Butch Walker Coming to Texas--Based on Which Data Sets?

Woohoo!  Got the tickets for the Dallas show, made the hotel arrangements for Dallas and Austin.  Well, it's not precisely in Austin (Round Rock), but at least it's not in San Marcos (!)

and it's reasonably priced with an excellent rating from Trip Advisor.  Plus, already have a restaurant recommendation for Round Rock--known for its pie!  Was a bit touch n go getting it all settled, but now feeling a sense of accomplishment.  Hey, Bibi, it'll be spring break, lighten up with all the planning and thinking ahead!   

Bibi is fascinated by the whole decison process that brings BW to Texas, especially Dallas.  There has to be more to it than geography, airline routes, and seemingly interminable airport to hotel distances, right? 

As the readers know, Bibi's MBA background kicks in every now and then and excel tables sprout up, along with questions:  what data was gathered to come up with this itinerary?  It could be that Butch has other things he wants to do in these cities around these dates--heard there are some good art museums in Dallas, not sure what there is in Little Rock, maybe it has a hot, undiscovered music scene?  Is Chuck there?  (Read Butch's very-readable Drinking with Strangers for the backstory on that.)   These and other opportunities drove the decisions to construct this route?  Just wondering.  Could Bibi have access to the SWOT analysis on this?

Right. 

Burning question:  why favor Dallas instead of Houston?  Doesn't matter, really, in terms of Bibi making the trek--SO HAPPY Butch is coming to Texas outside of SXSW--I'd go to El Paso, Nacogdoches, hell, even Eagle Pass, Pasadena or Baytown if any of those had been his city of choice.  Kind of funny:  been talking about Butch to my economist/finance prof friend, also one of the statistics profs, and my supervisor, a management Ph.D.  All of them expressed curiosity about how Butch's management group decided on Dallas:  industry data showed a higher level of Butch cd, mp3 sales there?  Disposable income substitutes  trended higher there for Butch tickets?  Facebook and Twitter hits were tallied and gave the Butch edge to Dallas?  Views of Live From Daryl's House, episode 54 and YouTube BW videos tracked higher in northern Texas vs southern Texas?  How DID they use best business practices and all kinds of regression analysis to know this?  Or, some secret, trademarked  algorithm using information from some/all/other of the factors mentioned?  Something like: 

 

Little jokes.  Will check with my marketing prof to see how entertainment world data is generated and made available.

Bibi has been so engrossed in these business geek considerations, the Downton Abbey routine for Sundays (homemade cherry/pineapple pie to go with the traditional tea--lovely DA viewing.  Thanks, Janet Neighbor!) and some time watching the Superbowl adverts, not much time for thinking about the set list requests.  OK, spent a few random minutes thinking on that; keep coming back to the BWM series.  BWM V.2 is really, really good:

Maybe It's Just Me
Mixtape
Don't Move
Race Cars and Goth Rock
Bethamphetamine (Pretty Pretty)
The Weight of Her
Here Comes the…
Ponce de Leon Ave.
Ships in a Bottle
Passed Your Place, Saw Your Car
Sweethearts
Synthesizers
The Closest Thing to You
Pretty Melody

For Texas, would leave out Mixtape, Ships in a Bottle and one of my all-time Butch faves, Don't Move and ROCK it way more by adding Summer of '89, Day Drunk, Bullet Belt, Bodegas and Blood--just love this song, maybe Dublin Crow and of course, Sucker Punch.  (that would make it almost all of The Spade, but it really is so good.)  Plus, She Likes Hair Bands--cannot leave this one out.  This would still leave room for three of the new songs, right?  Hmmm...too long?  Leave out Ponce de Leon Ave.?  It's a great BW showcase in versatility, with that oh so cool Todd Rundgren vibe. Would like new listeners to discover it, but, OK.  Please add Here Comes the...please.  Have been listening to I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart and really like it.   A couple of those cuts added to the set list would go over very well:  Days/Months/Years, Don't You Think Someone Should Take You Home.  Jeez, it's tough discerning the BEST of Butch Walker's songs to really show off his phenomenal talents.
Butch will come up with a GREAT set list; he's a seasoned professional, knows what works in a live setting, what he's comfortable with, how to reach the audience, etc., etc.  Brings to mind the consistent AC/DC fan concerns about the set list.  I could never believe some fans' complaints about the selection.  Some would even say that leaving out You Shook Me All Night Long would be no loss!!!  Weirdos, really, they are everywhere!  In the end, AC/DC made almost no changes in a tour that lasted almost two years.  I saw them six times during the tour and LOVED EVERY SHOW.  So, we will see what Butch does.

Love you, Butch!  Can't wait to see you in Dallas and Austin!

