[Danielle Balocca]: Hey listeners, this is Danielle. And Shelly. Shelly is a radical Dravidian and racial equity activist. And Danielle is a community mobilizer and changemaker.
[Chelli Keshavan]: And this is the Medford Bites podcast. Every two weeks, we chew on the issues facing Medford and deliver bites of information about the city by lifting the expertise of our castmates.
[Danielle Balocca]: Join us in discussion about what you hope for the future of Medford. And as always, tell us where you like to eat. All right, Charlie and I are here today. If you don't mind just introducing yourself, just your name, pronouns, and a bit about who you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, thanks for having me. My name's Brian McAusland. I'm the owner of Eventham and Ticket Union here in Medford, Mass.
[Danielle Balocca]: Great. So Brian, every podcast we start off with the same question, which is, what is your favorite place to eat in Medford and what do you like to eat there?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we are still, I'm still exploring the neighborhood here, and so we're kind of stopping by, we've stopped by the more, our neighbors first. So there's Eddie's up the street, there's Nappy's, there's Alfredo's. So we've kind of stopped by those places. I'd probably say right now, I love them all, but Nappy's is a quick walk right up the street here. really friendly environment. The owners are really lovely, and so we're supporting them right now. I'll give them my top, my number one of the week.
[Danielle Balocca]: Correct me if I'm wrong, but Nappy's is famous for not having a menu? Is that, you just sort of ask for what you want?
[SPEAKER_00]: Kind of, yeah. So I learned about Nappy, I think it's Nappy, right? Yeah. And I was trying to order from them one day, and I couldn't find a menu. And I was like, what's going on? So I walked up there, and they're like, what do you want? What do you need? Chicken parm? Does that work? She's like, that sounds great. Okay. So yeah, I don't think they do. And I think, um, I think, uh, they have a really great local, fun, family oriented. five over there. So that's kind of our thing. So definitely dig it.
[Danielle Balocca]: That might be the first not being mentioned.
[Chelli Keshavan]: I think it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is it really?
[Chelli Keshavan]: It's definitely a new way of making the menu work.
[Danielle Balocca]: Great. Well, thank you. So we're here in your space on Salem Street. So I'm wondering if you could tell us a little bit about your business.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely. So Event Them is the company. I started that early 2000s when out of college I realized that it was really hard to get shows and play. I was in different bands. I went to school for music and business and photography actually too. So I was really tied in with like music and art. And it was really hard to get in anywhere. It was really hard to book a band or pick your artist because it would always be, how many people can you bring? Or it was very much about how can the venue benefit the most. And I understood that, but it was really hard to be able to give them exact numbers. You know, you never know who's going to show up. So I started kind of booking venues myself. So I basically was like, will you tell me how much it'll cost for the room? So I kind of accepted responsibility for it, didn't have to answer those questions and just started creating my own shows and booking some bands, some artists, and kind of creating these events. So it was an event that was created. And yeah, it was just about giving people an opportunity to have a place to participate in or go to an event. And yeah, we've been in Somerville for a bunch of years now. And we decided to keep our location, our presence in Somerville. but opening up the Eventham Studios here in Medford, which kind of not only gives us an opportunity to continue what we're doing in creating events and opportunity at local businesses, but we actually can do it here now too.
