On this week's episode, Sam Elkin of C3 Presents and I walk through the sonic corridors of our past, reminiscing about the shows that shaped us. Prepare to see concerts from a different perspective as Sam, with his insider know-how, unravels the complex tapestry of curating some of the most dynamic live music events in the industry. His tales will illuminate the unseen threads of brand partnerships that keep the vibrant festival scene pulsating, offering a rare peek behind the curtain of music event magic.
Together, Sam and I explore the resurgent hunger for live performances, from the intimate allure of a small club to the awe-inspiring spectacle of stadium shows, dissecting why fans are flocking to concerts with a newfound zeal. Uncover the transformative power of live music as an artist's lifeline and listener's sanctuary, and join us as we celebrate the enduring spirit of the live concert experience that continues to unite and inspire fans across genres.
On this week's episode, Sam Elkin of C3 Presents and I walk through the sonic corridors of our past, reminiscing about the shows that shaped us. Prepare to see concerts from a different perspective as Sam, with his insider know-how, unravels the complex tapestry of curating some of the most dynamic live music events in the industry. His tales will illuminate the unseen threads of brand partnerships that keep the vibrant festival scene pulsating, offering a rare peek behind the curtain of music event magic.
Together, Sam and I explore the resurgent hunger for live performances, from the intimate allure of a small club to the awe-inspiring spectacle of stadium shows, dissecting why fans are flocking to concerts with a newfound zeal. Uncover the transformative power of live music as an artist's lifeline and listener's sanctuary, and join us as we celebrate the enduring spirit of the live concert experience that continues to unite and inspire fans across genres.
Welcome to the Rock-N- Roll Show Podcast. We're here to share the thrill of experiencing live music together with strangers and with friends, and to get to know our guests a little bit better through their concert experiences. I'm your host, Alex Gadd, and I find that I relate best to people when talking about music. Finding out what band someone likes, what shows they've been to, allows us to get to know and understand one another better. And also, hey, it's just fun to swap stories about shows we've seen over the years. Today, we have a good one in store for you. We'll be talking with Sam Elkin of C3 Presents. They're a live experiences company that puts on concerts, as well as food and wine and other types of events and full disclosure. Sam's also my stepbrother, Sam. Welcome to the .
Sam Elkin:Thanks, Alex, good to be here.
Alex Gadd:Glad to have you. So, to start off with, I really am interested in how you got interested in music, because your job today is all about music and we can talk more about that later. But how did you start? Was music around the house when you were a little kid?
Sam Elkin:I mean music was around the house and we always went to. I can remember going to Tanglewood which is a beautiful outdoor amphitheater venue in Atlantic Massachusetts, home of the Boston Pops. A lot of early memories going there. It was just yeah, it was always like it wasn't a focal point by any means, but definitely music was, at least subconsciously, part of growing up.
Alex Gadd:I found that my first musical influences were listening to the car radio when we were driving, and I didn't have a say in what we were listening to, so I was listening to whatever my folks were listening to.
Sam Elkin:Definitely that. I can remember Noah and I Noah being my brother, of course. I used to listen to a lot of comedy together growing up and we still quote those great old albums today. But yeah, music was always like it was always there.
Alex Gadd:So do you remember any bands or songs that you latched onto early, aside from the comedy stuff? Because I can definitely remember listening to Steve Martin's King Tut like five times in a row in a pizzeria on a jukebox, and my folks must have wanted to kill me by the end of it.
Sam Elkin:The comedy stuff I could go to George Carlin, Father Guido me by the end of it. The comedy stuff. I got a george carlin, father guidos or dg. We used to listen to all that stuff. But I have a lot I. The one album that always comes up that we I felt like we listened to a lot was jimmy cliff the harder they come, which I still love that album. I listen to it all the time.
Sam Elkin:But I just I have, I don't know how, like super distinct memories of like when I would hear that or but but I just had this memory of hearing that on a on a pretty regular basis and that's a good one, and then I like to call it a claim to fame, but see, I will which is my mother, of course, tells me that she took me to see Bob Marley when he played the music in, when he did the Babylon by bus tour and came through the music in which is a venue, no longer there but in, but also in Lenox, massachusetts, which would have been like I don't know 70-something.
