more important than finding something you don't like to fund the small amount of time per year that you don't work!"
If you would like to enter to win tickets to celebrate 10 years of hard work and good music with Nate and his team, please email your full name to hipindetroit@gmail.com with the subject line #10years. We will draw one lucky reader this Saturday and they will get to attend the celebration with a friend for free!
Congrats to the whole team at Fusion Shows!
~S
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