Butch Walker: Such a Pretty Melody

Bibi's readers know how much she LOVES, LOVES, LOVES Say It Isn't So from episode 54 of Live From Daryl's House--had to listen to it this morning to resolve some Monday family blues.  It worked, too! 

Since December 30, though, have been experiencing a huge crush on Pretty Melody.  "Oh baby we don't have to be like the rest of them....there's not a single part of me that would ever let you go.....ooooooh, oooooooh....." 

Got I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart the other day, so discovering that part of Butch's work.  Very, very interesting to Bibi.  It's Butch, but a different shade of Butch from the other albums.  Not sure how much I liked it at first, but you know how it is with Butch:  just listen, pay attention, let the words and melody flow over you.

One of my fan-tasies runs like this:  what if, I got to meet Butch and had the opportunity to get his autograph on Drinking With Strangers?   ha, ha, ha on the readers--they were thinking:  okay, a fantasy involving Butch, HOT!  Well, maybe, er, sure, just LOOK at these pictures

Butch Walker channeling hot male model

Butch Walker, spokesperson of the year for whatever--I will buy it!



Lost in thought about ... who cares?


but not for sharing on the world wide web. Please.  On this blog, the R rating is due to use of foul language, okay?  Anyway, in Bibi's fantasies, as it's playing out, I'm wearing whatever I'm wearing at the moment, so for this one at this moment, asking for the autograph in my office clothes.  Including the Ralph Lauren pumps.  Kinda funny.  Under what circumstances would Bibi be standing around Butch in her office-appropriate attire?  He'd actually be on this campus?  Happened right after work?  OMG! But anyway, in the book signing fantasy, the really big question is, what would I ask him to write?  My best ideas are lyrics from his songs, but there are so many great ones, tough.  And, admit it, a lot of the lyrics from Pretty Melody would raise eyebrows (and scorch 'em off) when you showed off the autograph.  Dilemna.

Off to a book reading and signing now.  Not Butch (sigh).  Michael Chabon, though, almost as good, right?

We will see.

Love ya, Butch!

Butch Walker: Say It Isn't So and Drinking With Strangers in Paris

As the faithful know, Bibi LOVES Live From Daryl's House, Episode 54.  Episode 54



It brought about a seismic change in Bibi's already full life, introducing her to the great, the wonderful Butch Walker.  My favorite cut from that show is Say It Isn't So. Posted this so many times, here it is again.

 Once Bibi heard this, life changed!

I know set lists for performances are set in stone in advance of shows--at least that's how AC/DC and Bruce do it--but SO hope Butch will include it on December 30. 

Just so you get an even better taste of Episode 54, here's one of Bibi's other faves, Bodegas and Blood. 

Butch n Daryl's band rock it!

Of course, every song Butch does on the show is also one of my favorites:  Sweethearts, Mixtape, Closest Thing, Why Was It So Easy...so, there it is.  You may ask, what was the reason for this post?  While Bibi is not prepared to go into the existential why of blog posts at this time, today, the reason is that I had a chance to talk Butch up to someone who immediately got on the web to look Butch up!!!  So exciting when you get through to someone!!  Once I'd talked to D for awhile, thought, why don't I listen to Say It Isn't So and once I did that, well, slippery slope. Had to watch the other songs, too.  As a special treat (Bibi loves cat treats and this clip is a really great treat for you) here's the opening of Episode 54.  How Bibi met Butch the first time!!!!!!  You get a feel for Butch the person, what's important to him as an artist, a shortened form of what you would read in his book, Drinking With Strangers.  A very good read!  Plan to re-read it before the trip.  Why doesn't the book have an index?  Needs one.  AC/DC's Maximum Rock & Roll has one, although it could be better.

Introducing: Butch Walker


If you began reading these posts after my AC/DC phase, you (regrettably) don't know that during slow times within AC/DC's last tour, Bibi would fill in the gaps by blogging about individual AC/DC albums, songs, why they were great and should be in the rock pantheon of all time.  Wondered if I might do that about Butch Walker's music before December 30.  It's almost here (Bon Scott scream!) and even though Christmas is already exciting, knowing that I'll get to see Butch so soon, well, the excitement around Bibi is just palpable.  Feel like there's a slight buzz in the air around me, the sky is bluer, the air crisper.  Or maybe it's the cold front that came in last night, hard to distinguish.  Tough to concentrate on the day-to-day since I have the Chicago guidebook and see that the few days Bibi has up there are too short to fit everything in. 

