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Best of Olympia 2019: Roxy Boggio

Writer's pick: Best Show Booker

Seaside Tryst -- one of the awesome bands Roxy Boggio brought through Olympia. (Credit: Isaac Chavez)

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There are so many things that go into putting together a good show: the quality of the bands, the nature of the venue, the steps taken in ensuring that folks will even show up to the show, and a million more moving parts. If there is one element of a music scene's ecosystem that gets too frequently lost in the conversation, though, it is the booker. Before anyone can even think of showering and heading out to take in a night of music, the booker must first undergo the thankless task of putting together a bill of exciting acts, assembling a cohesive collection of touring bands and local talent. As someone who's done a little booking in the past, I can attest that this is a much more complex job than it can appear.

The best booker in Olympia is Roxy Boggio. Over the past year or two, I had the pleasure of writing up many of the fantastic shows that she put together at the Cascadia Brewing Co., which unfortunately shut down suddenly in January. Boggio didn't wait long to land her next gig, though, and is now the booker at the Octapas Cafe. Judging by the shows she already has lined up over there, she'll be bringing her usual talent for setting up eclectic, intriguing bills that mingle with indie rock, psychedelia, hip-hop, country, bluegrass and electronica. There's a vibrancy and a sense of discovery in just about every show she puts on, which marks this as a big get for the Octapas Cafe.

Speaking with Boggio recently, I brought up two trains of thought people have about booking a show -- do you have three or four bands that are sonically similar to each other, or do you shake things up by having three or four bands working in different genres?

"I think the eclectic show works, but I want to make sure that everyone also enjoys that other eclectic act," said Boggio. "I want bands to be comfortable with expanding their genre, which also means expanding their audience. If you're at a hip-hop show, and a punk band shows up, you have an audience that's probably more into hip-hop, but they may see this punk band and be blown away. I want people to go to my shows and be like, ‘Why haven't I been listening to this? This is so good.' I want people to continue to be surprised."

While Boggio's home base is currently the Octapas Cafe, she also books for other venues via her Roxy's Rock'N'Rocks Productions moniker.

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