[Danielle Balocca]: So this is an events, I think when we first met you told me about the ticketing, the ticket concierge services.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: Which I had never heard of, but I might be, I might be like not too hip. So could you describe what that is?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're very hip. I think you're hip. Thanks. Um, so yeah, so I'd say it was around like 2007, uh, I was doing events and, um, a gentleman who owned a local ticketing company, knew that I was doing events and was like, hey, I need help. I own a ticketing business. And basically, you know, we buy and sell tickets to local events. And so, you know, I was still getting off my feet wet and still kind of getting going. So I was like, all right, extra work is great. And so I started getting into ticketing. And it was, it was really, it was exciting. It was, it was fun because I get to go to Cool shows and have really good seats, but it was really interesting to learn about that element of event stuff, right? and You know people spend a lot of money on tickets. They don't understand I mean I can talk about dynamic pricing. I can talk about all the things the Taylor Swift thing We could probably do another podcast about that. I can tell you a little bit more but You know, what it really comes down to is I really enjoyed giving people that experience. You know, somebody wants to take their dad to one more Red Sox game while they're still mobile, or a mother wants to take her daughter to their first concert, you know. And so that was really enjoyable because I could watch the markets, I could really dig and do that work for them. And yeah, so was doing that for a bunch. And then when the original owner retired, I kind of Took the ticket business, I rebranded it as Ticket Union because it's more of uniting all the elements of ticketing. Buying, selling, requesting, market analysis, really trying to keep it in the community. In theory, you could have two neighbors and one person is selling tickets online to a company that's based in California. and then their neighbor could be buying those exact same tickets online for a company in California. So what's happening is that the person selling it is making less because they have to pay online seller fees, and the person buying it has to pay more because they have to pay for online selling fees. Essentially, what you're doing is people are making less on what they have, people are paying more for what they want to get, and then the taxable income is double time going to a different state, so you're leaving your community. My goal is to try to keep that in a hub.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Very cool. I think while you're talking and thinking about outside looking in at the very least what it might require for artists to sort of practice and commit to their craft but also commit to sort of the marketing and kind of lifting their own profile and putting my mind to how much work that takes and maybe if that's a new perspective for folks or if there are maybe older artists who aren't kind of leveraging maybe social spaces like younger folks are. Just while you're talking, I'm thinking about how places and spaces like yours might be so valuable in kind of connecting folks and creating pipelines.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. I mean, it's kind of tough, right? You're a musician or artist, like your passion is in your art, right? I would assume. I mean, it's kind of like, I don't know, it's a comparison. If you liked riding your bike, you would ride your bike all day. You wouldn't jump on a skateboard and then ride on your bike and then walk and then, you know, take a parachute. You know what I mean? It's just like you're on that trajectory and you have you and you have your art, your harnessing, right? So when you add these other elements that are important, people need to know about you. And it's really hard to connect, especially with original music more than anything. People, for the most part, they just want to dance or have familiarity when they hear stuff. Many people do. Their ability to escape through music or listeners the fact that they connect so easily. And so when you have original music, it's a hard selling point. So yeah, so when you have social media and advertising and promoting, it's really hard. And so yeah, what we do here is that we try to promote shows that we have, but we promote other people's shows, and we try to create connections and bonds. It's really hard to do anything on your own these days, right? And so we try to create the ability so people don't have to do that. you know, we do, we have a Common Roots is something we started for local business owners. And it's like a local business connection group. And it's no stress, you can miss meetings, you can, you don't have to do the referral things and all this stuff. It's encouraged, but it's really about just meeting people and then knowing that, you know, you've got somebody in your corner if you need an electrician or if you need somebody that does computers and stuff. And the same thing applies to artists and musicians as we're trying to make those connections here and at shows and events that we're doing.
[Danielle Balocca]: That's great. Yeah and so you said you have you've been working in Somerville for a while right and you're newer to Medford you guys are hoping hoping to like like really open this space soon. What are your hopes for like for what you're like kind of hoping to bring to Medford or hope to see in in Medford as you kind of begin your work here?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know, just like a lot of cities and towns in, you know, the greater Boston area, it's changing. It's changing rapidly. You know, it's in good ways and in ways that maybe aren't good or just different rather. For here in Medford, we just always felt that there's a need out here. Somerville's great. It's our home. We do a lot out there, and that's where our base is still. But there's a lot of competition. There's a lot going on out there. You have an event. You have a show. And, you know, I remember when I'd be promoting a show or telling people, this is a really good show. You should check this out if you want, like, you know, and there would be, I'll try to make it. I already said I was going to two other things. And, you know, where do you, where do you go with that? Do you, you know, you want. I don't know these other shows per se, but I want people to be able to go to these other shows. I want them to support it if I want them to come to the ones I'm doing, but at the same time, I'm not going to be like, skip theirs and come to this one instead. It'll be better. That's not the right thing. But, you know, we felt that here in Medford doesn't have that as much, right? And so it felt like it was a community that we could really support. And that's kind of what we were hoping to do without having too much, not necessarily competition, but conflicts. But still be able to promote and encourage other things that are going on. But this just being another opportunity.