Sam Elkin:That's a pretty good one. I go with that. I go with that. I feel like I have memories from that. It's hard to remember Some of that stuff. I don't remember things way back when, like some people do, but she tells me, so I go with it.
Alex Gadd:Do you have a first favorite band? Do you remember when you latched onto your first band?
Sam Elkin:You know what I don't really, and some of this stuff is like. I can't even remember who played our festival last year at this point, because there's so many. There's so many pitiful, I know, I don't. I know, like when I was, when I got a little bit older and we were starting to collect records and it was a lot of like pink floyd and led zeppelin and the who and things along those lines.
Sam Elkin:but I don't like have a memory of like my first band that I really like followed, although I will say and this is again the first concert that I can remember like going to that like I actually chose to go to was after this one. But Sean Cassidy, also a Tanglewood big Hardy boys fan, right on. And maybe that's the one that I would say that I was. I can't remember ever listening to albums or anything like that, but for some reason I remember going into ZM at Tanglewood 1979.
Alex Gadd:Yeah, I thought that Sean Cassidy was the key to getting to the girls to like me. So I listened to Sean Cassidy too. I didn't like it that much but, I definitely was like all the girls in my second grade and third grade classes loved him and I was like I would love to have these girls like me, a quarter as much as that he was still around.
Sam Elkin:He's like a big producer or something like that. I wasn't up the other day, just like what is that guy doing? And he's just still. He's still there, just in the. I was in the background, but it's good to see.
Alex Gadd:Yeah, the hardy boys yeah, I was way into it, him and parker stevenson park, stevenson exactly.
Sam Elkin:So why don't we?
Alex Gadd:start by having you tell us a little bit about your job. You work for an events company and you are around concerts for a job. That is. Your job is to go to concerts as part of your work, correct?
Sam Elkin:Yes, mostly it is. I work for an event production company. We do a variety of things. I work on the festival side, um, doing partnerships, so that would be like working on the brand side of things, which is a big part of what what um goes into these festivals. Working in and around music festivals is definitely what I do on a day-to-day basis. I don't go to as many as I used to, but, but I still go to a handful. We have, I think, 30 in the us this year that we're working on and I still go to a handful. We have, I think, 30 in the US this year that we're working on and I'll go to probably seven or eight of those. But yeah, that's why things get a little blurry sometimes, because there's a lot of them.
Sam Elkin:I don't take it for granted. I still very much appreciate what I do and how special it is and what I think is important, it is for people and bringing people together. So I like to think I'm not jaded or anything like that. I just as I've gotten a little older, I don't, I don't go to as many and I go to bed a little earlier, but it is still awesome and there's still like some of the very like special feelings when your headliner is on and you're walking down to the soundboard and you've got 50,000 people around you and it's.
Sam Elkin:I've never, taken that for granted and always, and probably forever, will still feel very special to be in that spot.
Alex Gadd:Yeah, of all the bands you've seen, who do you have a feel for? Who you've seen the most often?
Sam Elkin:I started to think about this. It might still be the Grateful Dead. Honestly, it's really hard. I saw a lot of fish shows in college. Probably still the Grateful Dead. I would think, yeah, probably.
Alex Gadd:I think that's impressive because for all the shows you've seen for work, the Grateful Dead you never saw for work. That was just you wanting to see the Dead.
Sam Elkin:Yeah, exactly. But still, if you think about seeing a band like 40 or 50 times, or 30 or 40 or whatever it is, over the course of this many years, because I'm not always watching fans at the festival, that's the other thing too, especially as I've, as things have progressed, like it is work, and so I'll catch a few shows, but a lot of times, like I'm not necessarily watching them, I'll make a point to watch the ones I want to watch, or at least bits of the ones I want to watch, but when I'm there, I definitely am focused on working.
Sam Elkin:Sometimes I'll go through a whole festival and sadly I won't have really seen that much. But I also feel very focused on work when I'm there, and so that's okay.
