THE MUSIC NEVER STOPS

A veteran concert promoter shares war stories and advice during a challenging time for live music.

What Bill Graham was for big-ticket concerts in the 1960s and ’70s, Shapiro is for the generation of jam-band musicians who emerged after Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia died in 1995. He’s produced shows featuring remaining Dead members and fellow travelers like Phish and created a popular concert-venue brand with Brooklyn Bowl. As he describes in this affable memoir, written with Relix Editor-in-Chief Budnick, his success is due to a combination of savvy relationship-building, an openness to serendipity, and an eye on the bottom line. In the ’90s, while still in his 20s, he ran Wetlands Preserve, a Manhattan hub for improvisational bands as well as neosoul acts like Jill Scott and Erykah Badu. When Wetlands closed in 2001, Shapiro expanded into national concert promotion and launched Brooklyn Bowl, and he has a few amusing stories to share along the way—e.g., standing in front of Al Green’s limo to persuade him to reshoot a performance with the Dave Matthews Band. The author offers little in the way of rock-star dish, unless watching Bono eating salad with his bare hands counts. Rather, Shapiro focuses on the economic challenges of club ownership and concert promotion, which he explains in lively, candid fashion. He shares his missteps in a failed London expansion, how a Las Vegas outpost nearly failed, and what keeps hordes of Deadheads happy when a ticketing system goes awry. Closer to the present day, he walks through the financial and technological challenges of streaming concerts during pandemic lockdowns, where success is a mix of high standards, determination to keep the show going, and a willingness to call in favors. Pricing out LED screens makes for dull reading, but Shapiro generally makes the mechanics of promotion look like a chaotic kind of fun.

An entertaining insider’s tour of the concert business from a likable guide.