[Danielle Balocca]: Hosting shows, helping to plan shows and other events. You shared with me, I think before recording, some of the other stuff that you guys do. Birthday parties, other events that you support, ticketing for events, anything else?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, absolutely. For the event stuff, typically up to about this point, everything's been out of, not in-house, right? So we do an event at a park or we do it in public, so we do a lot. We help Union Square Main Streets with Fluff Festival in Somerville. Very big event, like 15,000 people in like six hours. So we do the booking and the staging and stuff like that. We do the Chandler Street Block Party for Pride in Boston. We assisted on some other events for Pride in June as well. But a lot of those are typically, you know, not are not in-house so When we're talking about like doing other events and stuff like that, like now we can do stuff here so we can do ticketing form So let's say you wanted to throw it on an event. We can do ticketing like a bent bright at a local level Our strong suit when it comes to ticketing is more Already existing events like hey, I want to go to this. It's sold out. How can I get to them? But you know, we can facilitate Those other elements to ticketing but then like here You know we can we want to have this podcast room so, you know, we can people can talk about events or they can talk about whatever they can It's their craft. It's their interest right? You don't have to paint a picture. You don't have to play an instrument you can I still think that honest and open discussions and also other elements to recording that we want to put the recording studio downstairs. So I hope to have that done by our opening in May. So we'll be able to basically host other events on a grander scheme, you know, like, you know, this is an event, right? It's kind of like, Event them is really, I guess the best way I can put it is that what is a common, the most common word that's used for search, search for something online. Google right so Google is a name of a company it doesn't mean search for something online it means the company but people have gotten just so accustomed to Google it Google that right it's the same thing as event them so we want to kind of almost like You know, life is full of events, good and bad, it really is, but we're trying to give that impression where event is a verb. So, you want to take your daughter to their first concert, event them, go get tickets. Do you want to have a birthday party or show some art in our gallery here, a small thing, right, we can do that. We'll event them. If you want to do a podcast, a recording, this is an event. Events are always considered like concerts and stuff, but events are moments of your life that you want to hold with you, that you want to take with you where you go. And so that's kind of what we're trying to show and give people that experience.
[Chelli Keshavan]: It's incredible. To a certain extent, it feels like you're pushing for a level of culture shift or consciousness shift around how You can think about different moments or literally different events or parties and re-figure out what can be.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe I mean that's that's that's so that's a very positive Awesome way to put it. Um, you know, I don't know. I I the intent was never to create a culture shifter or anything like that, but I think oh my goodness, it's more about awareness and Just people recognizing, you know, I guess I Event is a very big word, right? It can be. It can be, oh, you're going to put on an event, and everybody's like, oh. Even the smallest things, like somebody's putting, like my daughter is 10 months old this week, and so she's a little firecracker. She's awesome. We're gonna do like a first birthday party and for a lot of people that's like pull your hair out. Oh my god There's gonna be little kids running around like it's a whole thing and it can really stress people out but like there's different there's a spectrum of that, right? Like, yeah, it can be, but it also can be a very, we can have like a small party or literally an event can just be a moment. Like it doesn't have to be a big thing. And so I think Instead of being afraid about if somebody was putting on a one-year-old birthday party, instead of being afraid because it's a lot to do and the cake and the kids and all this stuff, just realizing that there is a wide range of what an event could be and it could literally just being having two friends over, and just having a moment. And that is an event. Or it can be, hey, we're going to throw on a bash with 20,000 people to celebrate my daughter's one-year-old birthday. Which, I don't know. I don't think we'd get 20. Maybe 10.