Alex Gadd:Oh, I think that's right. You got a job to do. It's a job.
Sam Elkin:Yeah, oh, I think that's right, you got a job to do. It's a job, yeah, and I just, when I'm there, I'm like so I get so in the groove of working and taking care of the clients and running around and making sure everything's good, and I probably could throttle back a little bit less on things, but it's just, I just I get in that mode when I'm there and and for many years I did see a lot of the shows too.
Alex Gadd:I just a little bit. Sometimes, when I have downtime now, I just want to see some people or sit down. Yeah, right on Now. We went to college one year apart at University of Vermont in the late eighties, early nineties. It was a thriving music scene. So you mentioned seeing fish a lot. Those were local bar shows for the most part club shows correct.
Sam Elkin:Yeah, yeah, yeah. They played our dorm, they played. They played our dorm, they played, they played the. They played the cafeteria at uvm. I remember that definitely saw them in dorm more than once they played. We used to shoot pool while the band was on the stage, 15 feet away that was at the front too.
Alex Gadd:You could play pool in the back while they were playing yeah, oh yeah.
Sam Elkin:Still one of the best, still one of the best bars. I was sad when that went away yeah, me too so yeah, godly fish, but maybe it might be fit. I haven't seen it that much in recent years, even though I have so many friends that still go all the time, but I saw a lot of back then yeah, they were our apartment.
Alex Gadd:They were a local band right on and now, right when we were when I graduated, you were a senior blues traveler started to really hit and and burlington felt like Burlington was the second city that they broke there from Jersey. They came out and they hit in New York but it really felt like Burlington was a second home. I was DJing at the radio station and we played an exorbitant amount of blues traveler for a brand new band that had one hit. We played that an awful lot and they got. They came around.
Alex Gadd:I used to bartend up there and they would come in after a gig and play pool at the chance yeah, until whatever time that was a good scene for not only jam band music but it was definitely felt like the jam band thing, the second generation after the dead was happening in burlington.
Sam Elkin:It did. It was thriving. There was a lot. There was a lot of that. I felt like there was a lot of reggae too, if I'm not mistaken, but definitely there. Yeah, there, there was a lot of that kind of a jam bands a loose term, I don't. I so not descriptive in a way, but there was a lot of that. And funny, there was a lot of that. And funny story blues traveler. Years later we used to manage blues traveler, so came full circle did you tell me?
Sam Elkin:but no, but c3 management at one point managed blues travelers.
Alex Gadd:So they were great. They were down to earth, regular guys.
Sam Elkin:They were big too they sold a lot of records too, of four right, wasn't that four? Yeah, they sold a lot of yeah copies of that. Yeah, yeah, they were big, great band. Yeah, they were a great band, my grade good.
Alex Gadd:Okay, what's the most recent concert that you've seen as a fan, as an attendee, not for work? Was it a pearl jam show we saw together last fall geez, it might be.
Sam Elkin:No, I went to a to Vampire Weekend. Vampire Weekend did a play the Eclipse. The Eclipse that just happened here like a month ago. They did a daytime show and stopped like right then and stopped during the eclipse. That's the last one I went to. I just went and enjoyed, watched the show. It was awesome. They're a great band because it was during the eclipse and while the weather wasn't great and it wasn't super clear, it was really like it was a very. That was a very unique and special experience and I had a few friends in for it and you don't see daytime shows very often like that. I was right here in town at the amphitheater and it was. That was cool. That was cool. I saw nickel creek last night. They did acl taping at the acl tv show and so I went and sat by there for a little bit.
Alex Gadd:That's cool. I was going to ask because Austin is really one of the greatest music cities in America do you take advantage of just going down and seeing what's there?
Sam Elkin:I mean, there are some clubs down there for sure. No, I don't really that's sad. We say all the time that we need to go do more. We don't really that's sad. I should, I should we say all the time that we need to go do more? Um, we doubt I. I feel like they do plenty and then when I'm home I want to just be home, but there's more that we could do more. We still catch it like a decent amount of shows they feel like. Generally these days it's more like on the bigger shows I'm gonna make through, like with you with pearl jam, more like the arena shows and some of the bigger like the theater shows or amphitheater.
