#SaveOurStages weirdo fundraiser anthology book available now

I’m very tall. I get to concerts very early. My whole life has meant accidentally being a nightmare for the people that show up after I do, and sometimes they take offense to that. It’s odd to try to apologize for who you are and how you are shaped, as someone throws a beer can at your head for being taller than them and having shown up two hours early. Ugh. It is what it is.

#SaveOurStages is a nation-wide movement to raise money to help venues and musicians survive the coronavirus shutdown. We are so close to the light at the end of the tunnel, and to lose any more venues in these final few months would just feel stupid. Somehow we’d regret it even more.

When I moved here from LA, the thing I worried about the most was the concert scene. In LA I lived at venues every night of the week. My joy was seeing bands. I panicked a bit that these folks wouldn’t roll through KC. In my first week here, one of my favorite bands in the world hit recordBar. The last time I saw them perform previous, it was at a stadium in San Diego where the venue audio was terrible. Here, I was among less than 100 people crowding toward the front of the stage, and quite frankly stunned that I went from a half-mile away to spitting distance.

This is all to say that the KC live music scene is what gave me sanity. And I can’t lose it. And that’s part of why this thing happened.

Me and my friend Meghan put together a book. 84 authors (including dozens of huge name folks) contributed stories to a book we just released. CURTAINS is a flash-fic anthology, wherein everyone involved wrote their own interpretations of what “the last concert” looks like. Some of them are funny or sci-fi; some of them are personal or bleak. Some of them are set at the end of the world. Some of them are set in Rome burning. It’s a delightful dabble in the concept of shows, in a time when we’re all forgetting what shows even looked like.

I’m hoping this helps get places like the Rino, recordBar, and Truman towards the point where shows exist again. Not just them, but everyone here. God, I need us to do it.

Here’s our big weird book. I hope some of you love it.

Featuring:

Abby Denton
Alasdair Stuart
Alec Hodgman
Alex Kane
Ali Trotta
Alissa Anderson
Anthony John Agnello
Anthony Oliveira
Anya Stanley
Ariel Fisher
Arthur Chu
Brittany Knupper
Brock Wilbur
Carli Velocci
Chance Dibben
Christopher Melkus
Cory McCullough
Dan Wilbur
Danielle Ryan
David Lindsey Pittman
Dennis Detwiller
Ed Grabianowski
Elisa Meléndez
Elizabeth Sampat
Emma Taussig
Eric Allen Hatch
Gabe Durham
Gail Folsom
Graham Reznick
Hazel Monforton
Ivy Dupler
Jacob Oller
Javy Gwaltney
Jeff Macfee
Joel Couture
John Wiswell
John-Michael Bond
Jonathan Charles Bruce
Jonathan Sims
Jordan Shiveley
Kara Love
Kayla Cagan
Kris Ligman
L J Goulding
Lily Alexandroff
Liz Cook
Lucy O’Brien
Luke O’Neil
Mackenzie Bartlett
Matt Donato
Meghan Ball
Meghan Cross
Michael Yichao
Michele Catalano
Mikaela Gorman
Mike Cavalier
Mikey Neumann
Nat Brehmer
Nate Ewert-Krocker
Nathan Grayson
Nick Spacek
Nissa Campbell
October Keegan
Olivia Messer
Orrin Grey
Peter Hunter
Rachel Jane Andelman
Richard Kadrey
Richard Rouse III
Robby Karol
Roger Feeley-Lussier
Ryan Larson
Samuel Bass
Sarah Gailey
Sarah Jane
Sarah Pinsker
Scott Owen
Susan Arendt
Thor Benson
Trevor Henderson
Will Harrison
Woodward & Bernstein
Xalavier Nelson Jr.
Zach Heltzel