[Danielle Balocca]: My experience is those one-year-old birthdays are more for the parents. I also feel like in my experience of Medford, I haven't been here as long as Shelly has, but people really like to be sort of like I have like critical lovers of the city so like if they find something that's gonna like make them feel connected to the city and like is local and is something that's like a space like yours people get really into it right. I think that they like to do things that support the kind of community-centered vibe of the city and so I feel like when places like this kind of come up people get really excited and they get It feels like the kind of vibe of your business fits well with I think what I've experienced sort of the We're a city, but also kind of like a small town feel sometimes. Yeah.
[Chelli Keshavan]: No, absolutely. I think we also have neighborhoods in Medford that very much have their own cultures. And so this might be a space that has a capacity to unify in ways that we may not have other pieces that are doing that right now. And we have some strong cultures in neighboring towns. So I think Medford's often concerned with who we can be. So this might be a platform.
[SPEAKER_00]: well, I think it can be a platform, but it's also I just You know we tell people we can fill in the gaps like just you know reach out to us and in other words somebody is like We just need a cornhole or a game for a day or something like that We have like like 20 something of them in the shadow back, you know but it's kind of like We don't have to put on an event for them. We've been working on this one element, and it's not ready yet, but it's called Eventlopedia. And what it is, it's a combination, it's just content. And the original idea is that, you know, people reach out to us and it's kind of like we can, I'm more than happy to talk to people all day long about how to help them. But sometimes they just want to like be sitting on their couch, look on their phone and just have a place that they can find out information. We started writing, you know, articles and reviews and top 10 places to get an ice cream on a Friday night in the area. We have like, you know, top five things to not forget for a Super Bowl party, right? Now you think, well, I think it was a top 10, right? But you think like the things that for a Super Bowl party that you would want is obviously, oh, like food and TVs, right? Some sports memorabilia stuff, right? But you don't think about, you need a whole bunch of napkins, right? You need a whole bunch of toilet paper, right? You have a Super Bowl party, you forget about toilet paper? I mean, the thing is all about like, you know, there's eating and sitting around like let's just, you know, so there's things like those type of things. So Eventlopedia, we'll have it probably by the end of the year done and out on the site. But if people want to do something, they can just go to the Eventfulpedia. If there's an article or some information or some references and resources for them, then that's great. We can provide that, and they don't have to call us. They can just kind of do it themselves. You can do stuff yourself. You just need to know how to do it.
[Danielle Balocca]: Are you guys having an event of your own to sort of introduce yourself to the community?
[SPEAKER_00]: We are, yes. So the May 6th, it's a Saturday. So yeah, the awning will be all up and the inside will be finally done, I hope. Knock on foam. Get some foam table. Yeah, it should be done, at least for the most part. We'll have some singer-songwriter kind of music stuff. Likely some games in the lot out back here. And yeah, it just be kind of an open house. We'll do giveaways for some upcoming events probably do Definitely Red Sox Bruins and maybe a country or I say country but like a like a concert rather. Yeah, so we'll do some ticket giveaways We're open if anybody has local vendors that they want to have here. We have some space for that our first local artists will be featured at that as well and And so yeah, just kind of come down all day, kind of see what we're doing here, and yeah, I don't know, play some games, eat some food, hang out.
[Chelli Keshavan]: So put it on the calendar.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: Be here. The sports tickets, we were driving, my son goes to school right around here. We were driving and he was like, he must have been noticing like a lot of people wearing Bruins jerseys or like their flags. Why does everybody like sports around here?