Sam Elkin:I feel like that's where I'm at these days when I'm home, versus going out to a club show on a Tuesday night. It doesn't really happen so much anymore, which there's plenty I miss. There's lots of stuff I'm like I should go to that and then you know we don't. I could do.
Alex Gadd:I could do a better job like you said, if your work is, if you're in baseball and you work for a baseball team, you don't necessarily want to go catch a ball game. You want to get away from work. I get it. I find that for me, nowadays I go to mostly arena and stadium shows because that's where the bands that I am interested in. The bands have gotten more successful so they're not playing clubs anymore. So I'm stuck either at the arena stadium level for the bigger bands or the amphitheater level for the legacy bands.
Sam Elkin:Yeah, and a lot of bands. There's just so many more big shows these days. Lots of stadium shows, lots of arena shows. There's bands that are like certainly have a lot of bands having a moment and playing big rooms, and there's just that are like certainly have a lot of bands having a moment and playing big rooms and there's just a lot of action out there. We've got so much music coming through here, through everywhere. There's just a ton of stuff on the road right now. It's great if you're as a fan. There's a lot of good stuff to see out there. Sometimes it makes it harder side just from a booking standpoint. That's not my job, uh there, but I know that it can be challenging. But the arena we have here, which is fairly new, where you and I went, we get so much stuff through there, crazy that's a great room too.
Alex Gadd:I really like that place. Great sight lines not too big.
Sam Elkin:Yep, nope, good size. It's a. It's very easy, it's right here, we can basically we can walk there from our house yeah, I walk back to my hotel after the pearl yeah, exactly, yes, that's the night yeah, it's great now for the level of activity that you're seeing.
Alex Gadd:Do you think that is still an outcropping of the post-covid thing where everyone's just trying to make as book as many dates and play as much as they can, because that's where the money's at in music these days? Is that just I? Mean is COVID related to that, or is that just where the music business has gone? Is that you make your money out on the road?
Sam Elkin:I think that's where. I think that's where people are making their money. And then there's also people like people want to go see shows. There's a lot of, there's a lot of appetite for it out there, a lot of stuff this does really well and, like I said, we have 30 festivals and that doesn't. And then on top of that there's all, the, all, the, just the touring, all the concerts you know, of all different kinds. So there's just, there's a lot of action out there, which I guess that good for fans. I think that. I think it is. I think it is, it's lucrative for bands to be out there yeah, do you have a memory of your longest concert?
Alex Gadd:have you? Because you've seen so many shows, and especially fish and dead shows can go on for quite a bit are those your longest shows? Another show that stands out I mean it's gotta be.
Sam Elkin:although I yeah, no one does shows like that I feel like anymore like those the set break people do, but not like those days where I just maybe it's also good, maybe they do exist, and I just don't want to sit through a show that long anymore or can't sit through a show like that anymore. But it's got to be one of those two bands.
Alex Gadd:Yeah, For me it was seeing Fish at New Year's Eve multiple times and all those shows.
Sam Elkin:Oh yeah, right, Four right five hours with the two intermissions yeah, that's got to be right for sure. I've seen some long like my morning jacket shows too, but I don't think anything touches like those hour long sagas of dead or fish shows yeah, at the time it seemed fun.
Alex Gadd:Now it doesn't seem like I could hold out I would. I don't know that I could make it through a whole five hour fish concert no, with the set break and all that I could make it through a whole five-hour Phish concert.
Sam Elkin:No, with the set break and all that. I'm sure I could. But yeah, just my like. I don't want to say my patience has changed, but just it's different. It's I, but I don't also try. Maybe I would, because people still do Phish's touring. They do the. I always loved all the you know, mayhem and fun stuff you can do during set break. I wouldn't trade those days for anything. I love those.
Alex Gadd:I love those days. All right. Well, you talked about your most, one of the most memorable concerts you've seen, but if you had to tell me the best live act you've ever seen, who would?
