Many liken the role of John Juliano, Jr. as talent buyer for the Big E to a life-changing jackpot won on a high-falutin game show. In many ways it is; the affable Agawam native admits it is a dream gig. Then again, when he shifts gears to tell some of the backstories behind his efforts, he actually starts to sound more like a Survivor contestant.
Consider the 2010 crop of talent.
The “tribe”—i.e., Big E attendees—had spoken. And although they love their free shows, they were once again willing to pay a little more for a few ticketed shows if that’s what it took to bring in some bigger names.
Which was fine, because Juliano Jr. happened to have a pretty big name on his personal wish list. But he soon realized he would have to build some strategic alliances to land him.
“America’s Got Talent winner Terry Fator told me he was interested in coming out but has the great standing gig in Vegas,” he explains. “So I figured, well, what if I get together with my counterparts at a dozen or so other fairs and see if we can’t line up a couple weeks’ worth of roadwork for Terry? That way he could take a productive vacation. And it worked!”
Considering that Miranda Lambert received more Country Music Association nominations this year than any woman in the show’s history, the former Nashville Star finalist is fielding offers from nearly every fair in the country, Juliano Jr. suspects. Thing is, an artist typically doesn’t know what to expect at any given fair in terms of audience, stage setup and the like. But, true to form, Juliano Jr. had no worries about such unknowns.
“We had actually had Miranda here in 2008, so when we asked, she remembered us [as] a pleasurable experience and signed on again for 2010, which I am delighted about,” he beams.
In addition to Fator (Sept. 19) and Lambert (Oct. 1), Owl City of “Fireflies” fame (Sept. 18) rounds out this year’s ticketed offerings. For a full schedule of free shows and other Expo info, kindly point your browser to www.thebige.com.
In other news… Connecticut’s Seed has wiggled its way into the 12th annual Wormtown Music Festival (wormtown.com) this weekend—Sept. 17-19 at Greenfield’s Camp KeeWannee—by besting the competition at a recent battle of the bands series held at The Elevens. Other scheduled performers include headliners Max Creek, the Ryan Montbleau Band, Zach Deputy and Goosepimp Orchestra.
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Last up, there’s a lyric in Stone Temple Pilots’ 1992 breakout hit “Plush” that goes “and I feel, so much depends on the weather…”
When it comes to STP’s live performances in recent years, your friendly neighborhood Crawler feels that “so much depends on the Weiland”—i.e., singer Scott Weiland, and whether or not he is under the weather, to be more specific.
If he is, the oft-maligned frontman bogs the band down with inconsistent vocals, chronic, on-stage chain smoking and an otherwise anemic demeanor. If he’s firing on all cylinders, he’s capable of making the Pilots soar into rarefied rock air normally reserved for the likes of the Stones or Metallica concerts. Luckily for all in attendance at the band’s Aug. 31 Mohegan Sun play, the latter was the case for the second time in a row as the rejuvenated ’90s heroes throttled though a 19-song set with scarcely a moment for the sold-out crowd to catch its collective breath.
Rockers from their recently released self-titled disc, like “Huckleberry Crumble” and “Hickory Dichotomy,” capably stood shoulder to shoulder with catalog classics like “Crackerman” and “Heaven and Hotrods” throughout a set that ran nearly two hours. And while Weiland himself was all business—devoting little to no time to small talk or assorted stage banter—he did divulge what the band’s next single would be: a sweet lil’ pop-rock pastry from the new album called Cinnamon.
Catch the Nightcrawler every Wednesday at 8:50 a.m. on the Steve Cantara Radio Show, WRNX 100.9 FM. Send correspondence to Nightcrawler, PO Box 427, Somers, CT 0071; fax to (860) 698-9373 or email garycarra@aol.com.