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: Well, this is the place. This is Boston. It really is. But now he wants jerseys of all kinds.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, does he really? Yeah, yeah sports is a thing around here. Yeah, it really is people go crazy Mm-hmm, and they spent a lot of money on it, too It's a big there's a reason There's some you know, some big stadiums and arenas and build-outs around here, you know, people are supporting it and that's great. Yeah It's their getaway. It's a they're interested in yeah, it's an event, right and
[Danielle Balocca]: We're excited about the potential of a new soccer stadium coming to Everett, I heard, and a women's soccer team. That would be awesome. That's our trip for this weekend. We're going to New York to watch women's soccer because that's the closest team to Boston at this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: No kidding. I've heard that they've been trying to get it in the Boston area for a long time just because At least for the local professional team, it's located too far outside of the city. And I think that a majority of its fan base, its followers, its interests are going to be more in the city. And so I think if they would be able to provide you know, a stadium for soccer slash football here, I think it would be great for the community. I really do. And it's also just another place that, you know, you can't, I'm sure you can't have professional sports games there all the time. It would be probably stuff you could, you know, your kids could play their championship game there or something. Maybe that's something that they do. And so I think that that's those are the moments you hold on to right like ten-year-old is in there's last you know championship game or something of their do you call it Little League? I don't even know what you would call it.
[Danielle Balocca]: I'm not sure. Football team just played there. Fenway. Was it Fenway? Yeah they played it for the Thanksgiving game.
[Chelli Keshavan]: I don't know my son's like guys chess is a sport. Oh really?
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, we did use to have a professional women's soccer team in the Boston Breakers. I thought they played at the Harvard Stadium, but new league, no team in the, well, new, it's been eight years. So hopefully, I have a lot of hope. I'll definitely buy season tickets to that team.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the breakers or the soccer team?
[Danielle Balocca]: They were, yeah. MLS is the revolution. They play in Foxborough. You're right, it's too far to drive. It is too far.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a train. No. But still, it takes a while.
[Danielle Balocca]: People are busy. It's a long time. Logistics of events certainly are a thing, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's the lacrosse teams? Lacrosse is like... The Canons. The Canons, that's what I was thinking of.
[Danielle Balocca]: Right, it's men's lacrosse. I played women's lacrosse in college and high school, so I have a lot of opinions about it. We can cut this out. I think it's the Boston Canons.
[SPEAKER_00]: There isn't a women's one? Are you surprised?
[Danielle Balocca]: What is it? No, there's not. I think lacrosse is such a small-time sport to begin with, and then there's never a women's counterpart to anything. For there to be a women's lacrosse team.
[Chelli Keshavan]: We do have a national team. I need some flashcards for this sports lingo. I know who crosses that weird net on the sticks. Yes, yes.
[Danielle Balocca]: I need to catch up. Yeah. Great. Well, is there anything else you want to mention before we wrap up for today?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know. What do you guys got going on this weekend? What's happening? Talk to me.
[Danielle Balocca]: Going to New York for shopping.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Going to New York. I am actually headed to the Black Policy Conference at the Harvard Kennedy School. Okay. So like, you know, fancy breakfast and some good policy talk.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Right? Like one bus ride away.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's awesome. I wonder if Jen's going to that. My partner, Jen, she's very active. She's an executive director of a foundation, too, in Boston, so she's always got something that she wants to support and go to.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Well, there are very few Chellies, so I just kind of... In all ways, very few Chellies, yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, no, I do think that's something about Medford that we don't talk enough about is the amount of education. Tufts is right here. I think our schools don't utilize that enough, but the community for sure, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, absolutely. And Tufts is like, they've got a green line stop now, right? Yeah. It's no joke. Yeah. Tufts is great.