Sam Elkin:that be One of my favorite live acts, which is Tom Petty. The Heartbreakers are my personal favorites, so I was lucky enough to see him when he did his side project, which is called Mud Crutch, and they played the Troubadour in LA, which is a very small room. This is probably back in 2008,. Maybe or nine, something like that, or no, maybe seven, I can't remember now, but anyway it it was. That was insane. It was amazing, and I'm a huge tom petty fan, so that, and also seen some great radio head shows, they're one of the best live acts that you can see, in my opinion yeah, mud crutch was tom petty's first band, right.
Alex Gadd:He and mike campbell and ben montench had another band before the heartbreakers and they got back together.
Sam Elkin:Yep yeah, they did a couple tours. They gave it, had another record and they played a bunch of mudcrush stuff and they also played a bunch of heartbreaker stuff and yeah, he's top tight he's the greatest.
Alex Gadd:He was great, there's no question. Yeah, I saw him at the garden in 95 and just loved it.
Sam Elkin:It was amazing yeah, I saw he's up there for for artists that I've seen the most. Not surely as much as like the dead, but I've seen top any a lot of times, including his last show ever oh, you were there and it was at the hollywood bowl and the hollywood bowl.
Alex Gadd:Yeah, at least you got to see him the last time.
Sam Elkin:Yeah.
Alex Gadd:Yeah, how was that show?
Sam Elkin:It was good. It wasn't like I remember it was like the end of a tour. He seemed like he was tired. It wasn't like I don't. I remember it was like the greatest heartbreaker show I've ever seen. But those shows never disappointed, really Like they're always like. They always deliver. That band was tight. I don't have a memory of walking away from a Heartbreaker show being like, oh man, that show was not that great, which is pretty rare. I feel like most bands your favorite bands still like they still like to have a bad night.
Alex Gadd:Sure, bands have bad nights. I'm sure the Heartbreakers did too. They just were less prone to it than most.
Sam Elkin:Yeah, exactly, exactly. So still, I'm sure the Heartbreakers did too. They just were less prone to it than most. Yeah, exactly.
Alex Gadd:Exactly.
Sam Elkin:So still listen to it, still what I listen to.
Alex Gadd:Still, what I listen to most in my car is something yeah, what I always found fascinating was that in Gainesville, florida, they were able to whip together a band that all became preeminent rock and roll musicians studio musicians, songwriters Like the whole band was good, every one of them and they were all just laying around there for tom petty to work with. And the story of how he met mike campbell. And mike campbell was living some other guy that he was already in a band with, living in his back room and didn't talk and was super shy and came out and started playing and petty was like, oh yeah, that guy, that's the guy I'm gonna keep um running down a dream to have documentary on top brain.
Sam Elkin:Heartbreakers is if you haven't seen, it's a great watch, oh I own it actually.
Alex Gadd:Yeah, the dvds huge great.
Sam Elkin:If any listeners have not seen it, I highly recommend it right on excellent.
Alex Gadd:Have you ever discovered a band? And now, having never heard of them at a show, right like an? Old usually that's an opening act.
Sam Elkin:I've found so many opening acts where I was like, wow, they're much better than I expected I know I have and I was trying to think about this and I saw this question and I'm like I'm honestly like a bit of the worst. You're remembering stuff, I know, and I'll probably wake up in the middle of the night and be like, oh man, why did?
Sam Elkin:I say that Nothing jumps to mind and that's really sad, but I can't think of anything right now and I'm going to continue to think about it because I guarantee there is I, just nothing's jumping to mind.
Alex Gadd:I saw Bon Jovi open for the Scorpions in 1984, and I was like, wow, Bon Jovi's good.
Sam Elkin:Wow, I saw and I was like wow, bon Jovi's good. Wow, I did see Guns N' Roses open for Aerosmith back in 88. Yeah, but you already knew who they were Exactly. We went to see it, but still, that was a great show.
Alex Gadd:Oh yeah.
Sam Elkin:I bet. Look, Aerosmith was at the height of their first renaissance. Yeah, that was big, though Guns was huge back then. That was awesome that was awesome.