Just so you know:  there will be no time for "hoping to spot Butch somewhere in Chicago" as occurred in Paris with AC/DC.  Bibi did enjoy meeting the fans outside AC/DC's hotel and Bibi was richly rewarded for sitting around in the bar, since I got to talk to Brian and Cliff--such sweeties--but really, Paris deserved more of Bibi out and about instead of hanging in a really expensive bar.  I read in one of Butch's tweets about an elite, pricey bar in Nashville.  Ha, ha, ha.  What a bunch of fiscal lightweights!  If they thought that place was rich for their (financial) blood, they would never be able to drink in Paris. 

Oh, and btw, the Ernest Hemingway house was sold this year to private owners. 

Bibi is checking now to see if visits are still allowed.  It could work out that I'll only get to take a picture of the residence and maybe think of a way to bring a dirt sample back to the ex.  Bit of a family story:  the ex always wanted to visit Graceland; Elvis was his hero.  The only time his family went to Memphis, though, Graceland was closed for the day.  So, the ex gathered some dirt from the property and kept it for years.  That is now lost to the ages, so I thought I would bring some dirt back from the Hemingway (also one of his heroes) house for him.  Bibi's thoughtful like that.

We'll see.

Butch Walker: Will He Ever Play Houston? What To Do About This?

OBJECTIVE:  Bring Butch Walker to Houston. 

HOW TO?  I had a plan to make a BW cd of my favorite songs--as long as they were on The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Let's-Go-Out-Tonights, Letters,  or The Spade cds--and if I could figure out how to download the video of Say It Isn't So --you know, my own Mixtape, and give it out to everyone I know.  Okay, that plan wasn't that well-baked--but it is still a project to tackle--otherwise how to stage a Butch Walker music domination putsch among those I know? 

To actually see Butch live, other strategems (or singular, strategem?) are /is needed.

So, what if...the local bar/club scene doesn't know about Butch and people like me that want to see him?  I devised a generic email I sent to The Last Concert, Numbers, Fitzgerald's--really, what do I know about the local bar scene?--but anyway, it's a start. Using that email, tweaked it a bit and sent a version to Butch's management today:

Even though I read Drinking with Strangers very carefully, I'm unfamiliar with how music acts are booked into venues in Houston. Hope I'm contacting the right person--if not, please pass this email on to them.

A couple of months ago, I was watching Live From Daryl's House, locally shown at 1 and 1:30 am, (Saturday nights, really Sunday mornings). Right, I don't have cable. Daryl Hall has invited some cool musical guests, but little did I know that episode 54 would lead me to writing this email. I enjoyed the other episodes and new artists--who were/are Chromeo, Neon Trees, The Dirty Heads, Train?--I've asked people a good bit younger than me and they didn't know, but when I saw Butch Walker's turn, well, as is common in parlance now, OMG!! I spent hours afterward watching the show over again on the web and then searching for and watching BW videos. Not to sound too over the edge, I must watch at least parts of that show every day now. Butch's performance was outstanding, incredible, just killed! And his version of Say It Isn't So---I mean, gee whiz, omigod--he has to incorporate it into the live act, really!
Since then, I've talked about him on my fb page intent on making my friends and family Butch Walker fans, posted videos--LOVE the ones everyone loves, won't bore you with the obvious--bought Live at Budokan on the strength of online raves, two cds (Letters, The Spade), talked about Butch to just everyone. Like anyone else with Internet access today, I've also blogged about Butch--even though the blog is entitled Bibilovesangus (as in Angus Young). Read the book, thought about making a mad trip to Berlin for the upcoming concert. Realistically, though, can't go to Berlin on such short notice and honestly, it is exhausting devising Lucy-Ethel schemes to see Butch live.

So, long story longer, I sent emails to a few local bars/clubs extolling Butch to the celestial skies [oops, redundant], believing it's not in vain to think that one of these venues has been wanting to book Butch somewhere in Houston, they've just been waiting for a raving lunatic fan to let them know the market is there for the exploiting.
As you are well aware, his stuff is out of this world great, he can rock like a billybejesus, belt out a heart wrenching ballad like there's no tomorrow cause he lost the girl, and completely suck you into his performance like cannot be believed. (Some of this energy is coming from "just watched Live at Budokan today") The point is, PLEASE have him play here in Houston, the sooner the better. I don't know if Butch wants to come to Houston and someone has to make an offer or if it entails someone convincing Butch to come to Houston, but anything your organization could do in either scenario, PLEASE DO IT. I'm convinced that a Houston audience will instantly recognize that Butch has talent out the wazoo, a fantastic crowd-pleasing voice and material, has proven indie cred, AND to top it off, he's real easy to look at and has loads of tattoos--what more would an audience need to respond positively?

Hope you can do something about this, aka bring/send Butch Walker to Houston. Please.

Sincerely (and with no stalker intentions),

Helen (aka Bibi)

We will see, right?  In the meantime: 


Say It Isn't So started it all