[Danielle Balocca]: It's very fancy. We're making it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We actually did, I used to do, I used to go to a couple different shows over it. Not J-U-L, J-U-L is U-L-L, M-F-O, right? That's the Tufts station, radio station over there? Do you guys remember that? Oh, so Tufts radio, they have like a... like a radio station over there. And it's actually really, it's really good, actually. It was actually really good. And so I remember I used to do some stuff over there and just kind of, I think I played on a couple of different, yeah, played on a couple of different shows and just kind of, you know, talked a little bit about just, you know, things, whatever's going on in the world. But that was a great spot. But Tufts, We've actually, we've had, we've worked with some, their internship program. So we've supported Tufts in that way and tried to, we did, we've done Northeastern as well. But yeah, we'll be doing that again too. We tried to, the one that we did last year, for Northeastern was that we took on two interns and kind of not only like, it wasn't about like, you know, getting coffee and mailing, licking envelopes, right? Although, who licks an envelope now anyways, right? I don't even know if that's a thing. But we kind of, we curated a quote-unquote, a course, if you will, about how to put on an event, right? And so we kind of touched the basis about know basic just like research and contacting and reaching out to artists and bands and then preparing um you know outreach to venues but also we got into like permits so when you're dealing with um you know, different cities and their regulations and stuff like that. Like, you know, the permit process is different, you know, in a lot of different places. So kind of touching a base upon that. But in addition to it, while we were doing that, they were curating their own event at the same time. So the last day of the internship, or at least the last week, was their event that they put on. So, like, that was super fun. So we'll probably do that again with Tufts and they can do it here. It's fun, man. It's fun to kind of show people stuff. But it's also like, I don't know, if you're a good teacher, you're a good learner and good listener because it's not about just what you're putting out. It's what you can take from it. I learned a lot. So that was super fun.
[Danielle Balocca]: Sounds like a similar vibe to our podcast, like kind of learning what's happening in the community, trying to connect to those folks and then connect people to each other, which seems like will happen naturally with your space as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope so. And again, it doesn't all have to happen here. You know, reach out and say, hey, I have a question. How would you do this? This is how you should do it. Contact this or do this or just buy this. You'll be all set. You're fine. Or if they want to do something here, then that's great. Again, we're a large, small space, right? Our footprint is a decent size, but it's not like we can host events for 500 people or anything like that. But that's the point. We don't want to be. We want to be a place that people know where to go. that if they want to do something here, they can, or if they want to do something at their home, they can, or if they're like, I want to put on a gala, you know, you're like, all right, let's do this. Where can we do that locally? Like, where do you think we can do that? And like, that's the point is that We want to be able to help people put on things and support other local businesses and other establishments. Not be competitive. We don't have to worry about some of the elements either.
[Danielle Balocca]: I'm running through my head about what party I have up next.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know.
[Danielle Balocca]: I was going to say, do we have any oversized chests?
[SPEAKER_00]: things. You mentioned your son, right?
[Chelli Keshavan]: He is actually an avid skier, but he will not be found playing basketball.
[SPEAKER_00]: No?
[Chelli Keshavan]: Soccer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I'm a snowboarder, but I am ashamed on the lack there of time I've spent on the slopes this year.
[Chelli Keshavan]: I mean, have you not been slightly dizzy?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I did bring up my bag, my snowboard with my boots and everything. I had it up here and I was like, alright, I'm going to go to work, I'm going to see it and be like, I'm going to work really hard today and tomorrow. but I stop by, pick it up, going north. But that hasn't really happened yet. But you know, can't get bummed about it. Things change. Last year I did a lot. The season's not over yet. We still have a good Nor'easter coming, don't we? It's been three feet of snow. Cool.
[Danielle Balocca]: Well, Ryan, thank you so much. Thank you. I look forward to seeing you in May. Yeah.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Yeah, May 6, guys. Make sure you're here.
[Danielle Balocca]: Hey listeners, this is Danielle. And Shelley. Shelley is a radical Dravidian and racial equity activist. And Danielle is a community mobilizer and changemaker.
[Chelli Keshavan]: And this is the Medford Bites podcast. Every two weeks, we chew on the issues facing Medford and deliver bites of information about the city by lifting the expertise of our guests.
[Danielle Balocca]: Join us in discussion about what you hope for the future of Medford. And as always, tell us where you like to eat. Guys, what's the name of the podcast? Never Bites. Never Bites. Good job.