Alex Gadd:Do you have any memories of a guest performer coming out that you were surprised by, and pleasantly surprised by?
Sam Elkin:yeah, the thing that jumps to mind is you know, it's in 2000. I don't know, maybe 12 or 13. Eminem was one of the headliners and Rihanna came out with him, which was awesome. That was a huge year for Lala. Eminem was the Friday night headliner. It was a three-day festival back then. It was a Friday night headliner and it was awesome.
Sam Elkin:That must have set the place on fire. It was huge. It was really fun. The only time I've ever seen Rihanna was awesome. That was big. That must have set the place on fire. It was huge, it was really fun. I think the only time I've ever seen Rihanna was there.
Alex Gadd:Do you have a favorite concert venue? You've probably been to more venues than just about anyone I know.
Sam Elkin:Yeah, From an arena standpoint you can't beat Madison Square Garden. It's hard to beat that room.
Alex Gadd:And everyone's so amped up when they play there.
Sam Elkin:Taj Mahal.
Alex Gadd:Everything is good there.
Sam Elkin:It's like bands play there. They sell it out. It's an anomaly. It's like it's Madison Square Garden, it's just the greatest.
Sam Elkin:They play right out there, greatest arena in the world which it is, I just was there last week to see the Knicks, which is also awesome Not a concert, but I love Stubbs here in Austin. It's a great room. Red Rocks is a great room. I used to love the Bowery Ballroom. I'd go and see shows there. The Metro in Chicago is one of the greatest rock clubs in this country, or that I've ever been to. Yeah, those are the ones that fill more. San Francisco is always a special place. The Auditorium Theater in Chicago, too, is another beautiful room.
Alex Gadd:There's a lot of good rooms out there. This is one of the things that I really can rely on you for, because I have not expanded my range the way you have, by any means and there's a ton of new ones.
Sam Elkin:There's all sorts of new ones. In new york they're opening up refurbished old theaters that I haven't been to, and there's just there's a lot of good stuff out there yeah, there is.
Alex Gadd:What's the venue where you've attended the most shows? I wondered if it was tanglewood or if it was someplace in austin. It might be tangled, it might be tangled, the stubs.
Sam Elkin:I've seen a lot of shows with stubs, even before I lived here, that's.
Sam Elkin:That is tough. I mean, I saw a lot of shows in tanglewood too. I saw a lot of shows in the bowery ballroom too, and the living in new york. I don't know, that's a tough one. I might say it might be Stubbs, just because I've been. I've been here for 15 years, so I don't know it might be, I don't know.
Sam Elkin:Oh, again, another most memorable concert there's a couple. One was this is probably 2014-ish, something like that during South by Southwest, there was just one brands brands were coming in and starting to do a lot of like big activations and started getting a lot of Jay-Z and Kanye be doing stuff, and. And then one year, samsung was just that was the first year they were doing stuff. And and at at South by and tribe called quest opening for Prince. Well, that was a. That was one of that's a top fiver. It was awesome. Head to four in the morning, as he does something like three or four in the morning and Prince is amazing.
Sam Elkin:Tribe of Wild Quest opening. It was like I don't usually use the word epic very often, but it was incredible. It was incredible that. And then, whenever I think of the top five shows which, of course, I can't remember. I'm sure I'm forgetting all sorts of stuff, but another one is some of it's the environment too, but I'm a huge LCD sound system fan and they did a show, an after show, at Lala in Chicago at the Metro actually Celine's birthday, and it was just one of those just like incredible nights. So those are three of my favorite shows of all times.
Alex Gadd:Thank you, that's great. So you talked about the tom petty documentary, which I found fascinating. Do you have a favorite live concert film?
Sam Elkin:there's that. If there's one thing I just hands down I have an answer for, that is the last waltz. Best, honestly, like. If I could ever. If I could go to any concert ever, that might be the. That would probably be the concert I would go to. Yeah, I'm a huge band fan, like. The band is easily one of my favorite of all time, and that is insane that you could ever do that today.
