Request a Concert

Wasp Summer performing at a house concert in the Loire Valley, June 2012

If you would like me to play for you at a house concert, please email aheadfulofbees [aet] googlemail.com.

I love house concerts. They’re such a great, relaxed and intimate way to see live art. As a musician, they’re a great, relaxed and intimate way to make live art and connect with friendly, receptive audiences, and I’ve now hosted over 30 house concerts through my Berlin-based Sofa Salon series, so I’ve built up a solid reputation amongst touring musicians (especially Australians) and in the Berlin arts community.

After hosting for a year, I first played house concerts on my 2011 European tour with Water Music but still, at the time, I gave more time, energy and weight to club gigs. When my booking agency A Headful of Bees and I started booking my album launch shows, we were getting an indifferent response from clubs but greater enthusiasm from house concert hosts in Germany and France, and so I had the change of heart as a musician that I’d had as a music promoter. I’ve begun to incorporate more house gigs into my own tours and seek them out alongside or even in preference to club shows.

There are lots of reasons for this: The audience is usually very open to music, respectful and appreciative; they buy CDs and downloads; I often get dinner and accommodation, plus local knowledge for sightseeing if I have a few days to look around; less promotional work is required as the host invites interested friends; fewer technical issues if it’s just an amp and a guitar; I get to work the songs exactly how I want to feel them, not play to the attention span of the room, as the gig is so much more focused on the performer’s art; and often the money is better than club guarantees. I even made money on my last solo tour. Untold!

I know how to run them and I’d be delighted to play in your living room. All I ask is accommodation, dinner, that you invite all your interested and interesting friends and that I have the chance to pass the hat for donations. Let me know.