Alex Gadd:No, you probably could, but it would take so much wrangling.
Sam Elkin:And a lot of money. A ticket would be a lot of money. That was like what? A $5 ticket probably, or something like that on Thanksgiving night in San Francisco. That story is great. Everything about it is great. If you read Bill Graham Presents the book Bill Graham Presents where he talks about that night, it's just incredible. I mean it's awesome. We probably watched yeah, I probably watched that. I, honestly, in in burlington the vm probably watched that 500 times more. We had it on repeat.
Alex Gadd:It's so good I still watch it. Yeah, I've watched it multiple times in the last year. Oh, it's so good. How about a live album? These are things that probably younger people don't even associate with music, like a concert film or a live album, because they listen to singles and watch videos one by one on the internet. But do you have a live album that meant something more to you than others?
Sam Elkin:other than that, because not only the movie, but the last Waltz album is also one. It meant more to me. I don't know, I don't think for me.
Alex Gadd:I had two. I had Kiss Alive 2. Kiss Alive 2, when I was in my formative music years, that was the record that was like, oh my God, this music can be this it's not just the Beatles and Bob Dylan. So that was the record that woke me up. And then the Kinks' One For the Road was groundbreaking for me and I really fell in love with that record and I still listen to that record regularly love the kinks.
Sam Elkin:I haven't listened to it lately, but one album that I used to listen to all the time was meters live on the clean mary, which was this I'm a huge new orleans music fan, the meters in particular. Amazing. This and that was a. It was on the clean mary in new orleans and it was a party thrown by paul linda mccartney. I think it might have been her birthday, if I remember correctly. It's incredible.
Alex Gadd:That's the first one that comes to mind.
Sam Elkin:I'm looking for recommendations yeah, I'll go find it. Yeah, that's a good that. That's a great one. I actually find I'd like to find that on vinyl. You listen to vinyl a lot.
Alex Gadd:I don't even have a record player anymore, you don't? I have two big boxes of LPs and I just hold them, thinking one day I'll get another record player.
Sam Elkin:I love it. I'm part of a record club called Vinyl Me Please and I go in phases. It's so much easier, obviously, these days with any kind of streaming music, but it's fun to put on the albums.
Sam Elkin:And I like having them and there's some fun stuff that you can get on album and it's fun when you're entertaining people. It's so much. It's amazing how much you have to. You have to switch them over, you have to pay attention if you're cooking, it's just it's not the easiest thing to do, but it is a great sound and I'm not like a crazy audiophile like who like needs to have like certain speakers and my ear isn't like that crazy like that, but I love listening to records yeah, I think there's also just a an interest level if you're entertaining and you put on an lp.
Alex Gadd:That just doesn't happen every day, so it's cool yeah, I know, yeah, that's great, really is.
Sam Elkin:I know I need to do more so when you get ready. When you're ready to get rid of your records, let me know.
Alex Gadd:Come, come take a look I them, I'll get them to you. Are there any stories you can share with us about musicians that you've hung with backstage? Anything interesting, fun, nice musician that you can share?
Sam Elkin:I've become friendly with certainly a number of bands over the years. There's definitely lots of stories of that, not necessarily hanging with people backstage, but like interactions with people backstage obviously. You see a lot of it. I'm trying to think of anything fun and like we were. We opened the cosmopolitan hotel in las vegas. We, we booked that and we did.
Sam Elkin:We threw this opening night party on New Year's Eve and that was great people watching at that event and Jay-Z and Coldplay played and Celine and I went back after Coldplay, we went back to the bathroom, we were vaccinated and Celine's a huge Jay-Z fan and all of a sudden they made everybody stop and we're just standing there and then he rolls up and it's like Tom Ford talks and we're just staying there and then, like he rolls up and it's like you know, tom Ford talks and it's the year's Eve to go on stage and he basically just walked like right between us and this is a long time ago and it was just like one of those. It was just and then and then rolled Beyonce down, rolls down, and at that point, kanye and all these other people, and it was just like one of those awesome moments.
Alex Gadd:We the year's eve and it was just. It was a good one, just thinking about your bucket list.
Sam Elkin:Are there any venues left that you haven't been to that you really are like, before I die, I want to go to this place. Yeah, I've never been to the ryman, I just it's. It's hard to believe and, considering I definitely spend time in astral and which and I love that town I have not been there. That is that's the one that comes to mind that I uh, that I need to see, or I want to see um, we're having our eyes on the show at the rhyme and we're gonna go see john batiste, and then we just didn't this year. If we were just, we just didn't.
Alex Gadd:I'll make it there sometime soon and then if you could see anyone perform, you said, the band is probably that show. The last waltz show in san francisco would be your choice.
Sam Elkin:Any others that you really just wish you had seen I mean the band that they're at their peak is really is for sure that band for me. I'm sure I saw them like some incarnation of it somewhere down the road later on it probably did burlington, but yeah, they were, they are. You know, they're the top or the heat for me yeah, I saw in burlington at the chapel.
Alex Gadd:I saw yorma and rick danko and jonathan edwards play three sets in a row. Oh, wow, and that was the Rick Danko set. It felt great, it was wow. This is like seeing the five Rick Danko songs that I love from the band.
Sam Elkin:Yeah, I love him so much. He's great. There's lots of stuff. Honestly, I mentioned Bob Marley earlier, but I would love to see Bob Marley as an adult, if you will, so you could remember it. Exactly. The list goes on. I could keep going, I could go on and on. There's so many people I would love to have seen, but, yeah, I'd put the band up okay, just looking forward now.
Alex Gadd:Do you have any tickets to upcoming shows that you're going to as a fan?
Sam Elkin:I'm going a couple pearl jam shows. I've never this is oh actually. Here's another bucket list I have I've yet to see a show at fenway park and specifically pearl jam. I've I've missed petty when he played there and I'm sad that I did, but but pearl does playing there this year. So they're doing a bunch of stadiums, baseball stadiums, so right, I'm gonna catch one at one at wrigley and then and then a fenway. I'm excited about those tickets to anything else, nothing I can think of.
Alex Gadd:Sometimes I make the decision before last minute to go to some of the stuff. Yeah, and then, finally, what question didn't I ask you that I should have asked? Is there any story that is out there for you to? To tell that you're able to tell a public forum?
Sam Elkin:I mean listen, I think I've seen like I love festivals for this, for the fact that you can just see so much different stuff and you can learn, just like you said, you can discover so much music, which is why I'm to this day. I always loved working on festivals. I did before I even worked at this company. I did that was I got my start working at festivals and I just I think there's such a great special place to to see and experience people and music, and I was recently talking about the Telluride Bluegrass, actually last night with a good friend about that's where I. That was the first festival I worked on in 1991, or something like that. I need you to come out this year and so I've been in many years and so going back to some of those roots festivals is something that I find, if not this year, I need to do soon.
Alex Gadd:But there's a lot of, just a lot of great stuff out there.
Sam Elkin:It really is. I encourage people to go out and check stuff out you, I encourage you to go check stuff out. Come visit, it really is. I encourage people to go out and check stuff out. You, I encourage you to go check stuff out. Come visit, Come to one of our festivals sometime. They're it's, they're a lot of fun. I will take you up on it, Please do. I don't have as much fun as I used to I have. I'm past my heyday of really having a good time, but it's they're just like it's.
Alex Gadd:Yeah, my intent at going to see shows now is to see the show those shenanigans that I used to get into. I just don't. That's not. I'm too old, not that other people shouldn't do it. Go for it.
Sam Elkin:No, I'm all for shenanigans. Yeah, I'm all for it. I love shenanigans.
Alex Gadd:All right, sam. Thank you so much. We've had as our guest today Sam Elkin, and that's it for today's conversation. We'll be back next Tuesday and if you like what you heard today, we'd appreciate it if you'd subscribe or follow and make sure you get notified about every new episode, and please tell your friends Additionally. We want to know what you think. Please leave us a comment and we'll try to respond to every one of them. The Rock-N- Roll Show Podcast is a World Highway Media production. No-transcript.